THE LEGITIMATE CAUSES OF VIOLENCE IN THOMAS AQUINAS'POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY (original) (raw)
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3rd Symposium Thomisticum, Athens, Greece, June 6-9, 2108., 2018
In this paper I have presented the political thoughts of three prominent thinkers, St. Augus- tine, al-Farabi and St. Thomas Aquinas, who span a period from late Antiquity to the High Middle Ages. A close reading of their statements concerning the origin, the nature and the administration of the state reveals that all three authors regard human sociality and the ne- cessity of its organization in political entities not as a direct outflow of human nature or as the result of a direct divine command, but as a result of human rationality, including the human ability to recognize that man as a material and finite being has needs that are met only by cooperation. In contrast, however, to the rationalist political theories of classical Antiquity, laid down in the work of Plato, Aristotle and Cicero, all three authors presented here consider human sociality and political organization not only as the best way to achieve a good mundane life, but also as a constitutive part of the virtue of the faithful man. All three agree that the state is not only an instrument for the protection of the citizen from external and internal foes and a framework in which individuals can attain their personal happiness, but that the state is the natural environment for establishing the divine justice and the right form of worshipping the true God.
THE SERVIENT CHARACTER OF POLITICAL POWER ACCORDING TO ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
Studia Gilsoniana, 2014
● Source: Pawel Tarasiewicz, “The Servient Character of Political Power According to St. Thomas Aquinas,” Studia Gilsoniana 3 (2014): 399-413 [ISSN 2300-0066] ● Summary: The author attempts to justify the thesis of the servient character of political power. By his analyses, he arrives at two conclusions. First, the ultimate goal of service fulfilled by political power should be identical with the natural goal of every human being, meaning a life of virtue. Hence, service to the cause of the citizens’ virtue requires that the fundamental duties of power include the protection of public peace, the promotion of actions towards the common good, and striving for a common abundance of worldly possessions. Second, to elect those in political power it is necessary to make sure that aspirants to such are characterized by the appropriate level of virtuous development. Each candidate should be first and foremost a person possessing a high moral quality (virtus boni viri), where prudence and magnanimity appear to be virtues especially fitting power (virtutes boni principis). ● Keywords: Political Philosophy; Political Parties; Government; Leadership; Virtue Ethics; Politics; Elections; Common Good; Human nature; Civic Virtue; Virtue; Morality; Prudence; Political Power; Body politics; Magnanimity; Public Peace and Unity; National government; Life of virtue.
Aquinas's worldview and his applicability in the political writings of the XIV century
Revista Coletânea, 2024
In this paper we shall begin by analyzing Thomas Aquinas' worldview, which was based in an architecture of the universe in which God ruled supreme over it and in which, everything had been neatly established by his might. Then, we shall see how this conception was used by different political authors of the XIV century to defend different ideals of goodgovernment and of the relationship between the church and royal power. Hence, this paper aims at showing how they used his concepts of God as a governor of the world as well as his idea of an eternal law in different fashion, to defend either the papalist view or the anti-papalist one. In order to do it we shall be looking at the works of John of Paris On Royal and Papal Power and also, of Alvarez Pelayo, The State and the Weeping of the Church. In addition, we shall see how both of them used the idea of efficient cause presented, by Thomas Aquinas, as one of the main causes to prove the existence of God, to defend their position. Thus, it will be shown how the legacy of the heavenly doctor could be used in different ways by XIV century thinkers and will be drawn attention to both the richness and diversity of the world of political thought in the later Middle Ages.
Expanded Notes on Aquinas & Politics
These teaching notes consist of a much-expanded summary and analysis of Thomas Aquinas' comments on justice, law, and politics. They aim to facilitate a discussion of how the various pieces of the Thomist theory of politics fit together. The occasion for preparing this package of notes was a directed reading course on medieval political theory. The rationale for the course is that we should attempt to grasp the foundations of political theory in the Middle Ages if we want to properly understand the reconfiguration of political theory in the early modern period.
Socialscientia Journal of the Social Sciences and Humanities, 2018
This paper examines the political thought and ideas which flourished in Western Europe during the medieval era, otherwise known as the European Middle Ages. The major objective of the paper is to compare and contrast the thought-contents of Augustine and Aquinas, whose contributions to the world of philosophical thought-especially in an era of mounting religious zeal marked by massive strife and tension and mutual distrust in the understanding of what really constituted the doctrines of faith and the role of the state-form a major canon in the development and understanding of Western philosophical tradition of the time. The focus here is to reveal areas of agreement and possible nuances as regards the notions of state, justice and order in the political thought of the two great thinkers, and to identify the early and later impulses which gave rise to their respective bodies of thought. The theory of justice is the choice of theoretical framework for the paper. Data gathering was from secondary sources and data analysis largely historical and based on coherent and logical reasoning and textual analysis of works on the subject of study. The paper arrived at the conclusion that although Augustine and Aquinas hold different notions with respect to state, justice and order, they both agree that the state exists to provide some form of justice and order.
