Thomistic Anthropology, Metaphysics, and Ethics
Thomistic Anthropology and Intellectual Knowledge
Fundamental Tenets of Thomistic Anthropology
- Thomas Aquinas affirms the immateriality of the intellect and, therefore, the soul. By virtue of its immateriality, the intellect understands the real being of its object, of all reality, without limitation.
- However, in humans, understanding is essentially attached to a natural body endowed with certain means of knowledge (the senses). This linkage of human understanding to the body is rooted in the substantial union of body and soul, defended by Aquinas based on Aristotle’s hylomorphic theory. Hence, the human mind is designed to understand sensitive material realities and not the real being of everything.
- This linkage of human understanding to a body endowed with organs of knowledge requires that intellectual knowledge begins with sense knowledge. Intellectual knowledge cannot be exercised without the participation of concepts developed from data supplied by sensitive perception.
The Structure of Reality: Ontology
The doctrine of creation highlights the radical difference between God and other contingent beings.
Regarding the contingency of created beings, Aquinas made a distinction between what things are (essence) and the fact of whether or not they exist (existence).
Aquinas did not merely note this conceptual distinction between essence and existence but used it as a cornerstone of his system.
Contingency and the Composition of Essence and Existence
Neoplatonists argued that the First Principle is characterized by its utter simplicity, while other beings are characterized by being composite. The Augustinian tradition stated that all realities, except God, are composed of matter and form.
Aquinas accepts the criterion of composition but not the Augustinian formula. What truly distinguishes created things is the composition of essence and existence.
The affirmation that created beings are composed of essence and existence fits perfectly with their contingent character. Their existence does not necessarily belong to their essence; therefore, they are composed of essence and existence. Only in a necessary being, God, are essence and existence identical—what is there and what it is.
Existence as “Act of Being”
This distinction is interpreted by Aquinas through the Aristotelian concepts of potency and act: the essence is potency, and existence is act, namely, the capacity to be actualized or the existence proper to the essence.
Existence is characterized as an act of the essence. Each essence corresponds to a particular type of existence. Thus, for a living being, there is life; for an animal, there is sensation; and for an intelligent being, there is understanding.
Existence, or the “act of being,” unfolds at levels of perfection, in degrees more or less perfect according to the essences that are actualized in each case. The act of being is more perfect in an intelligent being than in an animal, in an animal than in a plant, and in a plant than in a rock. Perfection depends on its essence, the power or capacity of its being. God’s being has no limitation and includes all possible perfections. God’s essence is God’s being and is, therefore, subsisting being itself.
Ethics and Politics
The Thomistic Concept of Human Nature
Accepting the Aristotelian view that happiness is the ultimate end of humankind, knowledge of human nature can specify a set of moral norms that constitute natural law.
The reflections of the Greeks reveal two fundamental ways of interpreting human nature:
- What actually moves human beings to act? What moves them is the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. This response, based on a mechanistic interpretation of nature, gives rise to an ethic of motives.
- Secondly, what is the purpose toward which human beings are oriented? This view was developed by Plato and Aristotle. It is not pleasure or pain that moves human beings to act but the direction of their development and fulfillment. This is an ethic of ends. Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle, adheres to this finalist, teleological view of nature.
Essence of Natural Law
Aquinas asserts that humans, like other natural beings, have certain tendencies rooted in their nature. These tendencies are lines of conduct aimed at a specific purpose.
Content of Natural Law
Properties of Natural Law
Natural law, in its content, is evident, universal, and unchanging. Its evidence stems from the fact that it should be the objective guide for the conduct of all human beings. Its tenets must be easily knowable so that all may know them. Its universality and immutability are understood as being common to all human beings despite cultural or racial differences and as remaining constant through changing historical, economic, and other circumstances to which humans are subject.
Natural Law and Positive Law
The relationship between natural law and positive law is systematic and precise.
- Positive law is a requirement of natural law. Natural law imposes life in society, and this is only possible with legal rules to regulate interaction. Positive law is, therefore, something demanded by the nature of humankind as social beings.
- Positive law is a cultural extension of natural law. Its content serves to clarify natural law rules that do not descend to a detailed planning of human coexistence.
- The demands of natural law must be respected by positive law. Natural law is, therefore, the standard or framework that sets the limits within which human society can be morally organized.
Aquinas does not conceive of the legal world and the moral world as two separate and unrelated realms. Law is rooted in morality, and the point of connection is the idea of justice. Indeed, justice—the requirement to give everyone their due—is a moral obligation and is also the foundation of law.
Natural Law and the Order of the Universe
Natural law, as the ordering principle of human conduct, is not disconnected from the general order of the universe in which humankind is embedded. The entire universe is subject to an order that Thomas Aquinas, following the Christian doctrine of creation, makes dependent on God as the creative cause of the universe. This divine order of the universe is called eternal law.
Eternal law is defined by Aquinas as the ratio of divine wisdom insofar as it guides all actions and movements. However, this general governance of the universe does not regulate human behavior in the same way as it does the behavior of other natural beings. Their behavior is governed by physical laws, compliance with which they cannot avoid, since they lack freedom. Humankind, by contrast, is free, so their behavior is not mandated by physical laws but by a moral law that respects their freedom. According to Aquinas, natural law is that part of eternal law that specifically refers to human behavior.