Aquinas: Happiness

Thomas Aquinas was one of the greatest philosophers and theologians of the medieval period, and his account of happiness is one of the most influential in the Western tradition. For Aquinas, happiness is the final end and highest good that all of us seek in life. But not everyone agrees about what makes human beings happy. This piece is an exposition and commentary on Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae, Part I-II, Question 2, which asks the question: What does happiness consist in? What (...) is the final end and highest good that fulfills our human nature and satisfies our desires? Aquinas examines various answers, including wealth, honor, fame, glory, power, pleasure, life, health, knowledge, and virtue. He argues that none of these things can make us perfectly happy, and that true and perfect happiness is found in God alone. (shrink)