Ethics

Final Ethics Paper

Tim Lavallee

PHL 202-004

Albrecht

12/18/15

Nietzsche and St. Thomas Aquinas

When comparing and contrasting the ethical of philosophies of St. Thomas Aquinas and Friedrich Nietzsche it is imperative to understand their perspectives on issues like nature, reason, emotions, morality, law, and the primary good. The views between Aquinas and Nietzsche seem to rival each other, and even radically clash when looking into their fundamental principles. These philosophers’ views on happiness, God, and morality all seem to differ. Where St. Thomas Aquinas’ ethical philosophy is deeply routed in theology, where his principles and beliefs are guided and structured around God, Nietzsche is the opposite. Nietzsche was an atheist, and his ethical philosophy is structured around his negative attitudes toward Christianity.

St. Thomas Aquinas was not only a philosopher, but also a Dominican Friar and a Catholic priest who used the influence of God to structure his works, combining both philosophy and theology. Aquinas believed that humans tend toward an ultimate end, which is God. While brief happiness can be attained through wealth, sense pleasures, goods, and desires, ultimate happiness can only be achieved through God. Aquinas states how these sensual goods cannot bring eternal happiness, “For man's happiness consists essentially in his being united to the Uncreated Good, which is his last end” and that, “since God is the last end of man and of all other things, man attains their last end by knowing and loving God” (Sum I-II, Q1, Art. 8). Aquinas states how man can only achieve this ultimate end in knowledge of loving and acting toward God. Since God has unlimited goodness man must act righteously by performing moral acts and good deeds and acquire merit in order to emulate the ultimate goodness of God. While man can never achieve perfect happiness, because only God is perfect happiness, we can reach towards it through the vision of the...