the highest good
“summum bonum”
idea · 2 works · 7 mentions · 15 anchored passages
the end of goods · summum bonum · the uttermost good · highest good · telos · the ends of goods · the happy life · the uttermost · the uttermost of goods · the uttermost of goods and evils
spoken of as
1 expressionHighest good“summum bonum / telos”2 mentions
On Moral Ends (Latin)
So, if the happy life is discerned by honourableness, then what is honourable must be held the only good.
in the texts
On Moral Ends
The central ethical concept of the dialogue: the ultimate good or end toward which human life should be directed, whose correct definition is disputed between the Stoics and their predecessors.
And what is the office, what the work of wisdom?
But how is it the best, if there is no other good besides?
But the goods of the body are more like to this, which I put last.
Letters to Lucilius
The single guiding end of life, equated with the honorable, from which all particular decisions should be derived.
Our counsels go astray because they have nothing toward which to be directed.
As often as you wish to know what is to be shunned or what to be sought, look to the highest good, the purpose of your whole life.
As we often look for those with whom we are standing, so for the most part we are ignorant of the end of the highest good though it is set close beside us.