Fundamental aspects on the principle of finality in Saint Thomas Aquinas

Abstract

If we carefully observe reality, we will see that there is no effect without an end so that the subordination of all agents is carried out according to the ends for which they are arranged, since everything that is done is done in view of an end. However, rationalist, empiricist, and idealist materialism only accept that there is a useful or delightful good and rejects the honest good. By denying the finality in which the imperfect is subordinated to the perfect, not only is God excluded, but, once a person dies, there is nothing more than the decomposition of the body, transcendence being discarded. On the other hand, the denial of the principle of finality also affects the first practical principle, which is synderesis, with which the moral order is committed. That is the reason why we see it important to recover the thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas and some of its implications regarding the principle of finality, since, by presenting the universality, evidence, and importance of the principle of finality, Saint Thomas demonstrates the openness of man to transcendence and the moral order that is required to achieve it.