The happiness Felicitas seu beatitudo in Thoma Aquinatis Reflection from yesterday to today

Abstract

It is appropriate a reminder, not exhaustive, on the subject of happiness especially when due to the circumstances of the present and all the technical progress that characterizes it, many have believed that it is possible to achieve it in a complete way. Several attempts to indicate the factors that form it, sometimes quantified very seriously, seem to forget that it is a constant theme in the history of mankind. That is why reference will be made to that history, focusing particularly on two authors: one from the time before Christ and another from the Christian era. Thus it will be appreciated that only at times and in a limited way is happiness experienced. Therefore, in Aristotle and especially in Saint Thomas, there is an openness to the desire to always be and to be fully happy, with the particularities of each era.