Contemplation
idea · 2 works · 2 mentions · 3 anchored passages
contemplation · activity of the intellect · philosophy · pursuit of wisdom · the contemplation of truth
in the texts
Nicomachean Ethics
The activity of the intellect directed at the highest objects of knowledge, argued to be the most continuous, self-sufficient, and pleasant activity, and thus the constituent of perfect happiness.
The following considerations also will show that perfect happiness is some form of contemplative activity.
Whether then this be the intellect, or whatever else it be that is thought to rule and lead us by nature, and to have cognizance of what is noble and divine, either as being itself also actually divine, or as being relatively the divinest part of us, it is the activity of this part of us in accordance with the virtue proper to it that will constitute perfect happiness;
For contemplation is at once the highest form of activity (since the intellect is the highest thing in us, and the objects with which the intellect deals are the highest things that can be known), and also it is the most continuous, for we can reflect more continuously than we can carry on any form of action.
On Leisure
The activity of inquiring into truth, nature, and the divine, treated as one of the two ends for which human beings were made, and defended as compatible with virtuous action.
First, that a man may, even from his earliest years, give himself up wholly to the contemplation of truth, may seek out a rule for living and practise it in retirement.
"But it makes a difference," you say, "whether you have approached contemplation for the sake of pleasure, seeking nothing from it but unbroken contemplation with no outcome;
One is given over to pleasure, the second to contemplation, the third to action.