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 2 - Whether it is proper to the rational nature to act for an end?
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
It may seem that we have already answered this question. Hasn’t the argument in the previous Article already shown that man’s property of acting for an end is due to his rational nature? No, for that argument showed only that man’s manner of acting for an end – his dominion over his deeds – is due to his rational nature: He acts toward ends and knows what his ends are. Could it be that in some sense, creatures that lack reason will also act for an end? The tradition has held that they do – that all things in nature are directed to ends, even among the lower creatures that do not know what they are doing. St. Thomas seeks to find out whether this is true.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020