PHL206: Later Medieval Philosophy Essay Assignment #1: short Essay on Aquinas The Lord says in John 17, “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the one true God.” Through God’s word, human happiness consists in the knowledge of God, which is the intellect. In this article, Aquinas argues that ultimate human happiness is primarily an operation of the intellect rather than the will. This paper will explain the grounds on which Aquinas denies this role of the will, and a significant role of will plays in the exercises in achieving the intimate good. In Aquinas’ system, the intellect and the will are the two great powers of the mind. Summary from the lecture, the intellect is generally the capacity for reasoning and judging, …show more content…
According to the class lecture, the human soul consists of the plant or vegetative soul, animal or sensory soul, and rational soul, different power of the soul is fundamentally an inclination to be moved by different groups of objects. For instance, the power of the animal soul is the disposition to seek pleasure and avoid pain, and the intellect is a disposition to seek knowledge or truth. No matter when a particular power of the soul is moved, the object that moves the power must necessarily have a good motivation proper to that power. On that account, in order to be a certain power’s good, an object must belong to the set of things that naturally move that power. In the textbook, Aquinas emphasizes that “[W]herever we have order among a number of active powers, that power which regards the universal end moves the powers which regard particular ends”; he thus explains the alternative role the will plays in the exercise of the ultimate end. Whereas the will is a disposition to be moved towards the ultimate end or the universal good – happiness – other powers are only moved towards particular goods instead of the sum of goods; the will can, in some cases, move the other powers of the soul towards obtaining