more from Aristippus the elder

Single Idea 1751

[catalogued under 23. Ethics / A. Egoism / 3. Cyrenaic School]

Full Idea

Pleasure is the good because we desire it from childhood, when we have it we seek nothing further, and the most avoidable thing is its opposite, pain.

Gist of Idea

Pleasure is the good, because we always seek it, it satisfies us, and its opposite is the most avoidable thing

Source

report of Aristippus the elder (fragments/reports [c.395 BCE]) by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 02.Ar.8

Book Reference

Diogenes Laertius: 'Diogenes Laertius', ed/tr. Yonge,C.D. [Henry G. Bohn 1853], p.89