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 1 - Whether man can attain happiness?
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
The philosopher David Benatar holds that life is so full of suffering that it is “better never to have been.” Probably not many agree, but a far greater number uphold a milder counsel of despair (if a counsel of despair can be said to be mild): That since supreme happiness is unattainable, the wise person takes what he can get and “settles.” In the present Article, St. Thomas challenges these views.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020