s asked as to which pleasures are good? Because of the degrees of decency and badness, there are activities that are choiceworthy and there are activities that should be avoided. From 1175b 25-30, Aristotle explains how this also applies to pleasure, since the activity has a specific proper pleasure. This is explained in that the pleasure proper to an excellent activity is decent, and the one proper to a base activity is vicious; for similarly, appetites for fine things are praiseworthy and appetites for shameful things are blameworthy. The pleasure is more proper that the desire for an activity because desire is so close that there is often conflict over whether or not the two are separate concepts. So pleasures differ as activities do, and as Aristotle points out next, each kind of animal seems to have its own proper function; for the proper pleasure will be the one that corresponds to its activity(1176a1-5). As with animals, different kinds of humans also differ. Things that bring pleasure to some cause pain to others. So the proper pleasure for humans should be measured against the excellent person. If what the excellent person calls disgraceful is what another calls pleasant, it is because humans differ in goodness. Because it is a corrupt person calling an objectionable thing pleasant, however, it should be noticed that it is shameful and is only pleasant to the corrupt person.At this point in the text, Aristotle moves from pleasure to happiness. After commenting that he has discussed virtue, friendship and pleasure, he goes on to happiness that is the next important thing to understand, since it is what humans aim at as an end. He recapitulates from earlier comments that happiness is not a state, but rather an activity, and that some activities are necessary and that it should be counted as an activity that is choiceworthy in itself. This, claims Aristotle is the character of actions expressing virtue; for doing fine...
