A New Look at the Last End: Noun and Verb, Determinate Yet Capable of Growth
In this essay, I proceed in three sections. In the first, I offer an explanation of the final end rooted in classical ethics, and review Thomas’s arguments for it, noting their connection to Thomas’s immediately preceding arguments on acting for an end in general. In the second section, I offer a mo...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
The Journal of Moral Theology, Inc.
2019-05-01
|
| Series: | Journal of Moral Theology |
| Online Access: | https://jmt.scholasticahq.com/article/11427-a-new-look-at-the-last-end-noun-and-verb-determinate-yet-capable-of-growth |
| Summary: | In this essay, I proceed in three sections. In the first, I offer an explanation of the final end rooted in classical ethics, and review Thomas’s arguments for it, noting their connection to Thomas’s immediately preceding arguments on acting for an end in general. In the second section, I offer a more constructive argument based on two articles in Thomas’s Summa Theologiae, an argument that connects a staple distinction in Thomas’s thought on happiness to Thomas’s thought on the last end. In short, I argue that, like happiness, the last end is both something “out there” we seek, and also an activity on the part of the person. It thus should be thought of not only as a noun but also as a verb. The human person is one who “last ends.” In the final section, I briefly suggest how this understanding of the last end enables Thomas’s account of the last end to address contemporary challenges. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2166-2851 2166-2118 |