Political Philosophy and Human Nature in Thomas Aquinas
Studia Gilsoniana 9:3, 2020
Taking into account and responding to two sets of objections to Thomas Aquinas’ credentials as political philosopher, the essay examines his political philosophy, its presupposed understanding of human nature, and its portrayal in his philosophy of law. Analysing the defining features of law in Aquinas places before the reader features of human nature, namely, rationality, relationality and religiosity. These traits enable one to find responses to what Charles Taylor has identified as “three malaises” of contemporary society and culture, namely, individualism, instrumental reason, and the political consequences of both.
Ancient and Medieval Political Theory (doctoral-level syllabus)
This course introduces some of the most influential texts and themes in Western political thought, from the ancient Greeks through Aquinas. We examine questions like: What is the good life? What is justice? What are the advantages of and problems with democracy? What is the best political regime? This course does not merely aim to impart historical information, but to prompt critical engagement with some of the central texts of the Western philosophical tradition. Students are therefore expected to explore and develop their own considered responses to the ideas and arguments encountered in the readings.
Aquinas in the History of Poltical Ideas: Limits of Human Laws
2014
Thomas Aquinas' political studies begin and end in places that are different from those we moderns are used to. First, the program of “realistic” politics is so ingrained in us that we think the idea that “moral philosophy” should serve as the starting point for political inquiry is generally dismissed as naive. Second, because modern politics entails the separation of "religion" and "state", the study of politics is a discipline conducted without reference to theology. This view of ours was completely foreign to Aquinas. Aquinas is usually presented as a kind of “Christian disciple” of Aristotle: the concepts he uses, the questions he debates, the solutions he suggests, etc. are in constant reference to – and in dialogue with – Aristotle. To claim this does not mean, of course, that the relationship between Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas is one of pure continuity: it is consensual – and even almost a truism – that such a relationship involves important discontinuities, which are reflected not only in the different political proposals to which they lead, but also in the “resistance” that Aristotle’s philosophy had to overcome in medieval universities, given the evident differences between “The” Pagan Philosopher and Christianity. In addition to the problem of reconciling Greek “ethical” and “political” ideas with biblical ideas, Aquinas' inquiries are marked by another order of tension: the tension between “reason” and “faith”. Such tension arises, above all, from the “canonical” interpretation of Aristotle that came from medieval philosophers, mainly Muslims and Jews, who maintained the incompatibility between the truths of reason and faith: either the world was eternal, or it had its beginning in Creation ex nihilo; either the highest virtue was magnanimity, or it was humility. Aristotle's “immovable mover” is not the providential Christian God who sees into men's hearts. It was necessary to choose between the humble blind obedience of Faith to what Reason cannot prove (and sometimes cannot even reveal), and the arguments of philosophy and science that rule out all non-rational truths. This was the prevailing feeling. Faced with this tension, the solution of many medieval disciples of Aristotle was to defend that there were “two truths”, one spiritual and mystical, and the other rational, which corresponded to two irreconcilable attitudes. But Aristotle himself was only indirectly known in the West until Aquinas decided to commission William of Moerbeke to translate the text into Latin from the best Greek versions preserved in the Muslim world. The essential problem with which Aquinas struggled was to understand whether – and to what extent – the teachings of Aristotelian philosophy were really incompatible with faith and should purely and simply be rejected as heretical, as most of the professors in Paris, who were disciples of Augustine, maintained; but also whether the elucidation of his own faith could benefit from the language and arguments of “The Philosopher”, which is what Aristotle was referred to as. The favorable response to Aristotle – the “optimism” of Thomas Aquinas regarding trust in reason – which animates his philosophical and theological inquiry is reflected in his views on politics and ethics. Instead of there being incompatibility, reason is for him a kind of “ladder” that approaches the truths revealed by God and allows us to verify the truth of the teachings of faith. So what distinguishes Aquinas's and Aristotle's investigations is something deeper than the clash of different theories. Indeed, in Aristotle the problem of the articulation between “ethics” and “politics” does not arise, since both are part of the same inquiry. For Aristotle, the full realization of the human being takes place in the polis (and what is good, just, etc. is not, at all, separable from the political sphere), while for Aquinas there is an essential difference (but not separation or incompatibility) between moral life and specifically political phenomena, which is rooted in the biblical injunction to "give to God what is God's and to Caesar what is Caesar's". So that the good of the human being and its fulfillment are no longer inseparably linked to the “political community”, in the classic sense of the term, but point towards transcendence and find in God their true source (in life ordered according to God). Such a distinction does not mean that there is no relationship between ethical and political life and “religious” life; it means that, contrary to what we think today, politics does not have complete autonomy and cannot fail to be thought of with reference to morality and theology (or at least rational theology), which are rightly called to play a central role. The paradoxical result of this view is the relative freedom of rational inquiry from theology, and of political government from faith and morality, which will henceforth define the west, and which is due mainly to the works of Thomas Aquinas. This is in great contrast to the profound distrust in reason that continued for centuries to mark eastern cultures.
La crísis del paradigma político medieval. Una reflexión sobre el debate de la teología política
1998
The paper deals with the crisis of the medieval political paradigm as broken up in two different moments. The first, exemplified by the inner critique of William of Ockham, namely a theological revision of the Christian political theology in the fourteenth century, attempting to recover a secular basis for the theological doctrine. The second, advanced by Martin Luther and the Reformation movement two centuries later, that opposed the very legitimacy of a Christian politics and justified no conciliation at all between the canonical theology and secular politics.