Book contents
- Commentary on Thomas Aquinas’s Treatise on Happinessand Ultimate Purpose
- Commentary on Thomas Aquinas’s Treatise on Happiness and Ultimate Purpose
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Analytical Table of Contents
- Ante Studium (Before Study)
- Epigraph
- Commentator’s Introduction
- General Prologue of St. Thomas Aquinas to the Treatiseon Happiness and Ultimate Purpose
- Question 1 Man’s Ultimate Purpose
- Question 2 Where Does Complete Happiness Lie? Failed Candidates
- Question 3 What Then Is Complete Happiness In Itself, And In What Does It Really Lie?
- Question 4 What Complete Happiness Requires
- Question 5 How Complete Happiness Is Finally Attained
- St. Thomas’s Prologue to Question 5 How Complete Happiness Is Finally Attained
- Question 5, Article 1 Whether man can attain happiness?
- Question 5, Article 2 Whether one man can be happier than another?
- Question 5, Article 3 Whether one can be happy in this life?
- Question 5, Article 4 Whether happiness once had can be lost?
- Question 5, Article 5 Whether man can attain happiness by his natural powers?
- Question 5, Article 6 Whether man attains happiness through the action of some higher creature?
- Question 5, Article 7 Whether any good works are necessary that man may receive happiness from God?
- Question 5, Article 8 Whether every man desires happiness?
- Afterword So What Is Our Ultimate Purpose? What Is Happiness?
- Index
Question 5, Article 5 - Whether man can attain happiness by his natural powers?
from Question 5 - How Complete Happiness Is Finally Attained
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 October 2020
- Commentary on Thomas Aquinas’s Treatise on Happinessand Ultimate Purpose
- Commentary on Thomas Aquinas’s Treatise on Happiness and Ultimate Purpose
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Analytical Table of Contents
- Ante Studium (Before Study)
- Epigraph
- Commentator’s Introduction
- General Prologue of St. Thomas Aquinas to the Treatiseon Happiness and Ultimate Purpose
- Question 1 Man’s Ultimate Purpose
- Question 2 Where Does Complete Happiness Lie? Failed Candidates
- Question 3 What Then Is Complete Happiness In Itself, And In What Does It Really Lie?
- Question 4 What Complete Happiness Requires
- Question 5 How Complete Happiness Is Finally Attained
- St. Thomas’s Prologue to Question 5 How Complete Happiness Is Finally Attained
- Question 5, Article 1 Whether man can attain happiness?
- Question 5, Article 2 Whether one man can be happier than another?
- Question 5, Article 3 Whether one can be happy in this life?
- Question 5, Article 4 Whether happiness once had can be lost?
- Question 5, Article 5 Whether man can attain happiness by his natural powers?
- Question 5, Article 6 Whether man attains happiness through the action of some higher creature?
- Question 5, Article 7 Whether any good works are necessary that man may receive happiness from God?
- Question 5, Article 8 Whether every man desires happiness?
- Afterword So What Is Our Ultimate Purpose? What Is Happiness?
- Index
Summary
Can we acquire supreme happiness by our natural abilities alone? The problem is more subtle than it appears. Perhaps the answer is “Yes”; perhaps “No,” on grounds that we need supernatural help. But if “No,” then in what sense can happiness be considered our nature’s fulfillment? Wondering how the popular culture answers St. Thomas’s query, while writing about this Article I performed a quick web search using the question “What can we do to be happy?” The first time I ran the search, the query yielded 627 million hits.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020