The World's Greatest Books — Volume 13 — Religion and Philosophy
Religion
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 13 — Religion and Philosophy
Philosophy; Religion
Self-love is wrong in a sense--the usual sense in which the term is
used, of giving priority to oneself in the acquisition of material
pleasures. But the seeking of the noblest things for oneself is really
self-love, and may involve giving others, especially friends, the
priority in respect of desirable things--even to resigning to another
the opportunity of doing a noble deed. In this higher sense, self-love
is praiseworthy.
The good man is self-sufficing, but friends are desirable, if not
actually necessary to him, as giving scope for the exercise of
beneficent activities, not as conferring benefits upon him. Besides,
man's highest activities must be exercised not in isolation, but as a
member of society, and such life lacks completeness if without friends.
Finally, friendship attains its completest realisation where comradeship
is complete; that is to say, in a common life.
_VI.--CONCLUSION_
We must revert once more to the question of Pleasure and Pain. To say
that pleasure is not good is absurd; he who does so stultifies himself
by his own acts. Eudoxus thought it was _the_ good, his opinion being
the weightier because of his temperateness.
It is desired for its own sake; its opposite is admittedly undesirable.
But since it may be added to other good things, it cannot be _the_ good:
though to say that what every one desires is not good at all is folly.
That it is not "a quality," or that it is "indeterminate," are
irrelevant arguments, both statements applying to what are admittedly
among "goods." The doctrine that it is a process, again, will not hold
water. Pleasure is a thing complete; whereas a process is complete at no
moment unless it be that of its termination. It is the completion of its
appropriate activity; not in the sense that a habit makes the activity
complete, but as its accompaniment and complement. Continuous it is not,
just as the activity is not. It is not the complete life, but is
inseparable from it. Pleasures, however, differ specifically and in
value, as do the qualities with whose activities they are associated.
The pleasures proper to men are those associated with the activities
proper to man as man, those shared with other animals being so only in a
less degree.
It remains to recapitulate the sum of our conclusions regarding Happiness.
It is not a habit, but lies in the habitual activities--desirable in
and for themselves not as means--exercised deliberately, excluding mere
amusement. Man's highest faculty being intelligence, its activity is his
highest happiness--contemplation--constant, sufficient, and sought not
as a means, but as an end.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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