Chapter 33 — That human happiness is not seated in the senses

By the same arguments, it is evident that neither does man’s supreme good consist in goods of his sensitive faculty. For these goods again are common to man and other animals.

Again. Intellect is superior to sense. Therefore, the intellect’s good is better than the sense’s. Consequently, man’s supreme good is not seated in the senses.

Besides. The greatest sensual pleasures are those of food and of sex, in which the supreme good must be, if seated in the senses. But it does not consist in them. (Ch. 27.)^ ^Therefore, man’s supreme good is not in the senses.

Moreover. The senses are appreciated for their utility and for knowledge. Now the entire utility of the senses is referred to the goods of the body. Again, sensitive knowledge is directed to intellective. Hence animals devoid of intelligence take no pleasure in sensation except in reference to some bodily utility, insofar as by sensitive knowledge they obtain food or sexual intercourse. Therefore, man’s supreme good which is happiness is not seated in the sensitive faculty.