You Tube Theology

What can Thomas Aquinas teach people about happiness?

This question is one that Dr. Jennifer Frey, Associate Professor of Philosophy from the University of South Carolina, tackled Monday, Nov 12, 2018 at the Duke Wellness Center. Professor Frey described the three most common views of happiness as being an emotional state, hedonism, and overall life satisfaction. While these views share the assumption happiness is good, Aquinas says they are flawed in that there is too-narrow a focus on the individual which is divorced from the commonality of happiness. Instead, Aquinas teaches any understanding of happiness needs to take into consideration the common good and a shared understanding of well-being.