Insofar as we see that a particular activity or apparent good undermines human flourishing, we conclude that such an activity or apparent good is something bad and so should not be sought, but rather avoided. q. However, morally virtuous activity is also intentional and deliberate. For example, consider the manner in which we use the word good. We sometimes speak of good dogs, and sometimes we say things such as Doug is a good man. The meanings of good in these two locutions obviously differ one from another since in the first sense no moral commendation is implied where there is moral commendation implied in the latter. For example, some quantity of prime matter m might be configured by the substantial form of an insect at t, be configured by the substantial forms of a collection of living cells at t+1 (for example, some moments after the insect has been eaten by a frog), be configured by the substantial forms of a collection of chemical compounds at t+2, and be incorporated into the body of a frog as an integral part of the frog such that it is configured by the frogs substantial form at t+3. Of course, this is still to speak about actions that conduce to happiness in very abstract terms. (1932; reprint, Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2004). Recall the definition of lawit says nothing about curbing appetites or protecting the innocent. 1 and 2). 13, a. q. The principle of causality is a piece of common sense that arguably also plays a pivotal role in all scientific inquiry. Such laws Thomas calls, human laws. Within his large body of work, Thomas treats most of the major sub-disciplines of philosophy, including logic, philosophy of nature, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophical psychology, philosophy of mind, philosophical theology, the philosophy of language, ethics, and political philosophy. Of course, most peopleunless they are doing theology or philosophywill not make such principles of practical action explicit. Within the confines of a household, for example, parents have the authority to make laws, that is, rational commands that morally obligate those to whom the laws are addressed. 54). Thus, according to Thomas, there are, in reality, two mutually reinforcing stories to tell about those human actions that lead to happiness. For example, Joe comes to know the quiddity of mammality and animality through the first act of intellect and judges (correctly) that all mammals are animals by way of the second act of understanding. Where the meanings of being are concerned, Thomas also recognizes the distinction between being in the sense of the essentia (essence or nature or form) or quod est (what-it-is) of a thing on the one hand and being in the sense of the esse or actus essendi or quo est (that-by-which-it-is) of a thing on the other hand (see, for example, SCG II, ch. Therefore, the best form of government is a limited kingship or limited democracy. In fact, Thomas argues that three awkward consequences would follow if God required that all human beings need to apprehend the preambles to the faith by way of philosophical argumentation. Before leaving the subject of the ultimate end of human action, we should note two other respects in which Thomas thinks the expression ultimate end (or happiness) is ambiguous. There is another way to think about natural law in the context of politics that is commensurate with what was said above. Most powerful of all, according to Thomas, the Catholic faith spread throughout the world in the midst of great persecutions. Moral knowledge of other sorts is built on the back of having the virtue of understanding with respect to moral action. q. Thomas takes this to be a miracle that provides confirmation of the truth of the Catholic faith the apostles preached. Although the disputed questions can be regarded as Thomas most detailed treatments of a subject, he sometimes changed his mind about issues over the course of his writing career, and the disputed questions do not necessarily represent his last word on a given subject. Unlike the moral virtues, which automatically confer the right use of a habit, intellectual virtues merely confer an aptness to do something excellently (ST IaIIae. 3. 1, a. For a complete list of Thomas works, see Torrell 2005, Stump 2003, or Kretzmann and Stump 1998. 33, a. (G1) A form of government where all take some part in the government is, all other things being equal, the best form of government. 2). 11:30 - 12:30 Group 3 Watin, Veverly Eve D. Labao, Mitchy Day, Daylene Cabanda, Mekylah Lianne Lyka Suico, Mary Joy Tape, Remarc Saint Augustine of Hippo (Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis) The first truly great medieval philosopher Biography: Name: Saint Augustine of Hippo, (Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis) Doctor of the Church, Bishop, Philosopher, Theologian Born:13 . In order for ones temperance, for example, to be effective, one needs not only to have a habit of desiring food, drink, and sex in a manner consistent with right reason, but one needs to decide how to use that power in a particular situation. Where being is concerned, Thomas also distinguishes between beings in nature and intentional beings or beings of reason (see, for example, Commentary on Aristotles Metaphysics IV, lec. In fact, assuming Adam and Eve and their progeny chose not to sin, the state of innocence could have been perpetual or could have lasted until God translated the whole human race into heaven (see, for example, ST Ia. This means that, in the state of innocence, human beings would seek not just their own good but the common good of the society of which those individuals are a part. When he is sleeping, although Socrates is in first act with respect to the power to philosophize, he is not in second act with respect to that power (although he is in potency to the second act of philosophizing). For example, the movements of a plant do not meet the necessary condition of being voluntary, according to Thomas. In speaking of act and potency in the angels, Thomas does not speak in terms of form and matter, since for Thomas matter as a principle of potentiality is always associated with an individual thing existing