THE IMPORTANCE OF PLEASURE IN THE LIFE OF A SEMINARIAN IN ACCORDANCE

TO ARISTOTLE’S NOTION OF PLEASURE

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A Research Paper

Presented to

Rev. Fr. Eric L. Legada

St. Peter’s Seminary

San Pedro, San Jose, Antique

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In partial fulfillment for the requirements

(Seminar in Research Writing and Philosophical Writing)

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By

Erl Dominique Y. Nagales

Introduction

Pleasure is a broad class of mental states that humans and other conscious animals

experience as positive, enjoyable, or worth seeking. It includes more specific mental states such

as happiness, entertainment, enjoyment, ecstasy and euphoria. The early psychological concept

of pleasure, the pleasure principle, describes it as a positive feedback mechanism that motivates

the organism to recreate the situation it has just found pleasurable, and to avoid past situations

that caused pain (Siegmund, 1950). Pleasure is commonly understood as delight in something,

enjoyment of something. (Massie, 2014). Pleasure, in the inclusive usages is important in

thought about well-being, experience, and mind, it includes the affective positivity of all joy,

gladness, liking, and enjoyment – all our feeling good or happy. It is often contrasted with the

similarly inclusive pain, or suffering, of all our feeling bad (Katz, 2005). In this study, it will

give view of how pleasure becomes an important principle in the life of a seminarian especially

in his formation and how it affects his approach towards the formation.

Background of the study

Pleasure is a feeling of happy satisfaction and enjoyment. Pleasure for Aristotle is the

natural accompaniment of unimpeded activity. It is neither good nor bad, but it is something

positive because the effect of pleasure perfects the exercise of the activity. Pleasure most

commonly backgrounds the experience of someone cheerful by temperament or in a good mood.

Such baseline affect and small deviations from it cumulatively matter most to the affective

quality of life (Watson 2000; Diener, Sandvik, & Pavot 1991; cf. Coan & Allen 2003, Rachels

2004). Pleasure, in the inclusive usages is important in thought about well-being, experience, and

mind, it includes the affective positivity of all joy, gladness, liking, and enjoyment – all our

feeling good or happy. It is often contrasted with the similarly inclusive pain, or suffering, of all
our feeling bad (Katz, 2005). Thus, if the understanding of this that pain is bad and pleasure is

good, then as a human being we desire to seek pleasurable things in our life that can give us

feeling of happiness. It is the nature of man to seek happiness and desire for pleasure. Pleasure

principle is the attitude of seeking pleasure and as much as possible avoid pain. Pleasure refers to

anything that could give us happiness, gratification, and satisfaction. Pleasure, as such, is neither

good nor bad, but it is something positive because the effect of pleasure perfects the exercise of

that action. The principle of pleasure is to gratify ones “immediate needs and wants” and to

“avoid pain”. We humans are seeking for pleasure. It is our very nature as human beings. We

seek for pleasure because it can make us happy and can give us enjoyment (Basbaño, 2011).

In this research, the philosophy of Aristotle regarding pleasure will be used as means of

looking at the life of a seminarian. It is typically assumed that as a seminarian, pleasure has also

the importance in our lives as a part of our being that always want to feel good and to be happy.

The prevalence of the study rests on what is really the importance of pleasure in the life

of a seminarian and how it affects his attitude towards the formation. Some seminarians are

affected of how they apply or put in their lives the importance of pleasure. Thus, this study will

give the readers the idea on their confusions of how seminarians sees the importance of pleasure

in the formation.

The rationale or justification why this study is conducted is to know if these is the

purpose and importance of pleasure is in the life of a seminarian in his formation and how it will

affect his attitude towards the formation. After which the study is conducted, the goal is to

provide knowledge and discovery how pleasure really is important in the life of a seminarian,

and if really pleasure helps every seminarian towards successful response in his formation.
 Finally, the purpose of this study is to analyze the extent to which the relevance of

Pleasure affect and how important it is in the life of a seminarian towards his formation.

Statement of the problem

1. What is Pleasure in accordance to Aristotle?

2. Is pleasure really important in the life of a seminarian towards his formation?

3. What is the relation of pleasure in the life of a seminarian in his formation?

Objectives of the study

The study will describe and identify how and what is the importance of pleasure in the

life of a seminarian with the aid of the description of Aristotle and how can pleasure affect the

attitude of a seminarian towards his formation that will lead the readers for a greater knowledge

about this study.

