Thomas Aquinas’
treatise on man’s last end, presented in questions one to five of the prima
secunda of his treasured deposit of wisdom, the Summa Theologiae, is
mined for its insights into the proper conduct of enterprise. His text
discloses that perfect happiness, the complete activation or fulfillment of our
being, can consist in nothing else than the vision of the Divine Essence and
that it is sheer folly to look for happiness in any external goods (wealth,
honor, fame, power), or any goods of the body (health, pleasure), or any goods
of the soul. The significant ethical implications that arise for the
institution of business from losing sight of the true ultimate end are taken up
before laying out what a political economic order formed according to a true
conception of happiness would look like.