in three dimensions. These particular practical applications of the natural law, as long as they meet the conditions of law, have the force of law. Thomas thinks that the intellect has what he calls a passive power since human beings come to know things they did not know previously (see, for example, ST Ia. Thomas was ordered by his superiors to return to the University of Paris in 1268, perhaps to defend the mendicant way of life of the Dominicans and their presence at the university. In 1879, Pope Leo XIII published the encyclical Aeterni Patris, which, among other things, holds up Thomas as the supreme model of the Christian philosopher. Whereas the article in ST that treats this question fields four objections, the corresponding article in Thomas Disputed Questions on the Power of God fields 18 objections. q. Canonized in 1323, Thomas was later proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope St. Pius V in 1567. As Thomas notes, the denial that God the Creator has parts shows how much God is unlike those things God creates, for all the things with which we are most familiar are composed of parts of various kinds. In a case of complete or uncontrolled equivocation, we predicate of two things (x and y) one and the same name n, where n has one meaning when predicated of x and n has a completely different meaning when predicated of y. English usage of the word bank is a good example of complete or uncontrolled equivocation; here the use of the same name is totally an accident of language. In addition, things that jump and swim must be composed of certain sorts of stuffs and certain sorts of organs. Souls are therefore substantial forms that enable plants and animals to do what all living things do: move, nourish, and reproduce themselves, things non-living substances cannot do. If being can only refer to what exists in act, then there can be no change. Finally, the virtue of charity creates a union of friendship between the soul of its possessor and Goda union that is not natural to human beings but requires that God raise up the nature of its possessor to God. q. This is called the problem of self-opacity, and were not the only ones to puzzle over it: It was also of great interest to the medieval thinker Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), whose theory of self-knowledge is documented in my new book Aquinas on Human Self-Knowledge. For the same kinds of reasons, it follows, according to Thomas, that all of the human cardinal virtues come with one another. 13), knowledgeable (q. For our purposes, consider fideism to be the view that states that faith is the only way to apprehend truths about God. Jean Oesterle (Notre Dame, IN: The University of Notre Dame Press, 1995). 94, a. Wisdom is the intellectual virtue that involves the ability to think truly about the highest causes, for example, God and other matters treated in metaphysics. The richness and originality of Thomas Aquinas' theory of self-knowledge has been underappreciated no less by his admirers than his critics. Before saying more about human virtue, which is our focus here, it will be good to say a few things about infused virtue since this is an important topic for Thomas, and Thomas views on infused virtue are historically very important. To give Thomas example, if one does not know a whole is greater than one of its partsknowledge of which is a function of having the intellectual virtue of understandingthen one will not be able to possess the science of geometry. However, for Thomas, Joe cannot be prudent if he is not also temperate, courageous, and just. As part of his philosophical studies at Naples, Thomas was reading in translation the newly discovered writings of Aristotle, perhaps introduced to him by Peter of Ireland. Sometimes Thomas examines various possible positions on the question at hand, showing why some are untenable whereas others are defensible. 8). q. The most up-to-date, scholarly, book-length treatment of Thomas life and works. The resulting quiddity is received in the possible intellect. For Thomas, the final cause is the cause of all causes (On the Principles of Nature, ch. For our purposes, let us focus on three pieces of negative theology in Thomas natural theology: that God is not composed of parts; that God is not changeable; that God does not exist in time. As for the reminiscitive power, it enables its possessor to remember cognitions produced by the cogitative power. Although x can be the efficient cause of itself in one respect, for example, an organism is an efficient cause of its own continued existence insofar as it nourishes itself, it cannot be the efficient cause of itself in every respect. Nonetheless, like art and the other sciences, one can possess the virtue of wisdom without possessing prudence and the other moral virtues. Although early in his career he seems to sanction tyrannicide (In Sent. Aquinas claims that a virtuous person is morally upright because natural law leads him to be morally upright. Therefore, there would have been some human beings in authority over other human beings in the state of innocence. UNDERSTANDING THE SELF. Perhaps the most obvious sense of matter is what garden-variety objects and their garden-variety parts are made of. Forced to face oneself for the first time without these protective labels, one can feel as though the ground has been suddenly cut out from under ones feet: Who am I, really? Finally, Thomas thinks kingship ideally should be limited in that the community has a right to depose or restrict the power of the king if he becomes a tyrant (De regno I, ch. First, very few people would come to know truths about God and, since human flourishing requires certain knowledge of God, God wants to be known by as many people as possible. In addition to his theological syntheses, Thomas composed numerous commentaries on the works of Aristotle and other neo-Platonic philosophers. 