Man’s Last End

The above title contains two important terms;

-         ‘Man’ who is an animal (living ‘body’) endowed with ‘intellect’ and ‘will.’

-         ‘End’ (Last End) which implies the purpose for which an act is done.

Every agent acts for an end. Man usually acts using his faculties of intellect and will in view of a certain end; a certain ‘good.’ No man really acts to seek evil in itself. Even if he acts that evil is usually sweet-coated by a certain good/pleasure which makes it seem good and desirable while in reality it is not. Hence, we conclude that; every agent, in this case man, acts for a good. In fact the end of everything is a good.

The good for which man acts may be:

-         Relative good

-         Absolute good

Relative good implies the happiness (sometimes pleasure) which man seeks in created beings. Being finite, these creatures cannot provide man with the total satisfaction of happiness he needs. Hence, he will tend to seek it in various creatures and things and never to get it. Most people seek it in material possessions, in lustful pleasure and the like but they never get satisfied for they are just merely relative and temporal good.

Absolute good is only found in God, that is, true and eternal happiness which man seeks is only found in God. Contemplation of God in the beatific vision provides man with the happiness he would not have found in creatures. In God man finds perfection of his happiness for He (God) is the absolute good.

Therefore, we can conclude that, the end which man seeks is God, for He is the absolute good and the happiness upon which man gets satisfied in the beatific vision by contemplating God.