EleutherIA — Defined term

Summum Bonum (Supreme Good)

summum bonum

Late Antiquity

In Boethius's Consolation III, the supreme Good is the unified and self-sufficient good sought through every partial good, and perfect happiness is participation in or attainment of that Good. Wealth, honour, power, fame, and pleasure fail when treated separately because none supplies the complete state that lacks nothing. In III.10 Boethius identifies perfect happiness and the highest Good with God. The argument belongs to a late antique Platonist context, but a specific derivation from Plotinus's One and a descent-return scheme requires separate evidence.

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