Thomas Aquinas—Love, Justice, and the Life of Virtue
This chapter examines Aquinas' application of the principles of superiority and identity to the human community. It notes that this application presents a complex combination of metaphysics and political thought. It explains that Aquinas' translation of a metaphysical analysis of the common good into political theory marks an attempt to accommodate the subordination of the individual good to the common good without making this subordination absolute and all-inclusive. Moreover, defined as the object of love and as the goal of virtue and justice in the human community, it stresses that Aquinas' theory of the common good has significant implications for some very concrete political questions. It identifies subjects such as correction, punishment, legislation, dispensation, taxation, obedience, resistance, and the exercise of political authority, which presuppose some kind of judgement being made on the relative weight which should be attached to the individual and the common good.
Keywords: Aquinas, superiority, human community, metaphysics, political thought, common good, love, virtue, justice, judgement
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