Everything has its work. An argument from DOGMAfunction (πρός τι — "for something"): a horse, a vine came to be "for some work" (πρός τι ἔργου). Even the Sun and "the rest of the gods" will say the same of themselves: each has its function in the whole. The natural question: "and you — for what?" (σὺ οὖν πρὸς τί;).

Not for pleasure. The provocative bait-answer — "for pleasure?" (τὸ ἥδεσθαι) — is at once tested: "see whether the thought can bear it" (εἰ ἀνέχεται ἡ ἔννοια). The very notion (ἔννοια) of a human being as a rational-social creature "will not bear" the reduction of its end to enjoyment; that would be a demotion to a level where there is no ἔργον. Thereby the DOGMAhedonist τέλος is rejected: a human's purpose is activity according to reason, not pleasantness (cf. 8.10 — pleasure is no good; 8.12 — to rise for work, not to sleep like the animals; 5.1). There are no term-lemmata in the text (ἥδεσθαι is a verb, not ἡδονή). The governing discipline is action (to fulfil one's ἔργον), the sustaining one desire (not to reckon pleasure the end).