Thomas Aquinas: Understanding Knowledge, Ethics, and Society
Thomas Aquinas: Knowledge, Ethics, and Society
Thomas Aquinas on Knowledge
How do we understand particular concrete things? Aquinas explores the relationship between our senses, imagination, and intellect. He posits that:
- The senses grasp the sensible and concrete.
- The image is recorded in the imagination, which Aquinas calls the fantasma.
- The understanding agent (active intellect) abstracts and strips away the non-essential to create an especie inteligible impresa.
- The understanding liable (passive intellect) develops the universal concept.
- Conversion occurs when the understanding, having this universal concept, applies it to the concrete object.
In summary:
The senses perceive the particular object, creating an image (fantasma). This registers with the imagination. The intellect abstracts and universalizes the content for the passive understanding, which formulates the concept. The understanding then applies the universal concept to the individual.
Key Conclusions on Knowledge
- The object of human knowledge is being, the essence of things.
- How can we know God if we have no image of Him? Finite and contingent objects reveal God, allowing us to understand His existence through:
- Via negativa: Denying imperfections in God.
- Via eminentiae: Claiming all perfections in the highest degree.
Ethics
Aquinas bridges mechanistic and finalist conceptions of ethics, following the line begun by Plato and perfected by Aristotle.
Ideological Ethics
According to eudaimonistic ethics, acts are acts of man, stemming from free will, with the good as the object of the will.
Natural Ethics
- Tendency based on the natural law to preserve one’s own existence. Hence, the moral duty to preserve life.
- Tendency towards procreation: Moral duty of the couple and education of children.
- Tendency to know the truth and to live in society.
Universal Human Ethics
- Human nature is common to all men.
- Evident: The precepts of natural law must be readily known by all men.
- Immutable: Human nature remains ever the same.
Ethics Driven by Positive Law
Positive law is:
- Requirement: A requirement of natural law. Natural law imposes life in society, which is only possible by making legal rules.
- Extension: Positive law is an extension of natural law, specifying moral norms.
- Respect: Positive law must respect natural law. Natural law sets the boundary.
Transcendent Ethics
Human behavior is governed by conscience and virtue.
Politics and Society
Man seeks to fulfill his needs through cooperation with others. This necessitates a division of labor. Man communicates through language, signifying the birth of society.
Society as a Perfect Society
The State and Government constitute a perfect society, possessing the means necessary to achieve its own end: the common good of its citizens. Aquinas maintains that the individual is ordered to the whole, and since the individual is part of the state, the laws of the State should be ordered to the common good.