Book 7
4
For when we are not in need of something, then we all seek people to share our enjoyments, and beneficiaries rather than benefactors;and we can judge them better when we are self-sufficing than when in need, and we most need friends who are worthy of our society.
5
But about this question we must consider whether perhaps, although the view stated is partly sound, in part the truth escapes us because of the comparison.i.e. of man with God, l. 8 above; cf. Aristot. Eud. Eth. 1245b 13. The matter is clear if we ascertain what life in the active sense and as an End is.
6
It is manifest that life is perception and knowledge, and that consequently social life is perception and knowledge in common. But perception and knowledge themselves are the thing most desirable for each individually (and it is owing to this that the appetition for life is implanted by nature in all, for living must be deemed a mode of knowing).
