Human purposiveness in st. Thomas Aquinas

Francis J. Kovach

pp. 143-164

in: William Horosz, Clements (eds), Religion and human purpose, Berlin, Springer, 1987

Abstract

There are various ways of treating the question of human purposiveness. St. Thomas Aquinas treats this question in terms of the ultimate end of man, and he does so both as a philosopher and as a theologian. This is to say that St. Thomas has a philosophical as well as a theological theory of man's ultimate end. Of these two, the philosophical theory is logically prior to the other since it serves as the speculative basis for the theological treatment, whereas the theological theory is much more elaborate and offers Aquinas' final answer to the question of human purposiveness.

Cited authors

Aquinas Thomas