Single Idea 5256

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 3. Pleasure / d. Sources of pleasure]

Full Idea

Some things are not naturally pleasant but become so, either through injury, or through habit, or through congenital depravity.

Gist of Idea

Some things are not naturally pleasant, but become so through disease or depravity

Source

Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1148b16)

Book Reference

Aristotle: 'Ethics (Nicomachean)', ed/tr. ThomsonJ A K/TredennickH [Penguin 1976], p.237


A Reaction

We might say that there are indeed 'unnatural pleasures' (e.g. sadism?), but still have to admit that we have no clear way of distinguishing the natural from the unnatural. What about gambling? Or watching horror films?