In Book VII of Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle discusses pleasure and pain.
Aristotle says that a philosopher must study pleasure and pain since he is an
architect of the end. Aristotle informs us that children and animals pursue pleasures.
Pleasure is not a chief good because it is not an end, but a coming to be.
I believe that Aristotle states that children and animals pursue pleasures because
he believes their minds to be uneducated in knowing what the virtues of life are
and they enjoy simple pleasures because they can not see nor comprehend the
grand scheme of life. Pleasure is not a chief good because it does not
follow the proper guidelines to be a chief good. Pleasure is a short-formed way for
someone to feel happiness for a temporary amount of time. They may achieve this by
doing a simple action and experiencing the good produced by such action.
One may find walking down a scenic route is pleasurable but, once the walk is over the pleasure
experienced will also be gone where the chief good will leave you feeling well for an
infinite and indefinite amount of time. It is also said that not all pleasures are good. I
agree with this statement. If one likes to smoke and every time one smokes the chemical
reaction caused by ingestion of cigarette brings pleasure to him. Now, the action of
smoking ultimately pleasures him but he is surely poisoning himself. In some societies is
perceived as dirty to smoke while in previous decades it was a refined habit to perform.
Aristotle points out that there is a relativity of pleasure to remedy the situation. So
pleasures depending on what they are i.e. (smoking, drinking, promiscuity)used to aide in
dealing with pain may, in turn, be a crutch or vice taking one further from the chief
good by clouding judgment and sense of well-being. So even though some pleasures are
bad there is no reason why some should not prevent on ...