Pleasure by Aristotle - Essay Example

Pleasure In his nicomachean ethics, Aristotle talks good life for people. Aristotle believes that pleasure is part of good and virtuous life; pleasure is part of human life since leads to happiness. For Aristotle, happiness in life can only be viewed as an activity and rejects that it is not a deposition; it is searched for its own benefits and not the benefit of any other thing. In life, all moral or virtuous activities, which share these similar characteristics, are happy actions. According to Aristotle, there are two kinds of virtue: moral and intellectual virtue. According to Aristotle, a good life for human beings is the life that is active and working well in manner that are unique and significant to people. Aristotle was against hedonism because he believed that happiness or feelings of pleasure are not the highest aim of human conduct. He argued that those actions which add to pleasurable activities cannot be taken as always right. Further, he asserted that moral virtue does not imply end of life since life can continue with unhappiness, misery, and inactivity. Aristotle believed that moral virtues are gained by behaving virtuously but eventually they are damaged by either defect or excess. Moral virtues are not innate according to Aristotle but they are acquired. For instance, an individual becomes trustworthy by acting truthfully. Examples of moral virtues are humility, truthfulness, moderation, and generosity. On the other hand, intellectual virtues are those personality traits that are required for correct thinking and desired action. He classified intellectual virtues as productive such as craft knowledge, theoretical such as wisdom and mind and lastly practical such as practical prudence. Happiness is the central core of living, which depends entirely on cultivation of virtues. According to Aristotle, playing the mean is the way of cultivating virtues that includes moral virtues for the attainment of individual happiness. Playing the mean is the virtue between two extreme excesses and deficiency. For instance, exercising the act of justice in getting too little or getting too much. Therefore, human beings make choices depending on the circumstances that surround them by choosing on one option and neglecting the other. Aristotle believed that the task of ethics was to come up with the highest and the best good that is found in human life. Thus, all human activities always aim at some recognized higher end that we always consider as good. Most activities that human beings incur in life are a means of attaining a higher end. He discussed the nature of vices and virtues that are involved in evaluating morals, the conditions that ascribes moral responsibility towards an individual agent and the methods that one incurs to achieve happiness in life. Aristotle rounded off his explanation of what constituted achievement of true happiness by human beings. He stated that pleasure is not good in itself because it is incomplete according to its nature. The activities that people engage in are associated with their own distinctive pleasures. Therefore, human beings are directed and guided in nature by their choice or preference for participating in pleasant activities rather than in unpleasant activities. True happiness lies in the behavior that leads to virtue, since this alone provides genuine value and not just amusement. In sum, Aristotle held that contemplation is the highest form of ethical activity because it is self-reliant, complete, and continuous. According to Aristotle, every activity posses a final cause and the aim for the same good. In life, it is difficult to get an infinite regress that is associated with extrinsic goods and thus, there must be the highest good, which all-human activities aim. He referred to this as happiness and the complexities that is involved in actualizing it. Things that are of any variety, acquires characteristic function, which they later perform. Virtues are opposed to intellectual capacity and thus virtues of characters are due to dispositions to act in a given way in response to some similar situations and the habits that one has which makes him behave in a certain way. Good conduct arises from habits, which can be acquired through recurring actions and corrections. This in turn makes ethics a practical discipline. Each virtue is a state that naturally seeks its own means, which is relative in nature. The virtuous habit of any action is an intermediate state between opposed vices of deficiency and excess. In application of this theory of virtue, flexibility is paramount as friendliness is far from deficiency than its excesses. This is because few human beings are inclined naturally to undervalue pleasure. Therefore, it is unusual to ignore or overlook of the extremes but to regard the virtue opposite the other vices. Aristotle’s ethics is governed at moderate rates, which have dominated the western cultures for a very long time. Ethics being a practical science focuses on human nature, which works on accepting and acting on moral responsibility of people. However, moral evaluation of action presupposes attributions of responsibilities to human agents. This does not apply to all attributions because responsible actions must be taken voluntarily. Aristotle gave out two conditions under which