Scope of the study

This study is limited only by the ethics of Aristotle. The study is restricted to some

general view of philosophy and also restricted from different approaches of philosophy. The

study only will emphasis on knowing of how important is pleasure in the life of a seminarian and

how it affects his attitudes towards the formation with accordance of how Aristotle interprets

pleasure and nothing else.

Review of Related Literature

Pleasure for Aristotle is the natural accompaniment of unimpeded activity of a natural

capacity and also accompanies and perfects the activity. It is an Energeia rather than a kinesis or
the end of genesis (Rorty, 1974). Aristotle claims that pleasure simply is an activity of the special

kind and are unimpeded (Bostock, 1988). If there is pleasure where and only where there is a

complete activity. The measure of pleasure is not deduced from a supposed human “nature”, but

resides in the very actions performed by the human being. Good man (Pierre-Marie, 2020). The

single thing that is the highest human good must be desirable for its own sake, and all other

goods must be desirable for the sake of it. Pleasure is the highest good, and anything else that is

good is so only by virtue of the immediate or deferred pleasure that it can procure. (Burton,

2019). Pleasure is a broad class of mental states that humans and other conscious animals

experience as positive, enjoyable, or worth seeking. It includes more specific mental states such

as happiness, entertainment, enjoyment, ecstasy and euphoria. The early psychological concept

of pleasure, the pleasure principle, describes it as a positive feedback mechanism that motivates

the organism to recreate the situation it has just found pleasurable, and to avoid past situations

that caused pain (Siegmund, 1950). One popular conception of the highest human good is

pleasure—the pleasures of food, drink, and sex, combined with aesthetic and intellectual

pleasures. There are two classes of aesthetic pleasures: the pleasures of the inferior senses of

touch and taste, and the pleasures of the superior senses of sight, hearing, and smell. Finally, at

the top of the scale, there are the pleasures of the mind. The pleasures that are the domain of

temperance, intemperance, and incontinence are the familiar bodily pleasures of food, drink, and

sex (Kenny and Amadio, 2020). Pleasure, in the inclusive usages is important in thought about

well-being, experience, and mind, it includes the affective positivity of all joy, gladness, liking,

and enjoyment – all our feeling good or happy. It is often contrasted with the similarly inclusive

pain, or suffering, of all our feeling bad. Nowadays, they also used the term happiness, which

other leads to confusion with older uses signifying overall good fortune or success in life that
figure in self-reports of happiness and in ‘happiness studies’ of the diverse sources of these.

Pleasure simply presents as good and attractive and all else that appears aglow in its own light

that’s why this suggest simple explanations both of why people pursue pleasure and why there

are reasons to do so. Philosophers, taking this suggestion further, have sometimes taken pleasure

to be a single simple (feature of) experience that makes experiences good and attractive to the

extent it is present (Katz, 2005). Aristotle holds, pleasure is not a process but an activity. As such

it is complete at any time. Sight and enjoyment cannot be left half-finished. Perception of sight,

thought, and contemplation have objects. When perception or thought is high-grade and its

object is worthwhile, then the perception, thought, and contemplation is enjoyable or pleasant.

The high-grade the perception and the more valuable its object, the more pleasant and more

perfect the activity. The excellence of the perception or thought and its object make the activity

perfect in a different way from that in which enjoyment perfects it where it also adds enthusiasm

to the activity. When tiredness or illness approaches, the activity is diminished (Urmson, 1967).

According to Rorty (1974), Aristotle’s central concern was to determine the place pleasure ought

to have in the life of the virtuous and to discover whether a virtuous person might normally

expect to have a pleasurable, as well as a happy life. Pleasure does not lack anything, but is self-

sufficient and those activities are desirable in themselves from which nothing is sought beyond

the activity. Pleasant amusements also are thought to be of this nature; we choose them not for

the sake of other things; for we are injured rather than benefited by them, since we are led to

neglect our bodies and our property (Camacho, 2008). Pleasure, in the inclusive usages is

important in thought about well-being, experience, and mind, it includes the affective positivity

of all joy, gladness, liking, and enjoyment – all our feeling good or happy. It is often contrasted

with the similarly inclusive pain, or suffering, of all our feeling bad (Katz, 2005). Pleasure
principle is the attitude of seeking pleasure and as much as possible avoid pain. Pleasure refers to

anything that could give us happiness, gratification, and satisfaction. Pleasure, as such, is neither

good nor bad, but it is something positive because the effect of pleasure perfects the exercise of

that action. The principle of pleasure is to gratify ones “immediate needs and wants” and to

