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inseparably united; for there is no pleasure without activity, and
also no perfect activity without its pleasure. 5.
This moreover is the ground for believing that pleasures vary in specific quality. For we
feel that different kinds of things must have a different sort of perfection. We see this
to be so with natural organisms and the productions of art, such as animals, trees, a
picture, a statue, a house, a piece of furniture. Similarly we think that that which
perfects one kind of activity must differ in kind from that which perfects another kind.
[2]
Now the activities of the intellect differ from those
of the senses, and from1 one another, in kind: so also therefore do the pleasures that
perfect them.
This may also be seen from the affinity which exists between the various pleasures and
the activities which they perfect. For an activity is augmented by the pleasure that
belongs to it; since those who work with pleasure always work with more discernment and
with greater accuracy—for instance, students who are fond of geometry become
proficient in it, and grasp its various problems better, and similarly lovers of music,
architecture or the other arts make progress in their favorite pursuit because they enjoy
it. An activity then is augmented by its pleasure; and that which augments a thing must be
akin to it.
1 A variant reading gives ‘and these [sc. the activities of the senses] from one another.’