HKB
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Often appears with: will, choice, and freedom · the nature and attributes of God · sin, guilt, and repentance · uncreated and created happiness · temporal punishment · pleasure, pain, and the good life · original sin · money as end analogy · judgment, heaven, and hell · intention in action · human desire · god as last end
Usually: detachment (4) · argument (3) · commentary or gloss (1) · reflection (1) · crisis of belief (1) · reverence (1)
“One need not always be thinking of the last end, whenever one desires or does.” Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae) · precept
“A sin is opposed to a virtue in two ways: first, principally and directly; that sin, to wit, which is about the same object: because contraries are about the same thing.” Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae) · insight
“a sin incurs a debt of eternal punishment, in so far as it causes an irreparable disorder in the order of Divine justice, through being contrary to the very principle of that order, viz. the last end.” Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae) · insight
Aquinas argues that whenever people desire anything, they do so under the aspect of their last end, even if they are not consciously thinking of it at each moment.
that end. But man does not always think of the last end in all that he desires or does. Therefore man neither desires nor does all for the last end. *On the contrary,* Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xix, 1): "That is the end of our good, for the sake of which we love other things, whereas we love it for its own sake." *I answer that,* Man must, of necessity, desire all, whatsoever he desires, for the last end. This is…
After posing eight questions about happiness, the text defines happiness as the attainment/enjoyment of the last end; it distinguishes happiness-as-object (uncreated God) from happiness-as-essence (a created participation within the soul).
consider man's happiness in its cause or object, then it is something uncreated; but if we consider it as to the very essence of happiness, then it is something created. Reply Obj. 1: God is happiness by His Essence: for He is happy not by acquisition or participation of something else, but by His Essence. On the other hand, men are happy, as Boethius says (De Consol. iii), by participation; just as they are called …
In asking whether use regards the last end, Aquinas says God is enjoyed as the last end, while the “use” of the end is only a qualified sense regarding the means to attaining it or the end as possessed.
*On the contrary,* Augustine says (QQ. 83, qu. 30): "No one rightly uses God, but one enjoys Him." But God alone is the last end. Therefore we cannot use the last end. *I answer that,* Use, as stated above (A. 1), implies the application of one thing to another. Now that which is applied to another is regarded in the light of means to an end; and consequently use always regards the means. For this reason things that…
Aquinas claims that because human acts share a kind insofar as they are directed to the last end, all sins can be compared by gravity.
human acts are somewhat of one kind, in so far as they are directed to the last end. Therefore nothing prevents all sins from being compared with one another. ________________________ FOURTH ARTICLE [I-II, Q. 73, Art. 4] Whether the Gravity of Sins Depends on the Excellence of the Virtues to Which They Are Opposed? Objection 1: It would seem that the gravity of sins does not vary according to the excellence of the…
He argues that not every sin incurs eternal punishment: sins are eternal only when they irreparably disorder the soul’s relation to the last end, while other disorders merit only temporal punishment.
*On the contrary,* Gregory says (Dial. iv, 39), that certain slighter sins are remitted after this life. Therefore all sins are not punished eternally. *I answer that,* As stated above (A. 3), a sin incurs a debt of eternal punishment, in so far as it causes an irreparable disorder in the order of Divine justice, through being contrary to the very principle of that order, viz. the last end. Now it is evident that in…