Book 10 / Chapter 2
Paragraph 3 - The Nature of Pleasure and Pain
Explanation - Part By Part
"Nor does the argument about the contrary of pleasure seem to be correct. They say that if pain is an evil it does not follow that pleasure is a good; for evil is opposed to evil and at the same time both are opposed to the neutral state-which is correct enough but does not apply to the things in question."
In this part, Aristotle is challenging an argument often made about the relationship between pleasure and pain. The argument he critiques is this: if pain is bad (an evil), it doesn’t necessarily mean that pleasure is good. The reasoning behind this claim is that both pain and pleasure could be extremes that are opposed to each other, and both could also be opposed to a neutral state (a state without pain or pleasure).
While Aristotle acknowledges that this type of reasoning might work in some other contexts (where things can have this threefold opposition: bad, good, and neutral), he argues that this reasoning doesn’t apply to what they’re discussing here—pleasure and pain. Essentially, Aristotle is skeptical of oversimplifying the relationship between pleasure and pain by treating it as part of a more general pattern of opposition. Instead, he wants to take a closer look to see what actually defines their relationship.
"For if both pleasure and pain belonged to the class of evils they ought both to be objects of aversion, while if they belonged to the class of neutrals neither should be an object of aversion or they should both be equally so; but in fact people evidently avoid the one as evil and choose the other as good; that then must be the nature of the opposition between them."
In this part, Aristotle is addressing a criticism of the idea that pleasure is good because its opposite—pain—is bad. The critics argue that just because pain is bad, it doesn’t automatically mean pleasure is good. They suggest that both might belong to some neutral category, where neither is inherently bad or good. However, Aristotle refutes this idea by observing human behavior.
He points out that if both pleasure and pain were bad (or neutral), people would either avoid both equally or treat them indifferently. But that’s not what happens in real life. People clearly avoid pain as something bad and seek out pleasure as something good. This behavior, Aristotle concludes, shows that the relationship between pleasure and pain is one of true opposition: one is understood as good, and the other as bad, based on how people experience and value them in their lives.