Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Lynch,MP/Glasgow,JM, Thomas Aquinas and G.A. Cohen

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4 ideas

22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 1. Nature of Ethics / g. Moral responsibility
1850 Without free will not only is ethical action meaningless, but also planning, commanding, praising and blaming [Aquinas]
     Full Idea: If we are not free to will in any way, but are compelled, everything that makes up ethics vanishes: pondering action, exhorting, commanding, punishing, praising, condemning.
     From: Thomas Aquinas (Quaestiones Disputatae de Malo [1271], Q6.reply)
     A reaction: If doesn't require some magical 'free will' to avoid compulsions. All that is needed is freedom to enact your own willing, rather than someone else's.
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / b. Rational ethics
22112 For humans good is accordance with reason, and bad is contrary to reason [Aquinas]
     Full Idea: A human being's good is existing in accordance with reason, while what is bad for a human being is whatever is contrary to reason.
     From: Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologicae [1265], Ia IIae.Q18.5c), quoted by Kretzmann/Stump - Aquinas, Thomas 13
     A reaction: For anyone who thought Kant invented the idea that morality derives from reason. This idea of Aquinas is a fairly precise echo of the stoic view (which influenced Kant). Is there a circularity? Is it irrational because bad, or bad because irrational?
22. Metaethics / B. Value / 1. Nature of Value / e. Means and ends
22494 We must know the end, know that it is the end, and know how to attain it [Aquinas]
     Full Idea: Perfect knowledge of the end consists in not only apprehending the thing which is the end but also knowing it under the aspect of the end and the relation of the means to that end.
     From: Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologicae [1265], II-I.Q132), quoted by Philippa Foot - Natural Goodness 4
     A reaction: We don't talk much now about 'perfect' knowledge of something, but I suppose this is the necessary and sufficient conditions. If you complete the checklist, your knowledge should be perfect (if the list is right).
22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 1. Goodness / g. Consequentialism
1851 Good applies to goals, just as truth applies to ideas in the mind [Aquinas]
     Full Idea: Good applies to all goals, just as truth applies to all forms mind takes in.
     From: Thomas Aquinas (Quaestiones Disputatae de Malo [1271], Q6.reply)
     A reaction: In danger of being tautological, if good is understood as no more than the goal of actions. It seems perfectly possibly to pursue a wicked end, and perhaps feel guilty about it.