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[2]
But granting (2) that some pleasures are bad, it does not therefore
follow (3) that a certain pleasure may not nevertheless be the Supreme
Good; just as a certain form of knowledge may be supremely good, although some forms of
knowledge are bad. On the contrary (i) since every faculty has its
unimpeded activity, the activity of all the faculties, or of one of them
(whichever constitutes Happiness) , when unimpeded, must probably be the
most desirable thing there is; but an unimpeded activity is a pleasure; so that on this
showing the Supreme Good will be a particular kind of pleasure, even though most pleasures
are bad, and, it may be, bad absolutely. This is why everybody thinks that the happy life
must be a pleasant life, and regards pleasure as a necessary ingredient of happiness; and
with good reason, since no impeded activity is perfect, whereas Happiness is essentially
perfect; so that the happy man requires in addition the goods of the body, external goods
and the gifts of fortune, in order that his activity may not be impeded through lack of
them.
Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 19, translated by H. Rackham. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1934.
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