Aquinas, Aristotle, and the Promise of the Common Good

by Mary M. Keys

Aquinas, Aristotle, and the Promise of the Common Good claims that contemporary theory and practice have much to gain from engaging Aquinas s normative concept of the common good and his way of reconciling religion, philosophy, and politics. Examining the relationship between personal and common goods, and the relation of virtue and law to both, Mary M. Keys shows why Aquinas should be read in addition to Aristotle on these perennial questions. She focuses on Aquinas's Commentaries as mediating statements between Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and Politics and Aquinas's own Summa Theologiae, showing how this serves as the missing link for grasping Aquinas's understanding of Aristotle's thought in relation to Aquinas's own considered views. Keys argues provocatively that Aquinas's Christian faith opens up new panoramas and possibilities for philosophical inquiry and insights into ethics and politics. Her book shows how religious faith can assist sound philosophical inquiry into the foundation and proper purposes of society and politics.

Genres: Philosophy

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Steve]

This is an extended discussion of Aquinas on the “common good” especially in elation to Aristotle. Keys draws out the way that Aquinas not only builds on Aristotle , but takes new directions in the light of his Christian theological perspective.

In Aquinas’s short treatise on kingship it is clear that the “common good” is the measure of a good king, in his pursuit of peace and good order.

1. Aquinas sees a common human nature as the ground of the common good.
2. Aquinas operates from a discovery of what is the end of human relations. Virtue is an end in itself but also the means to society.
3. The family, “ the order of generation” is a foundation of society . But the family household is not self sufficient. Therefore political society is necessary. The family horizon is too narrow.
4. Political virtue. Aquinas’s claim is that Christian order enables rulers to respect the skills of their subjects. This inculcated the ethos of service. Ministering yo people was not beneath them.
5. Natural Law. The perfection of grace and the city of God. The natural inclination to know the truth. .
6. Natural sociability means that our actions have communal importance. If he boy rescues a child from the town pond, the town is grateful.
7. Magnanimity is the basis for Aquinas of common good.
Whereas indebtedness is a problem for Aristotle, for Aquinas it is not. Gratitude and humility can be unhindered virtues, with no lack.
8. The free goodness of God in creation is the basis for magnanimity.
9. The end of legal justice is the common good.
10. Aquinas overcomes individualism without sacrificing The individual .
11. Law is founded in reason toward the common good.
And generosity and friendship are underpinnings of he common good.
12. The god is geared to the grace of God in Christ.