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8009
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Aquinas wanted, not to escape desire, but to transform it for moral ends [Aquinas, by MacIntyre]
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Full Idea:
The Aristotelianism of Thomas Aquinas (unlike St Augustine's Platonism) is not concerned with escaping from the snares of the world and of desire, but with transforming desire for moral ends.
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From:
report of Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologicae [1265]) by Alasdair MacIntyre - A Short History of Ethics Ch.9
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A reaction:
This is very close to Aristotle himself, for whom education of the feelings (into good habits, and then true virtues) was central. Education of feelings should be central to all education (though young psychopaths may show resistance).
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23182
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Legal justice is supreme, because it directs the other virtues to the common good [Aquinas]
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Full Idea:
There must be one supreme virtue essentially distinct from every other virtue, which directs all the virtues to the common good, and this virtue is legal justice.
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From:
Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologicae [1265], II-II Q58 6)
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A reaction:
This concept of legal justice is underpinned, for Aquinas, by the concept of natural law, which has divine backing. Positive law could hardly fulfil such a major role, given that it could be corrupt.
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23177
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Justice directs our relations with others, because it denotes a kind of equality [Aquinas]
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Full Idea:
It is proper to justice, as compared with the other virtues, to direct man in his relations with others, because it denotes a kind of equality, as its very name implies; indeed we are wont to say that things are 'adjusted' when they are made equal.
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From:
Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologicae [1265], II-II Q57 1)
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A reaction:
Even if you say justice is giving people what they deserve, rather than mere equality, they must still be equal in receiving like for like. Legal justice implies equality before the law (except for monarchs?).
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