Single Idea 49

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 3. Pleasure / e. Role of pleasure]

Full Idea

The pleasure or pain that accompanies people's acts should be taken as a sign of their dispositions.

Gist of Idea

Character is revealed by the pleasures and pains people feel

Source

Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1104b04)

Book Reference

Aristotle: 'Ethics (Nicomachean)', ed/tr. ThomsonJ A K/TredennickH [Penguin 1976], p.95


A Reaction

Nice. Nothing reveals a person quicker than their apparently finding rather strange sources for pleasure or dislike. A nice short cut for novelists wanting to reveal character.

Related Idea

Idea 4394 People develop their characters through the activities they pursue [Aristotle]