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Single Idea 71

[catalogued under 23. Ethics / A. Egoism / 2. Hedonism]

Full Idea

Licentiousness is concerned with such pleasures as are shared with animals (hence thought low and brutish). These are touch and taste.

Gist of Idea

Licentiousness concerns the animal-like pleasures of touch and taste

Source

Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1118a25)

Book Reference

Aristotle: 'Ethics (Nicomachean)', ed/tr. ThomsonJ A K/TredennickH [Penguin 1976], p.137


A Reaction

Nietzsche is the best opponent of this view, when elevates purely physical pleasures such as dancing to a supreme status. It must be possible to give a justified account of 'high' and 'low' activities, perhaps related to increased generality + universals.