Aither is a double-blind peer review, Open Access online academic journal. It is indexed at ERIH+ and Scopus. It is published by the Faculty of Arts of the Palacký University in Olomouc in cooperation with the Philosophical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It comes out twice a year. Every second issue is international and contains foreign-language articles (mainly in English, but also in German and French). The journal is registered under the number ISSN 1803-7860.

Aither 30/2023 (International issue no. 11):62-81 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2023.005

Aristotle on Pain: Pain as hindering the energeia in Nicomachean Ethics

Vojtìch Linka
Faculty of arts
Charles university

This paper endeavours to examine the function of pain in Aristotle’s ethical philosophy. First, it delves into the relationship between pleasure and activity before directing its attention towards the relationship between pain and activity. While certain pains can be interpreted as kineseis that drive an animal out of its natural state, in the ethical domain, that pain which is understood as hindering the energeia assumes greater significance. This paper expounds on the implications of this idea of pain as an impediment to the activities of human and animal life and its connection to other vital areas of Aristotle’s philosophical thought, including sense perception, psychology, and moral action.

Received: December 26, 2022; Revised: May 10, 2023; Accepted: June 30, 2023; Published: February 16, 2024  Show citation

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Linka, V. (2023). Aristotle on Pain: Pain as hindering the energeia in Nicomachean Ethics. Aither, 15(30), 62-81. doi: 10.5507/aither.2023.005
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