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Treatise on the Last End

Thomas Aquinas

A section of Aquinas's Summa Theologiae examining human happiness and the final goal of human life.

Written by Aquinas himself, this treatise opens the moral section of his Summa Theologiae and reflects his core teaching on happiness.

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About this source

What it is

This is part of the Summa Theologiae, the great theological work written by Thomas Aquinas. This section, called the Treatise on the Last End, opens the second part of the Summa and asks what human beings ultimately aim for in life.

Why it matters

Aquinas argues that happiness is the last end of human action, and he builds a careful, step-by-step case using questions and objections, a method typical of medieval university teaching. The text shows how Aquinas tried to join Christian belief with the logical methods of ancient philosophy, especially Aristotle, to explain human purpose and morality.

Look closer

  • Why does Aquinas organize his argument as a series of questions rather than a simple statement?
  • What does his focus on "happiness" as the last end suggest about medieval ideas of a good life?
  • How might this method of arguing be different from how arguments are made today?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Saint Thomas Aquinas on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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