Single Idea 415

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 1. Goodness / f. Good as pleasure]

Full Idea

If happiness lay in bodily pleasures, we would call oxen happy when they find vetch to eat.

Clarification

'Happiness' is the Greek word 'eudaimonia', also sometimes translated as 'flourishing'

Gist of Idea

If happiness is bodily pleasure, then oxen are happy when they have vetch to eat

Source

Heraclitus (fragments/reports [c.500 BCE], B004), quoted by Albertus Magnus - On Vegetables 6.401

Book Reference

'Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers', ed/tr. Freeman,Kathleen [Harvard 1957], p.25


A Reaction

But surely oxen are happy when they find some good vetch? Presumably, though, they are not 'eudaimon'. What is the complete fulfilment of life for an ox?