Augustine of Hippo would say:
O God, Thou hast
made us for Thyself
and our hearts are
restless until they find
their rest in Thee.
Preparing for your future
• To achieve vocational goals
• To enhance skills
• To make a GOOD living
• T o Serve God and make a GOOD life
• Pursue happiness = good life
• NOT just getting your desires met
• NOT just passing subjective pleasures
HAPPINESS = life of Virtue - Ethics
• Good – desiring the ideal, noble, best goals
• Right – the opposite of wrong, defined by a law
• Ought – personal obligation, duty, responsibility
Christian Liberal Arts Education
• Gets first things, FIRST
• All truth is God’s truth
• To study seriously is an act of faith
• Study is an act of worship
Christian Liberal Arts Education
• Sees you as a worthy creation of God
• You have a call to do special things
• You are uniquely endowed with talents
ALL PURPOSES ARE NOT =
Teleology
The belief that the events of life are
pulled forward by some specific
purpose toward some definite end
Telos
• God is the divine, purposive, maker of all that exists
• Created human beings with purpose and gifted them in such a
way as to fulfill that purpose
• “O God, Thou hast made us for thyself, and our hearts are
restless until they find their rest in Thee” St. Augustine
• The search for meaning is the primary motivation of life.
People need something for which to live. Victor Frankl
Eight candidates for the Summum Bonum
Thomas Aquinas
Wise
God
Virtue
Pleasure
Health
Power
Fame
Honor
Wealth
Foolish
Wealth
• Most popular answer
• The desire for money is unlimited
• I can only enjoy a finite amount of material goods
– cars – houses
• Can’t be can’t buy me love, or peace, or health
• Money is only a means and not an end so it can
not be the “last end,” or summum bonum
Honor
• Well-deserved appreciation – recognition =
happiness
• Especially for virtue, like courage, hard work, or
wisdom
• Honor is external – depends on others
– Can be fickle, or fake, or manipulative
• Happiness - internal - can’t depend on external
factors
• So honor cannot be the ultimate goal of life
Glory or Fame
• In a modern media society fame
seems to be the road to happiness
• Aquinas said fame is fleeting, false,
and mostly superficial
• Always asks “What have you done
for me lately?”
• So, fame is a foolish ultimate
purpose
Famous Rap
Artist
Power
• Happiness consists of being powerful
• But, like money, power is only a means to another
end – can’t be last end
• I could be technologically powerful, or
economically powerful, and have total freedom
• No guarantee power = happiness
Health
• Health is better because it is an internal thing
• Something that you have some control over
– you can exercise and eat right
• But, health of the body not as important as the
health of the soul
Can’t be the ultimate purpose of
life
– we all still die
Pleasure
• Pleasure seems to be a good answer
• Pleasure/happiness are sought for their own sake, as ends and not means that’s good
• Whenever we are happy, we are pleased, pleasure is a consequence of
happiness
• And we are happy because we possess some good
•
But, good constitutes ultimate happiness?
• Pleasure and happiness aren’t the same
–
–
–
–
we often regret pleasures
but never happiness
If there is such a thing as harmful pleasures
then pleasure cannot be the same as our true good
Virtue
• Happiness is internal, not external, so happiness must
consist in the good of the soul.
• The good of the soul is wisdom (the good of the mind) and
virtue (the good of the will)
• The soul itself cannot be its own last end
– We grow and mature, if successful, and we fail, if unsuccessful
– Virtue is like an arrow shot to a target. What is its aim?
– The good or happiness of the soul must have an aim other than
itself
GOD
•
No one in this world is perfectly happy
•
Either there is something more than this world,
•
Or there is no such thing as perfect happiness - anywhere
•
But, we have a natural desire for perfect happiness
•
If nature makes nothing in vain, then this desire for happiness must correspond to
something that actually exists – something attainable
•
Since nothing in this world fills that void, there must be something more
•
The goods attainable in this world are all limited, but our desire is unlimited
•
There must be an unlimited good which alone can satisfy all our desires
•
Aquinas’ argues that good is nothing less than God