THOMAS AQUINAS’TA MUTLULUK

THOMAS AQUINAS ON HAPPINESS Thomas Aquinas is one of the greatest thinkers of Christianity. His ethical theory, together with the theories of Augustine and Abelard, constitutes one of the main ethical theories of Medieval Christianity. Aquinas develops his theory most extensively and systematically in the Second Part of the Summa Theologica. For Aquinas ethics has two principal topics: first, what is the ultimate goal of human being, and second, how that goal is to be achieved. The aim of this study is to present Aquinas’ understanding of happiness in general. For this reason it will discuss the following questions: What is the ultimate goal of human being? What constitutes man’s happiness? What is happiness? What are the things required for happiness? Whether happiness can be attained? The article concludes that Aquinas tries to harmonise Aristotelian ethics with Christianity, and in doing so he adds new dimensions to the Aristotelian ethics.