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St. Augustine: Moral Theory
Happiness and God – Freedom and Obligation – Need of grace – Evil – the two Cities.
Pn. 81, P.I-III
St. Augustine’s ethic has this in common with what one might call the typical Greek ethic, that it is eudaemanistic in character, that it proposes an end to human conduct, namely happiness; but this happiness is to be found only in God.
‘The hope in himself,’ but the rational creature… has been so made that it cannot itself be the good by which by which it is made happy, the human being is mutable and insufficient to itself, it can find its happiness only in the possession of that is more that itself, in the possession of an immutable object.
Not even virtue itself can be the end; it is not the virtue of thy soul that makes thee happy, but He who hath given thee the virtue, who hath inspired thee to will, and hath given thee the power to do.
Basically, it says, only hard work pays of in happyness, if one did not sweat for the possession, it will not make you happy.
This book contains a lot of wisdom.
Once a while, I will open it randomly and type some insights from the best medieval phylosophers.
These words contain timeless wisdom, thought out by the greatest thinkers of all time, struggling with exactly the same ‘human condition’ as we are today.
Just wondering if there are thinkers of them caliber, right here, in this time. With everything going on, they sure are welcome to give their insights, and execute timeless wisdom to solve the problems.
A History of Philosophy, Frederick Copleston, S.J., Volume II: Medieval Philosophy, from Augustine to Duns Scotus, published, April 1993
