Pleasure & Pain

They differ from the good

ARISTOTLE’S NICOMACHEAN ETHICS BOOK 2 CHAPTER 3b

This is a popular rendition of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics for contemporary readers. Brief, understandable pieces with a short practice to integrate the wisdom into your life. No philosophical background necessary. 

It is through our pleasure and pain that we ruin our lives. We seek pleasure that we ought not to, or flee pains we should not.

People poison themselves with an extra ice cream scoop, or sabotage their own well being because they are ashamed to ask for help. 

Other people. 

Not you of course.

Those other people mistake the immediate feeling for the ultimate value of things, equating pleasure with good and pain with bad. But this is where they err. 

Of the two, the battle against pleasure is an especially difficult one, even more than pain. We are drawn to pleasure, and our critical systems dissipate in its presence.

But art and virtue always arise in connection with that which is more difficult. We improve ourselves by taking on these difficult challenges and overcoming them. When we stand over pleasure victoriously, we know we have a nobility of soul. 

Shine the light on the confusion between pleasure and good, and you’ll be able to live better.

It’s not enough to just read.

Manifest this wisdom in your life by doing this practice, or it will slip through your fingers.

It takes less than 5 minutes.

Choose well. 

• Note a pleasure that draws you towards vice

• What about it is pleasurable?

• What virtue do they draw you away from?

• Note a pain that diverts you from the good life

• What about it is painful?

• What virtue is being blocked?