The Problem with the Activity of Pleasure for the Sake of Methodology in Aristotle
Abstract
The concept of pleasure in the Nicomachean Ethics change from book VII to X. I propose that such change in the definition of pleasure, and the place it takes in the Aristotelian corpus arise from how Aristotle uses the endoxic method. There are reasons to argue that the use of the method in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, books VII and X, does not deal with a definition of pleasure, rather than the applicability of the concept of Activity (enérgeia), for the sake of a metaphysical and political system. First, I render an interpretation about how the endoxic method is applied in NE. Second, I suggest that there is a discontinuity of how books VII and X define pleasure by the way of the concept of Activity is used. Third, the article concludes that the sudden change on the definition of pleasure is close to the objective of Aristotle’s Politeia, that is, a sophistication of pleasure.
Keywords
pleasure, activity, method, ethics, enérgeia
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