32, a. SCG is thus Thomas longest and most ambitious attempt at doing what he is probably most famous forarguing philosophically for various theses concerning the existence of God, the nature of God, and the nature of creatures insofar as they are creatures of God. Philosophy is a discipline we rightly come to only after we have gained some confidence in other disciplines such as arithmetic, grammar, and logic. First of all, matter always exists under dimensions, and so this prime matter (rather than that prime matter) is configured by the accidental form of quantity, and more specifically, the accidental quantity of existing in three dimensions (see, for example, Commentary on Boethius De trinitate q. By contrast, the object of the irascible power is sensible good and evil insofar as such good/evil is difficult to acquire/avoid. One thing Thomas says is that some non-Catholic religious traditions ask us to believe things that are contrary to what we can know by natural reason. Oftentimes the authority Thomas cites is a passage from the Old or New Testament; otherwise, it is some authoritative interpreter of Scripture or science such as St. Augustine or Aristotle, respectively. Where talk of Thomas philosophy is concerned, there is a final literary genus worth mentioning, the so-called disputed question. As Aristotle states in Politics ii, 6, a form of government where all take some part in the government ensures peace among the people, commends itself to all, and is most enduring. 78, a. For Aquinas, we dont encounter ourselves as isolated minds or selves, but rather always as agents interacting with our environment. THE SELF from Various Philosophical Perspectives. 3). Virtue ethicists have traditionally been interested in defending a position on the logical relations between the human virtues. Indeed, theology professors at the University of Paris in Thomas time were known as Masters of the Sacred Page. 90, a. 4-5; q. As Thomas notes, this is why the estimative and memorative powers have been given special names by philosophers: the estimative power in human beings is called the cogitative power and the memorative power is called the reminiscitive power. In comparison to charity, faith and hope are imperfect infused virtues, since, unlike charity, faith and hope connote the lack of complete possession of God (see, for example, ST IaIIae. Thomas speaks of at least two different kinds of infused virtue. q. "Love must precede hatred, and nothing is hated save through being contrary to a suitable thing which is loved. If John merely suggests a course of action A to Mike, or Mike asks John what to do about some moral decision D, and Mike merely offers counsel to John about what to do where D is concerned, all other things being equal, John is not morally obligated to perform A or follow Johns advice where D is concerned, even if John is related to Mike as Johns moral or political superior. A History of Philosophy; Volume, London,1946, . Thomas mentions the following sort of reason: those in the state of innocence had free choice of the will. St. Thomas Aquinas was a 13th-century Italian priest, theologian and philosopher, whose writing shaped the basis for modern Catholic thought. q. 75, a. 7), ontologically separate from finite being (q. As Thomas states (see, for example, ST Ia. One way Thomas speaks about God being the measure of morally good acts is by using the language of law. According to Thomas, there are two powers of the intellect, powers Thomas calls the active intellect and the passive intellect, respectively. Another distinction Thomas makes where being is concerned is the distinction between being in act and being in potency. However, anything that sees, hears, touches, tastes, and smells is clearly also a bodily substance. 22, aa. However, despite all of this, Thomas does not think that bodily pleasure is something evil by definition, and this for two reasons. 4, sec. Our assessments, publications and research spread knowledge, spark enquiry and aid understanding around the world. Thus, unlike material substantial forms, human souls only come to exist by way of a special act of creation on the part of God (see, for example, SCG II, ch. In the view of Aquinas, philosophy is a science, which, unlike other sciences, receives its principles via God's revelation without borrowing principles or depending on the other sciences. One place where we can see clearly that Thomas holds this position is in his discussion of what human life would have been like in the Garden of Eden had Adam and Eve (and their progeny) not fallen into sin. 1, respondeo. Eventually, Thomas mother relented and he returned to the Dominicans in the fall of 1245. 1; ST Ia. In fact, given his passions and lack of temperance, it seems to Joe that going to bed with Mikes wife will help him to flourish as an individual human being. (Thomas thinks this is true even of the person who is graced by the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity in this life; knowing the essence of God is possible for human beings, Thomas thinks, but it is reserved for the blessed in heaven, the intellects of whom have been given a special grace called the light of glory [see, for example, ST Ia. As Thomas puts it, this is to focus our attention on the use, possession, or attainment of happiness by the one who we are describing as (at least hypothetically) happy. q. For if we say only the latter, then we may fall into the trap of thinking that God is an abstract entity such as a number (which is false, as the ways of causality, negation, and excellence imply). However, God, the first uncaused cause, does not have Gods existence caused by another. Thomas therefore distinguishes three different ways words are used: univocally, equivocally (in a sense that is complete or uncontrolled), and analogously, that is, equivocally but in a manner that is controlled. Nonetheless, he is potentially philosophizing. However, his potency with respect to philosophizing is an active potency, for philosophizing is something one does; it is an activity. Thomas explains the point as follows: God creates the human soul such that it shares its existence with matter when a human being comes to exist (see, for example, SCG II, ch. Already in the thirteenth century, however, the medieval thinker Thomas Aquinas developed a sophisticated theory of self-knowledge, which Therese Scarpelli Cory presents as a project of reconciling the conflicting phenomena of self-opacity and privileged self-access.