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
- St. Thomas’s Prologue to Question 1 Man’s Ultimate Purpose
- Question 1, Article 1 Whether it belongs to man to act for an end?
- Question 1, Article 2 Whether it is proper to the rational nature to act for an end?
- Question 1, Article 3 Whether human acts are specified by their end?
- Question 1, Article 4 Whether there is one last end of human life?
- Question 1, Article 5 Whether one man can have several last ends?
- Question 1, article 6 Whether man will all, whatsoever he wills, for the last end?
- Question 1, article 7 Whether all men have the same last end?
- Question 1, article 8 Whether other creatures concur in that last end?
- 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
- Afterword So What Is Our Ultimate Purpose? What Is Happiness?
- Index
Question 1, Article 4 - Whether there is one last end of human life?
from Question 1 - Man’s Ultimate Purpose
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
- St. Thomas’s Prologue to Question 1 Man’s Ultimate Purpose
- Question 1, Article 1 Whether it belongs to man to act for an end?
- Question 1, Article 2 Whether it is proper to the rational nature to act for an end?
- Question 1, Article 3 Whether human acts are specified by their end?
- Question 1, Article 4 Whether there is one last end of human life?
- Question 1, Article 5 Whether one man can have several last ends?
- Question 1, article 6 Whether man will all, whatsoever he wills, for the last end?
- Question 1, article 7 Whether all men have the same last end?
- Question 1, article 8 Whether other creatures concur in that last end?
- 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
- Afterword So What Is Our Ultimate Purpose? What Is Happiness?
- Index
Summary
When St. Thomas asks whether human beings pursue ultimate purposes, most first-time readers suppose that he means whether there is a single ultimate purpose, the same for everyone, to which everything everyone does is in some way directed. Not yet. At present he is asking only whether ultimate meaning or purpose is in some way at stake in each human life – whether in this sense human life is meaningful. He is not asking whether each person has only one ultimate purpose. That question does not come up until Article 5. Even supposing that there is only one, he is not asking whether each person always acts with it in view; that question does not come up until Article 6. Even supposing that each person does always act with it in view, he is not asking whether every person pursues the same ultimate purpose; that question does not come up until Article 7.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020