- You can tell a person's characteristics by what pleases or pains them, says Aristotle.
- If they whine and complain about giving up something they like, they're not moderate in pleasure.
- This is because moral virtues deal in pleasure and pain. Pleasure makes us do some crazy, immoral things. Fear of pain keeps us from being noble.
- In order to feel pleasure in the right things (and to be pained at the right things), we have to raised well from childhood.
- Pain can also be a cure for pleasure (i.e. punishment for "loose" behavior), since we're disciplined by suffering the opposite of the thing we sought.
- So we become better (or worse) by learning what kinds of actions produce pleasure or pain.
- When we combine these experiences with reason, we should be able to figure out acceptable behaviors.
- You might see that virtue and vice have some things in common. In both, we're pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain. A right thinking person just finds pleasure in virtue.
- Pleasure is a very strong motivator and very difficult to ignore—but good things happen when we do something that's hard for us.
- Aristotle believes that those who can handle the pain/pleasure experience well will be good people.