His metaphysical jurisprudence remodels ethics upon this, rather than on a moral precept. Finally, law, unwritten, is infused spirit as. The ten essays in this collection approach the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas not merely as an object of scholarly interest but also as a framework for addressing perennial philosophical questions, even as they are raised and debated in our own times.
The f. This Element provides an account of Thomas Aquinas's moral philosophy that emphasizes the intrinsic connection between happiness and the human good, human virtue, and the precepts of practical reason.
Human beings by nature have an end to which they are directed and concerning which they do not deliberate, namely happiness. Download or read online Treatise on Law written by Saint Thomas Aquinas , published by Unknown which was released on When you buy books using these links the Internet Archive may earn a small commission. Open Library is a project of the Internet Archive , a c 3 non-profit.
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Need help? Thomas Aquinas on politics and ethics Thomas Aquinas. Donate this book to the Internet Archive library. If you own this book, you can mail it to our address below. If we deny this natural order of the will to the good in general and to certain goods of our human nature, human life will consist of a series of unrelated acts.
However, failing to submit the young to any discipline at all, is likely to prevent the formation of good habits and is tantamount to surrendering them to their more superficial tendencies and emotions. See S. Acts of the V. Actas del Congreso Internacional, Murcia, , pp. In their view, man is essentially a consciousness which happens to have a body. The body is opaque and must be considered a mere instrument.
Man uses it to reach the goals he has set for himself in total freedom in order to satisfy his desires. As we said before, some moral philosophers tend to disregard the biological facts of the human body and to give man free use of his powers, in particular in matters related to sexuality.
There is a certain difficulty here, noticed by Thomas himself. The answer is that man is a complex being: certain desires of his sensual being may detract from his self-government through reason. This means that his body and his bodily functions are human functions and that his sexuality is a human sexuality, which must remain under the control of reason and be respectful of the other person.
For Aquinas man is a being, specified by one substantial form, the human soul, so that the body is the expression of the soul, and even, in a certain sense, is the soul.
IV, c. By disrupting the unity of man, one throws overboard the basic inclinations of our being which are the basis of natural law and provide the principles of moral action. But for the rest of his actions man would be free to use his body any way he wants, provided he does not violate the rights of others.
In this line of thinking people claim an unlimited right to dispose of their own body and the human body in general, a claim that ranges from genetic manipulations and homosexual unions, to free sex, suicide and euthanasia. The right to life of unborn human embryos as well as that of terminally-ill people, is subordinate to the well-being or convenience of those who engendered them or surround them. The thesis that the dynamism of our nature cannot serve as a reference for our actions is wrong.
The intellect knows that the end of man is his own good, and is able to discern that which agrees with it, and that which does not. See MSGR. However, our survey would not be complete without some examples of how profoundly humane this moral theory is in its applications, while it nevertheless upholds the highest ends for man, as well as the ideal of sanctity.
A first point is his appreciation of the passions and emotions. While an author such as Cicero considered the passions as weak spots or diseases of the human psyche,67 Aquinas argues that nature has given them to us as a support and source of energy. As natural movements they possess an ontological goodness. They are morally neutral, as long as the will does not intervene and are good when reason controls them and associates them with the virtues.
Against the opinion of some authors who consider any form of pleasure to be bad, St. Thomas defends the goodness of certain forms of pleasure: when the appetite rests in a good, in conformance with reason, one experiences a pleasure which is morally good.
If an act as such is good, resulting from a right choice of the will, the pleasure which accompanies it is also good. This doctrine witnesses to St. It is allowable to demand a compensation for services rendered and for not being able to dispose meanwhile oneself of what one has lent to others. Tusculanae disputationes, II, c. He who lends money to others so that they may conduct business is entitled to demand a share in the profit.
The body and the soul need some rest, even after intellectual work. One finds relaxation in sport and in games, but these should be adapted to the person, age and occupation in question.
He describes the effects of love. The possibility of unselfish love, doubted by many, is vigorously defended as based on the fact that the will first moves to the good as such: it seeks the good before seeking its own pleasure. In this way pure love concerns the good of a person who is deserving of being loved.
Furthermore, Thomas laid down an ordo amoris, the order to be observed in our love of persons and things. Because of his social nature man must live together with others.
The ideal is to be together with friends: therefore, people should treat each other kindly and be ready to help and should rejoice in the virtuous acts of others. Friendship is part of that happiness that can be attained in this life. As to macro-morality, standards have become much stricter. People at large accept some responsibility for the preservation of rare species of plants and animals, as well as for the protection of our natural environment.
Human rights are better acknowledged and respected than in the past. However, in parallel with this progress there has been a considerable retrogression on the level of individual morality. A widespread subjectivism makes people forget the objective character of their moral obligations. Individual man with his desires and instincts makes himself the yardstick of what he can do. Institutions such as the family and the state are in crisis.
The plurality of opinions and the respect due to all of them makes people uncertain as to what is true. It is very difficult, if not impossible, in our pluralistic societies to reach a consensus on questions about moral life. Further causes are industrialization and the emancipation of women. People are now living in a world dominated by technology. The result is that the language of nature, which is also that of morals, is no longer understood.
The ethics of Aquinas has as its foundation human nature, and has been built with irrefutable arguments into a coherent whole. It purports to make us live according to what is best is us. Precisely because of its superior reasonableness, which takes the entire human person into account as a human individual and a member of society, it will be a decisive factor in guiding the moral life of people in the future.
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