In his Long commentary on Aristotle’s De Anima, Ibn Rushd apparently playing the role of a mere interpreter, on the problem of » beatitude «takes
the position that, as St. Thomas puts it : man’ s ultimate happiness is deemed to be in this life, for the reason that he knows separate substanccs’.1Tbis citation is made by St. Thomas from Ibn Rushd’s De Anima, III, Comm. 36 (VI 175ff.)
But, St. Thomas on the other hand, categorically denies the point of this interpretation and takes his own stand that »man’s ultimate happiness does not consist in that knowledge of God whereby He is known by all or many in a vague kind àf opinion.., it is impossible for man’s happiness to be in this life.«
He disagrees with Ibn Rushd in: (a) that Aristotle has ever stated the point that the perfect happiness is to be obtained in this life; (b) that the perfect happiness is to understand the separate substances. As to the first statement St. Thomas argues
But as Aristotle realized that man has no knowledge in this life other than that which he obtains through the speculative sciences, he maintained that man attains to a happiness which is not perfect but a human one
And as to the second, he devoted the whole chapter XLIV to his claim that:
Man’s ultimate happiness does not consist in the knowledge of separate
substances imagined by the aforesaid opinions.
Accordingly, St. Thomas believes that these opinions fall short of being an authentic commentary on Aristotle. Thus, he concludes:
Clearly, therefore, the opinion of Aristotle was that the ultimate happiness, which man is able to obtain in this life, is that knowledge of divine things which can be acquired through the speculative sciences. But that other way of knowing divine things, not through the speculative sciences, but by a kind of natural process of generation, was invented by some of his commentators.
However, the main task that this paper has under taken is to examine this claim of St. Thomas that Ibn Rushd’ s idea of » beatitude« is his own invention and not an interpretation of Aristotlian doctrine of beatitude as Ibn Rushd originally planned it to be.
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