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[5]
Also the
activity of contemplation may be held to be the only activity that is loved for its own
sake: it produces no result beyond the actual act of contemplation, whereas from practical
pursuits we look to secure some advantage, greater or smaller, beyond the action itself.
[6]
Also happiness is thought to involve leisure; for we do
business in order that we may have leisure, and carry on war in order that we may have
peace. Now the practical virtues are exercised in politics or in warfare; but the pursuits
of politics and war seem to be unleisured—those of war indeed entirely so, for
no one desires to be at war for the sake of being at war, nor deliberately takes steps to
cause a war: a man would be thought an utterly bloodthirsty character if he declared war
on a friendly state for the sake of causing battles and massacres. But the activity of the
politician also is unleisured, and aims at securing something beyond the mere
participation in politics—positions of authority and honor, or, if the happiness
of the politician himself and of his fellow-citizens, this happiness conceived as
something distinct from political activity (indeed we are clearly investigating
it as so distinct).1
[7]
If then among practical pursuits displaying the virtues,
politics and war stand out preeminent in nobility and grandeur, and yet they are
unleisured, and directed to some further end, not chosen for their own sakes: whereas the
activity of the intellect is felt to excel in serious worth,2 consisting as it does in contemplation,