Capax Dei
Eo mens est imago Dei, quo capax Dei est et particeps esse potest.
St. Augustine, De Trinitate XIV:11
Friday, April 12, 2002 :::
You will be happy and prosper. -- Psalm 128:2
Properly speaking, happiness is an end. It is not a temporary emotional state, but the goal toward which we strive our whole lives.
When you achieve your end, you are done acting for that end. And so happiness, the ultimate end of everything we do, is what we need to achieve in order for our wills to stop directing us to do more. We are happy when we have everything we desire and we desire everything we have.
Well, that sounds pleasant enough, but since everyone desires different things, happiness must mean different things to different people, right?
::: posted at 2:25 PM
br> Thursday, April 11, 2002 :::
"What can bring us happiness?," many say. -- Psalm 4:6
To know what will make us happy, we need to know what we are.
Well, one thing we are are beings that want to be happy. We have an end that we desire, a final cause for which we would act.
But if we are beings that want to be happy, doesn't this mean that we are beings that can be happy? Not that we necessarily will be happy, that things are bound to work out such that we wind up happy, but that it is at least possible for beings such as ourselves to be happy. If a human being, by his very nature, is incapable of happiness, then what is the source of his desire to be happy?
Humans, then, are beings who both desire and are capable of happiness. But what is happiness, and more specifically, what is human happiness?
