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

WiseGod

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