Concept
Summum bonum
Overview
Summum bonum is a Latin expression meaning the highest or ultimate good, which was introduced by the Roman philosopher Cicero to denote the fundamental principle on which some system of ethics is based—that is, the aim of actions, which, if consistently pursued, will lead to the best possible life. Since Cicero, the expression has acquired a secondary meaning as the essence or ultimate metaphysical principle of Goodness itself, or what Plato called the Form of the Good. These two meanings do not necessarily coincide. For example, Epicurean and Cyrenaic philosophers claimed that the 'good life' consistently aimed for pleasure, without suggesting that pleasure constituted the meaning or essence of Goodness outside the ethical sphere. In De finibus, Cicero explains and compares the ethical systems of several schools of Greek philosophy, including Stoicism, Epicureanism, Aristotelianism and Platonism, based on how each defines the ethical summum bonum differently.
The term was used in medieval philosophy. In the Thomist synthesis of Aristotelianism and Christianity, the highest good is usually defined as the life of the righteous and/or the life led in communion with God and according to God's precepts. In Kantianism, it was used to describe the ultimate importance, the singular and overriding end which human beings ought to pursue.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Summum bonum is discussed.
Therefore, the summum bonum is possible in the world only on the supposition of a Supreme Being having a causality corresponding to moral character. Now a being that is capable of acting on the conception of laws is an intelligence (a rational being), and the causality of such a being according to this conception of laws is his will; therefore the supreme cause of nature, which must be presupposed as a condition of…
Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Practical Reason
names the idea; states what it is; author linked in the graph
Now, that which is called the final good is that at which, when one has arrived, he is blessed. But so diverse were the opinions held by those followers of Socrates concerning this final good, that (a thing scarcely to be credited with respect to the followers of one master) some placed the chief good in pleasure, as Aristippus, others in virtue, as Antisthenes. Indeed, it were tedious to recount the various…
of Hippo Augustine, The City of God, Volume I
states what it is; author linked in the graph
_I answer that,_ As regards relative things, we must admit extrinsic denomination; as, a thing is denominated "placed" from "place," and "measured" from "measure." But as regards absolute things opinions differ. Plato held the existence of separate ideas (Q. 84, A. 4) of all things, and that individuals were denominated by them as participating in the separate ideas; for instance, that Socrates is called man…
Aquinas Thomas, Summa Theologica, Part I
states what it is; author linked in the graph
Section III. The Discipline of Pure Reason in Hypothesis. Section IV. The Discipline of Pure Reason in Relation to Proofs. Section I. Of the Ultimate End of the Pure Use of Reason. Section II. Of the Ideal of the Summum Bonum as a Determining Ground of the Ultimate End of Pure Reason.
Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason
author linked in the graph; names the idea
At quibus optimum quiddam claritas uidetur, hi uel belli uel pacis artibus gloriosum nomen propagare festinant. Plurimi uero boni fructum gaudio laetitiaque metiuntur; hi felicissimum putant uoluptate diffluere. Sunt etiam qui horum fines causasque alterutro permutent, ut qui diuitias ob potentiam uoluptatesque desiderant uel qui potentiam seu pecuniae causa seu proferendi nominis appetunt. In his igitur ceterisque…
Boethius, The Theological Tractates and The Consolation of Philosophy
names the idea
Philosophers who discussed Summum bonum
Related ideas
- G. E. Moore
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
- Immanuel Kant
- Republic (Plato)
- Latin
- Stoicism
- Clive Bell
- Augustine of Hippo
- Philo
- Categorical imperative
- Thomas Aquinas
- Platonism
- Old Testament
- Plato
- Neoplatonism
- Plutarch
- Virtue ethics
- Cyrenaics
- Medieval philosophy
- Aristotle
- Aristotelianism
- Form of the Good
- Utilitarianism
- Good
Place in the tradition
Part of Mīmāṃsā.