leasures. While these may make one happy, one needs temperance to draw the line between doing something for a greater good or doing it because it feels good. He creates a break between a) pleasures of the soul and b) pleasures of the body. (Gill, pg 359). Aristotle want to define that while people may derive pleasure from the senses, they need a temperance to prevent them from breaking away from the mean of pleasurable experiences and creating a desire that tries to draw them away. By enjoying the smell of a rose or incense at just the right degree instead of forsaking other things just for that physical pleasure. If a person makes every effort to recreate or prolong a physical sensation, then it becomes wrong. It pulls one away from being temperate and pulls away from attaining the right balance. Just as there is a balance for Aristotle of emotions like fear and rashness, there is a balance between enjoying something and being driven by the results of the experience. One thing that Aristotle does is refuse these feelings and behaviors from animals. He says that they are too low to truly identify and enjoy these feelings.And if we extend our observation to the lower animals, we note that they, too, find nothing intrinsically pleasant in these sensations. A hunting dog gets no pleasure from the scent of a hare. The pleasure is in eating it; all the scent did was to tell him the hare was there. It is not the lowing of an ox that gratifies a lion but the eating it, though the lowing tells him an ox is somewhere about. (Gill pg. 359-360)Some would disagree with this idea. They feel that many of the animals do harbor these emotions and feelings and would thus also have an innate goodness. There have been sociological studies that show primates have definite emotions and van do things for the good of others. This means that they would not behave based on the assumption that each animal was out for its own good. While social animals m...
