ABSTRACT
Since Aristotle died no moral philosopher has exercised an influence comparable with his. Kant is read only by metaphysicians; Hume and Hobbes, Butler, Locke and Bentham have never been esteemed as are the Greeks. Long before any real research could take place into the factors which govern human behaviour, it had been realised that it is only after an action has been found to give pleasure that it can be performed for the sake of the pleasure it gives. Aristotle himself believed that all men seek happiness, and Epicurus stated that happiness is the only good and pain the only evil. According to both of them, happiness was to be obtained through a rational choice of pleasures. Earthly pleasures had become suspect to the Christian mind. If not positively dangerous and degrading, they were booby-traps placed on the road to heaven; snares which distracted the soul from its only proper preoccupation, the means of salvation.
