Catholic Dictionary
Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.
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PLEASURE
The satisfaction that accompanies the exercise of a human faculty. Depending on the faculty used, there are different kinds of pleasure, namely, sensuous or intellectual. In practice the two forms are never separated, since bodily satisfaction affects the rational part of a human being, and intellectual satisfaction has an influence on the body. Some writers distinguish between pleasure and joy, where pleasure refers to the satisfaction of bodily desires, such as eating and sex, and joy refers to the use of rational powers, such as thinking and loving.
