Lesson 7 · about 50 minutes
Happiness and the Meaning of Life
Why every choice aims at some good, why wealth, honour, pleasure and power cannot satisfy us, and where perfect happiness is found.
By the end of this lesson you will be able to
- Explain that all human action is for an end, and ultimately for one last end
- Use Aquinas's reasoning to show why created goods cannot be our final happiness
- Distinguish imperfect happiness in this life from perfect happiness in the vision of God
Read first
- Ethics — Moral philosophy - the good, the virtues, natural law and human flourishing.
Start here: “and why that?”
Why are you doing this lesson? Perhaps: “To pass the course.” And why that? “To finish school.” And why that? “To get a good job.” And why that? “To earn money, have a good life, look after a family…” And why that?
Keep asking, and eventually every answer ends in the same place: “Because I want to be happy.” Nobody asks, “Why do you want to be happy?” Happiness is the one thing we want simply for its own sake.
Every action aims at an end
Aquinas, following Aristotle, says that every deliberate human action is done for an end: something that seems good to us. And all our ends point, in the end, to one last end: the thing we want for itself and not for anything further. Everyone agrees on the name for it: happiness.
But people disagree enormously about what happiness is. That’s where philosophy helps.
Testing the candidates
Aquinas examines the things people most often chase, and asks whether any of them could be the final answer. His test: happiness must be the highest good, complete, belonging to us, and unable to be lost.
| Candidate | Why it falls short |
|---|---|
| Wealth | It is only a means. We want money for what it buys, never for its own sake. |
| Honour and fame | They exist in other people’s opinions. They can be given and taken away, and they don’t make you good. |
| Power | It can be used for evil as easily as good, so it can’t be the highest good. |
| Pleasure | It is real but passing, and it follows from having something good rather than being the good itself. |
| Health and beauty | Good, but bodily, and they fade and end with death. |
None of these is bad. Aquinas’s point is that none of them can carry the weight of being the answer. Treat any of them as your last end, and it will eventually let you down.
Why only God satisfies
Think about Lesson 6. Your intellect is made for truth, and it never stops asking. Your will is made for goodness, and it always wants more. Every created thing is limited: learn it, get it, enjoy it, and you are still left wanting something more.
That restlessness isn’t a flaw. It’s a clue. A desire for truth and goodness without limit can only be fully satisfied by a good without limit. That is why Aquinas concludes that perfect happiness is found only in God: in knowing and loving Him, which the tradition calls the vision of God.
St Augustine put it famously at the start of his Confessions: our heart is restless until it rests in God.
Happiness now
Does this mean we can’t be happy in this life? No. Aquinas distinguishes:
- Imperfect happiness: the real flourishing we can reach now, through virtue, friendship, meaningful work and a well-ordered life. It is genuine, but partial and able to be lost.
- Perfect happiness: the complete happiness of seeing God, which nothing can take away.
The first is the road to the second. That is why the next lesson is about virtue: the habits that make a good life possible.
Why this matters
What you choose as your last end quietly steers every other choice. Someone who lives for approval will keep reshaping themselves to please others. Someone who lives for pleasure will find it harder to do anything difficult. What you aim at shapes who you become.
Read the texts
Read Summa Theologica I-II, q.2, a.1–4 and a.8, and Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics I.7. As you read, ask:
- What does Aristotle mean when he says happiness is “complete” and “self-sufficient”?
- Which of Aquinas’s arguments against a created good do you find most convincing, and why?
Primary texts
- St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I-II, q.2, a.1–4 and a.8 Happiness does not consist in wealth, honour, fame, power, or any created good.
- Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics I.7 Happiness is the complete end, sought for its own sake and never for the sake of anything else.
- St Augustine, Confessions I.1 Our heart is restless until it rests in God.
Check your understanding
Choose an answer for each question, then check your score.
Think and discuss
Talk these over with your class or family, or write a short answer to each.
- Think of someone - real or fictional - who had wealth, fame and pleasure but wasn't happy. What was missing?
- Is happiness a feeling or a way of living? What is the difference?
- Why do we often get bored with things we wanted badly once we have them?
- If social media rewards approval and attention, what would Aquinas say about its effect on us?
- What would you choose as the aim of your life, and does it pass Aquinas's tests?
Key takeaway
What you aim at shapes who you become.
Homework: List the three things you spend most time chasing. For each, ask "Is this a means or an end?" and write down what you are really hoping it will give you.