In book X, Aristotle refined his view on pleasure and the ultimate good. He acknowledges that pleasure cannot be the ultimate good as well as disagrees with the idea that pleasure is evil. Aristotle explains that pleasure is indeed a good but not the Good. He does this by explaining that certain pleasures in life can grow with regards to intelligence and knowledge and the ultimate Good is one that does not change in accordance with anything else, it stand on its own without improvement.
Pleasure cannot solely lead a person to the good life because pleasure that fails to fall under virtue can lead a person to lead a life of appetites or a beastly life. To avoid this, Aristotle explains that pleasure is inherently tied to virtuous actions and therefore habituating those moral actions will result in a pleasurable life. This life consists of pleasures as a result of virtue and reasoning but pleasure in itself is not the goal or purpose of life. The good life consists on contemplation, because contemplation is what seems to be the purpose of man. Unlike any other being, humans have rational thought which seems to be the distinguishing characteristic. We must then use this characteristic which we can most easily do more often to live the good life.
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