Summum-bonum definition

so͝oməm bōnəm
The greatest or supreme good.
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(philosophy) The greatest good; the ultimate importance, the singular and most ultimate end which human beings ought to pursue.
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The highest, or supreme, good.
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Other Word Forms

Noun

Singular:
summum-bonum
Plural:
summa-bona

Origin of summum-bonum

  • Latin summum neuter of summus highest bonum good

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • From medieval philosophy; Latin for the highest good.

    From Wiktionary

Summum-bonum Sentence Examples

  • His views on the summum bonum are not clearly known even to his disciple and successor Clitomachus.

  • If, however, we abandon intuitional ethics, it is reasonable to argue that the term summum bonum ceases to have any real significance inasmuch as actions are not intrinsically good or bad, while the complete sceptic strives after no systematic ideal.

  • Aristotle, who speaks highly of the sincerity of Eudoxus's convictions, while giving a qualified approval to his arguments, considers him wrong in not distinguishing the different kinds of pleasure and in making pleasure the summum bonum.

  • The summum bonum is the maximum of pleasure with the minimum of pain.

  • Thus the summum bonum for man is objectively God, subjectively the happiness to be derived from loving vision of his perfections; although there is a lower kind of happiness to be realized here 1 Abelard afterwards retracted this view, at least in its extreme form; and in fact does not seem to have been fully conscious of the difference between (I) unfulfilled intention to do an act objectively right, and (2) intention to do what is merely believed by the agent to be right.

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