 At the beginning of his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle remarked that “the good is that at which all things aim.” Each thing, therefore, aims at the good, according to the demands of its nature. In the Middle Ages, “Aristotelians” like Thomas Aquinas held that the good for human beings in particular is “happiness,” the enjoyment of the direct vision of God in the next life. And, whether they realize it or not, that is what all human beings are ultimately aiming at in their actions. For someone like Aquinas, therefore, the human will is “free” only in a certain restricted sense. We are not free to choose for or against our final end; that is built into us by nature. But we are free to choose various means to that end. All our choices, therefore, are made under the aspect of leading to that final goal. To be sure, sometimes we make the wrong choices, but when that occurs it is because of ignorance, distraction, self-deception, etc. In an important sense, then, someone like Aquinas accepts a version of the so called Socratic Paradox: No one knowingly and deliberately does  evil.[50]