Happiness and the End for Man

Abstract

St. Thomas’ moral philosophy is founded upon Aristotle’s, but the task of reconciling a pagan natural morality with Christian theology was a difficult one. There are a number of points in the philosophy of Aquinas where the discontinuity between Aristo-telian foundations and Christian superstructure is only too clear. One such point is the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. Another is Thomas’ moral theory. He tries to combine three different elements: (1) the basic pattern of Aristotle’s ethics; (2) a theory of natural law; (3) the Christian concept of the vision of God as man’s final end.