Kitap 2
4
(3) Another indication is the fact that pain is the medium of punishment; for punishment is a sort of medicine, and the nature of medicine to work by means of opposites.The contrary maxim to similia similibus curantur or homoeopathy. Fever, caused by heat, is cured by cold, hence if the remedy for wickedness is pain, it must have been caused by pleasure.
5
(4)Again, as we said before, every formed disposition of the soul realizes its full naturei.e., is actively exercised when fully developed, cf. 2.8. in relation to and in dealing with that class of objects by which it is its nature to be corrupted or improved. But men are corrupted through pleasures and pains, that is, either by pursuing and avoiding the wrong pleasures and pains, or by pursuing and avoiding them at the wrong time, or in the wrong manner, or in one of the other wrong ways under which errors of conduct can be logically classified. This is why some thinkersThe reference is probably to Speusippus, although in the extant remains of Greek philosophy apathy, or freedom from passions or emotions, first appears as an ethical ideal of the Stoics. define the virtues as states of impassivity or tranquillity, though they make a mistake in using these terms absolutely, without adding in the right (or wrong) manner and at the right (or wrong) time and the other qualifications.
6
We assume therefore that moral virtue is the quality of acting in the best way in relation to pleasures and pains, and that vice is the opposite.
7
But the following considerations also will give us further light on the same point.
