Philosophy is simply a faithful representative and draughtsman, as it were, of being (anything else is sophistry, not philosophy). Being, in turn, is essentially ordered with a beginning, middle and end, that is, subsistence, intelligibility, and lovableness which give rise to virtue and its attendant happiness. So philosophy, after portraying ens as the beginning and middle, inevitably ends and comes to rest in the knowledge of virtue and happiness where ens as in its final perfection, comes to rest and achieves fulfilment.
Antonio Rosmini, About the Author's Studies, Rosmini House (Durham: 2004) p. 153.