“avoid pain”. We humans are seeking for pleasure. It is our very nature as human beings. We

seek for pleasure because it can make us happy and can give us enjoyment (Basbaño, 2011).

According to Kendra Cherry 2020, Sometimes referred to as the pleasure-pain principle, this

motivating force helps drive behavior but it also wants instant satisfaction. As you might

imagine, some needs simply cannot be met in the moment we feel them. If we satisfied our every

whim whenever we felt hunger or thirst, we might find ourselves behaving in ways that are not

appropriate for the given moment. In addition, Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, the

pleasure principle is the driving force seeks immediate gratification of all needs, wants and

urges. In other words, the pleasure principle strives to fulfill our most basic and primitive urges,

including hunger, thirst, anger, and sex. When these needs are not met, the result is a state of

anxiety or tension. (Cherry, 2020). Pleasure can mean different things to each of us. Eating ice

cream, love-making, meditating, sailing, having a religious experience, or simply lying on a

beach, can all engender feelings of pleasure. The ancient Greeks talked of happiness as being a

combination of hedonia (pleasure) and eudaimonia ("well-being" or "human flourishing" by

doing "good work" for others) (de Luis, 2015). Moreover, there are four types of pleasure in this

world. Each is experienced primarily through its own sense. The lowest of these pleasures is

physical pleasure. Imagine having your favorite food in front of you. It looks good. The next

higher type of pleasure is emotional pleasure. Emotional pleasure utilizes an entirely different

sense than physical pleasure. Imagine that you have been away from your family for a long time.
The next higher pleasure is intellectual pleasure. Intellectual pleasure is experienced primarily

through the mind. Then there is the highest pleasure attainable in this world. It is an entirely

unique pleasure. It is a joy that is not at all physical, but obviously, without the physical body

you would not be here to experience it. Neither is it emotional, nor intellectual, although your

heart and intellect surely recognize and respond to this pleasure. This is spiritual pleasure.

(Locks, 2010). When such pleasure is present, for as long as it lasts, there is no cause of physical

nor mental pain present – nor of both together. Continuous physical pain does not last long.

Instead, extreme pain lasts only a very short time, and even less-extreme pain does not last for

many days at once. Even protracted diseases allow periods of physical comfort that exceed

feelings of pain. He who desires to live in tranquility with nothing to fear from other men ought

to make friends. Those of whom he cannot make friends, he should at least avoid rendering

enemies; and if that is not in his power, he should, as much as possible, avoid all dealings with

them, and keep them aloof, insofar as it is in his interest to do so. The happiest men are those

who enjoy the condition of having nothing to fear from those who surround them. Such men live

among one another most agreeably, having the firmest grounds for confidence in one another,

enjoying the benefits of friendship in all their fullness and they do not mourn a friend who dies

before they do, as if there was a need for pity. ( Kaswan, 2014). There are two main uses of the

word pleasure in ordinary language. Pleasure can refer to the pleasurable activity, as when

someone says that playing football is a pleasure, or it can refer to the pleasure which occurs

when that activity is done with perfection, as when someone says that playing football brings me

pleasure. (Ortiz de Landázuri, 2012). In addition, the act of pleasure can belong to two species:

there is kinetic or violent pleasure, and a placid and katastematic pleasure. Both can take place in

the body or in the soul. It would be possible to simultaneously experience both kinetic and placid
 pleasure; for example, when a hungry man eats an apple. The stomach rejoices because the pain

of hunger has ceased, and palate rejoices because it enjoys the taste of the fruit (Composta,

1990).

Methodology

A content analysis is proposed for this study. This part will discuss the process on how

the researcher attained the aim of the study. This involves the specific methods and operations

used as well as the procedures. This research is a library review method. The method being used

is a qualitative research method.

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