- Aristotle wants to go on record: pain is a bad thing and should be avoided.
- Pain is bad in a general sense. But it can also be bad because it's an impediment to other things.
- The opposite of the bad, then, is the good.
- Do you see where this is headed? (Hint: pleasure is good).
- Moreover, a pleasure might be the best thing. If pleasure is the activity of characteristics (i.e. virtues), the pursuit of pleasure might be happiness—which is the best thing ever.
- Happy life = a pleasant life. Happiness is complete in itself, but requires other things to remain unspoiled (health, enough money to feed ourselves, good fortune).
- Also, consider that everything, including animals and humans, is looking for pleasure. How, then, is this not the best thing?
- We all pursue different pleasures according to our "characteristics," but essentially, we're going after the same thing.
- It's a mistake to think that the term "pleasure" means only bodily pleasures, but it's easy to see how this happens. People like bodily pleasures above everything else.
- Aristotle ends this chapter with a zinger: if pleasure weren't good, why is it that happy people live pleasantly?
- Well, there you go.