evidence: So much for the meaning of Aristotle’s opening line. Now let’s look into its truth. High-sounding as it is, the statement is not obviously and unobjectionably true. Suppose you conducted a street-survey in Los Angeles, and asked passers-by to fill in the blank: "All human beings by nature desire [blank]." I have never tried it myself, but my guess is that very few people would propose to fill in the blank with "knowledge." More likely they would answer "love," or else "friends" or "food" or "clean air," or something of the sort. And if you told them that one correct answer was "knowledge," they might think you were crazy. Certain obstacles can prevent us from seeing the truth of Aristotle’s statement, and we should note these and remove them before looking at the evidence he offers for it.