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Full Idea
Fundamentally, pleasure is a sense of perfection, and pain a sense of imperfection.
Gist of Idea
Pleasure is a sense of perfection
Source
Gottfried Leibniz (New Essays on Human Understanding [1704], 2.21)
Book Ref
Leibniz,Gottfried: 'New Essays on Human Understanding', ed/tr. Remnant/Bennett [CUP 1996], p.194
A Reaction
A bit odd, but I like the idea that there is an intellectual aspect to even the most visceral feelings.
| 385 | Some of the pleasures and pains we feel are false [Plato] |
| 4376 | Pleasure and pain are perceptions of things as good or bad [Aristotle] |
| 4374 | For Aristotle, pleasure is the perception of particulars as valuable [Achtenberg on Aristotle] |
| 1835 | True pleasure is not debauchery, but freedom from physical and mental pain [Epicurus] |
| 4847 | Pleasure is a passive state in which the mind increases in perfection [Spinoza] |
| 12962 | Pleasure is a sense of perfection [Leibniz] |
| 5049 | Intelligent pleasure is the perception of beauty, order and perfection [Leibniz] |
| 7197 | Pleasure needs dissatisfaction, boundaries and resistances [Nietzsche] |
| 4550 | Pleasure and pain are mere epiphenomena, and achievement requires that one desire both [Nietzsche] |
| 9230 | People want to fulfill their desires, but also for their desires to be sustained [Frankfurt] |