Summary
Highlights
Thomas Aquinas teaches that humans are on a quest for happiness, not in a superficial sense of feeling good, but as the enjoyment of the highest good. God designed humans to seek profound goodness, and our lives are a constant inquiry into the path toward this ultimate good. Unlike animals that act on instinct, humans deliberate and make choices.
Human acts are voluntary and stem from thinking and willing, making them free choices. These free acts are crucial to our human nature, allowing us to seek happiness not merely by instinct, but through the choices we make. There is widespread confusion today about the meaning of freedom, often mistaken for impulse-driven action or the right to do anything one desires.
For Aquinas, the purpose of freedom is to choose the path to true happiness, the highest and most enjoyable good. Every free choice concerns the means to achieve this genuine happiness. This requires discerning between genuine paths to happiness and counterfeits that ultimately disappoint.
Deep within the human heart, there's a constant interaction between our knowledge (intellect) and our love (will), forming an inner dialogue that leads to human acts. This process is illustrated with an example of deciding to go to a baseball game, starting from a wish, developing into an intention, deliberating on means, making a decision and election, and finally executing the choice.
After choosing a means (e.g., going by car), you execute the choice through an inner command from the intellect and an act of the will. Following the experience, a 'judgment of fruition' occurs, where you reflect on whether you enjoyed the experience and if it was worthwhile. If the answer is yes, then in your will, you experience fruition or joy.
These various internal acts—wishes, judgments of possibility, intentions, deliberations, decisions, elections, execution, and fruition—constitute free agency. The ultimate purpose of our free agency is to pursue what truly makes us happy and leads us to the highest good. Understanding this requires knowing the truth about what is good to avoid deceptions and find true satisfaction.
Knowing the truth about what is good preserves us from traps and deceptions, allowing us to walk towards what will truly satisfy. This knowledge sets us free to love and enjoy the one true good that never disappoints. The video concludes by prompting viewers to consider what they are living for and directs them to Aquinas101.com for further resources.