Aquinas Argument Analysis

In today’s world, individuals seem to be going in thousands of different directions. From the moment that children are able to speak, society seems to stress the importance of them attaining anything that their heart desires and reaching for the stars. Although the idea of ‘dreaming big’ is certainly valuable, this idea also pushes humans in a variety of directions in order to achieve what each person individually deems as success or happiness. As a result, people devote their life to what they perceive will make them happy. For example, many people pursue college in order to obtain a degree that will allow them to have their ‘dream job,’ which will ultimately make them happy. In turn, these variations in journeys to happiness seem to increasingly

For example, Aquinas addresses the objection that if all humans truly did have the same last end, then people would not sin. Specifically, objection one states, “…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” (358). Because the unchangeable good, which is God, is equivalent to the last end of happiness, this protest to Aquinas’ argument seems valid for several reasons. First off, not every person that has ever walked the earth was a believer and thus, each person is obviously not after the unchangeable good. Moreover, even if an individual is a follower of God, no human is perfect and as a result, sins, which is definitely not an action classified as working towards God. Despite these seemingly concrete complaints, Aquinas explains away the objection with ease. Aquinas states, “Those who sin turn from that in which their last end really consists: but they do not turn away from the intentions of the last end, which intention they mistakenly seek in other things” (359). By answering with this statement, Aquinas essentially means that even though not all humans focus on the unchangeable good, people still go after the same last end, but do so through false means. Hence, through

Objection three states, “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” (358). In this objection, the doubt is essentially that humans cannot all have the same last end because the last end is an action and actions are decided by the individual. To explain away this objection, Aquinas points out that “actions are of individuals, yet their first principle of action is nature, which tends to one thing” (359). Hence, though Aquinas acknowledges the half-truth of objection three, he also reveals that the last end is an ingrained piece of human nature. Due to this innate aspect of the last end, Aquinas fully discredits the notion that a universal last end is unreasonable, and instead justifies how all humans are born with the desire of the last end of