Medieval Philosophy

by Peter S. Adamson

get you somewhere, but not to your ultimate destination. In the journey of life, that destination is God, and it is the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity that enable us to order our choices to that most final of ends. A higher virtue like charity does not supplant natural virtue. It rather perfects the limited virtues we can acquire through our natural resources.12 What could Aquinas say to a pagan, or atheist, who says they are happy to settle for a life of natural virtue? Simply that they cannot hope to be truly happy that way. We are born with not only a disposition to acquire earthly virtue but also a natural yearning that can be satisfied fully only by the supreme good which is God. Like the airport shuttle, human nature points beyond itself, having the built-in resources to pursue and attain limited good, but also the purpose and desire for unlimited good. It’s no good objecting that we can know God even in this life, so that a taste of the supernatural is already available to us in the here and now. Remember, all our knowledge is grounded in sensation, and on that basis we can only reason to the existence of God, not to an understanding of what He is in His essence (ST 1.2 Q3 a6, a8). This may still seem to paint a rather rosy picture of naturally acquired morality. Aquinas doesn’t seem to be coming anywhere close to Augustine’s condemnation of pagan courage and justice as “false virtue.” Yet Aquinas would add a more damning point of his own: on Aristo...