"The ultimate of human happiness is to be found in contemplation".
In offering this proposition of Thomas Aquinas to our thought, Josef
Pieper uses traditional wisdom in order to throw light on present-day
reality and present-day psychological problems. What, in fact, does one
pursue in pursuing happiness? What, in the consensus of the wisdom of
the early Greeks, of Plato and Aristotle, of the New Testament, of
Augustine and Aquinas, is that condition of perfect bliss toward which
all life and effort tend by nature?
In this profound and illuminating inquiry, Pieper considers the nature
of contemplation, and the meaning and goal of life.