Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae)
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~500,000 words · 2,394 passages
Cite this work
- APAThomas Aquinas. (n.d.). Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae). Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/thomas-aquinas/summa-theologica-part-i-ii-pars-prima-secundae
- MLAThomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae). Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/thomas-aquinas/summa-theologica-part-i-ii-pars-prima-secundae.
- ChicagoThomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae). Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/thomas-aquinas/summa-theologica-part-i-ii-pars-prima-secundae.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
The part of the Summa on human action: happiness as the end, the passions, habits, virtue, and the treatise on law.
Context and history
This is Aquinas's general moral theory. It begins where Aristotle's Ethics begins — what is man's final end — and answers that it is God, which Aristotle did not say. It contains the treatise on law, distinguishing eternal, natural, human and divine law: those questions are the source of the natural-law tradition that runs to the present day.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
For before all else the unchangeable good seems to be the last end of man. But some turn away from the unchangeable good, by sinning. Therefore all men have not the same last end. Obj. 2: Further, man's entire life is ruled according to his last end. If, therefore, all men had the same last end, they would not have various pursuits in life. Which is evidently false. Obj. 3: Further, the end is the term of action. But actions are of individuals. Now although men agree in their specific nature, yet they differ in things pertaining to individuals. Therefore all men have not the same last end. _On the contrary,_ Augustine says (De Trin. xiii, 3) that all men agree in desiring the last end, which is happiness. _I answer that,_ We can speak of the last end in two ways: first, considering only the aspect of last end; secondly, considering the thing in which the aspect of last end is realized. So, then, as to the aspect of last end, all agree in desiring the last end: since all desire the fulfilment of their perfection, and it is precisely this fulfilment in which the last end consists, as stated above (A. 5). But as to the thing in which this aspect is realized, all men are not agreed as to their last end: since some desire riches as their consummate good; some, pleasure; others, something else. Thus to