The 60-Second Aquinas
Lesson
Serving Two Masters
August 24, 1998
You are the secretary for two equal bosses. They ask you to perform two divergent actions simultaneously.
Or, a non-football friend of yours asks if you’d like to go on that deep-sea fishing expedition you’ve been talking about on the same day as the Super Bowl.
Tough ones, aren’t they? Impossible ones actually.
Aquinas explains that there can only be one ultimate end that we seek, even if we try different things to achieve it: "It is impossible for a man’s will to be simultaneously related to diverse things as ultimate ends" (ST I-II, Q. 1, Art. 5). We are often torn between two things, but we can only seek one thing as an ultimate end by the very definition of "ultimate end": "The ultimate end, then, must so entirely satisfy man’s desire that there is nothing left for him to desire. It cannot be his ultimate end if something additional is required for his fulfillment" (ibid.)
Thus, if watching the Super Bowl is considered an ultimate end, you would not have any desire to go fishing, nor would you have any remorse if you chose not to. The reverse is also true. If there is any desire to do both, neither is considered an ultimate end.
Explanation of The 60-Second Aquinas Lesson
