Abstract

This article discusses the nature of “pleasure” in Aristotle. It is an attempt to reconcile and integrate the two different definitions that Aristotle gives in 1153a12–15 and 1174b31–33 of his Nichomachean Ethics. It exams the analysis and proposals of three contemporary philosophers: G.E.L. Owen, David Bostock, and Michael Pakaluk. It then passes to the exegesis of the medieval Thomas Aquinas. Thomas’s reading of the texts is presented as a way to answer the difficulties brought up earlier and provide a solid interpretation that is capable of uniting both of the definitions of the Stagirite.