human actions become voluntary. First, he asserted that actions which are produced by external forces are taken as involuntary which the agent is not fully responsible for them. Secondly, involuntary action may be one that is performed out of ignorance. Thus, for all decisions to act in a voluntary way, we rely on deliberations about choice among the alternative actions, which an individual could perform in order to gain what they think will make them happy. Despite the fact that virtues are habits of disposition, which act in a definite way, Aristotle asserted that these habits are acquired when one engages in suitable conduct on definite situations and that in so doing; it requires that one think about what one engages in doing in a given way. Furthermore, no demonstrative knowledge of sort employment in aesthetics and science judgment in relation to craft is relevant to morality. Thus, the understanding can be applied to exploring the origin of things while wisdom traces any demonstrable connections, which are among them. Aristotle was right in his assertions about the pleasurable activities in human life. For instance, according to him, prudence or practical intelligence is the thinking mode that which provides morality in an adequate way. This comprehends true character of individuals and the community welfare, which applies the results to guidance of human actions. To act correctly, one coordinates his desires with the correct thoughts over correct ends or goals. Deliberative reasoning considers the extent at which each one of them could contribute towards achieving the appropriate end or goal, engaging in the action voluntarily and making deliberate choices to act in a way, which best fits its end. Therefore, intelligence is the basis of acquiring virtue though it differs from intelligence. Aristotle disregarded Socrates belief about knowledge on what is right always leads to doing the same thing. The greatest enemy of moral conducts is the failure to act well on the occasion when deliberations on what may be wrong. Therefore, incontinent agents do suffer from weaknesses of will, which prevent carrying out measures considering conformity that they have reasoned out. This is failure of intelligence, as the individual may not draw appropriate connections between moral rule and particular applicable cases. The prospect that applies to great pleasures obscures one’s perceptions of what is good. Aristotle refuted that this difficulty should not be fatal towards achieving virtues. Aristotle would argue that the roles of friendship and human relationships are elements of a vital good life. This is because no one would ever choose to live without friends even if he has all the other good things in life. In his arguments, he would outline three types of friendship basing on the intended aims and goals. First, friendship based on pleasure exists when two individuals discovers they have a common interest concerning any activity they wish to pursue unanimously. The participation of friends in any activity leads to a greater pleasure to each of the participants than it could apply to an individual person. Aristotle would assert that, another form of friendship is grounded on the utility when two people come up to benefit each other through coordination. The focus is on the benefits that will be acquired rather than enjoyment the two acquire. For him, good relationship or friendship is the one that focuses on the good, which arises when two people participate in an activity to establish the goodness for each other. In this case, pleasurable activity and the good is the relevant factor. Furthermore, Aristotle would argue that pleasure is incomplete and thus it is never good in itself if it does not lead to a happy a life. Therefore, valuable activities are associated with own distinctive pleasures. Contemplation is the only recognized moral activity because it is continuous, self reliant, pleasant, and complete. Aristotle would argue that sex and sexually intimate relationship produces pleasure but do not lead to a happy life. This is because people are guided in life by natural preferences that make them engage in pleasant activity as compared to the unpleasant ones. Genuine happiness is in action, which leads to virtues because this alone provides the true values and not amusement. In addition, he would argue that sex and sexually intimate relationships as a means of getting a person satisfied is rejected a path of leading to a good life because these act not unique to human beings as it is shared with animals. Intellectual activities involve human beings approaching divine blessedness and realizing the genuine virtues. Summarily, Aristotle will stick on the argument that the good and happy life is the one that is most pleasurable but that does not imply that the life of the person seeking pleasure is the good life. This is because some people who look for pleasure tend to look it in the wrong places, which eventually result in the person being distracted in living a good life. Happiness in human life is self-sufficient; therefore, if a person is happy, they lack nothing. Aristotle was right in his assertions about sex and sexually intimate relationships as part of happy life as discussed. Work Cited. Aristotle. Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011. Print. Read More