Saint Aquinas' Thoughts on Happiness

The subject of happiness is one of the most important topics in the philosophy of ethics that has attracted the attention of many thinkers and philosophers and has forced them to search for the meaning of happiness. Some theistic philosophers have considered happiness to have different levels and the highest degree of it has been considered as the divine encounter in heaven, among which is Saint Aquinas.But in the meantime, people have become skeptical and have found it very difficult to achieve this kind of happiness, so that many of them have considered this out of reach and think that there is no way to achieve this level of happiness. Therefore, addressing this case and reviewing and analyzing the researches of Thomas Aquinas as a world thinker can help a person to get acquainted with the levels of happiness and find solutions to achieve the highest degree. This article intends to use the descriptive-analytical method to first define happiness from the point of view of Saint Aquinas, and then continues by stating the levels of happiness and offering solutions to achieve true happiness, and ends with a discussion of great happiness. Aquinas emphasizes above all the great happiness that can be achieved in the hereafter and considers that achieving it, in addition to acquiring moral virtues and intellectual knowledge, requires divine grace, which does not include every servant.

Keywords:

Aquinas , Happiness , True Happiness , Great Happiness , God's Grace