Imprudence in Saint Thomas Aquinas (Aquinas Lecture 20)

176 Pages·1955·0.48 MB·English

by  Charles J. O'Neil

Imprudence in St. Thomas Aquinas Aquinas
title:
Lecture ; 1955
author: O'Neil, Charles J.
publisher: Marquette University Press
isbn10 | asin: 0874621208
print isbn13: 9780874621204
ebook isbn13: 9780585306346
language: English
subject Thomas,--Aquinas, Saint,--1225?-1274.
publication date: 1955
lcc: B765.T54.O54 1955eb
ddc: 189.4
subject: Thomas,--Aquinas, Saint,--1225?-1274.
Page i
The Aquinas Lecture, 1955
Imprudence in St. Thomas Aquinas
Under the Auspices of the Aristotelian Society of
Marquette University
By Charles J. O'Neil, Ph.D.
MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY PRESS
MILWAUKEE
1955
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Nihil Obstat
Gerard Smith, S.J., censor deputatus
Milwaukiae, die 15 mensis Septembris, 1955
Imprimatur
Albertus G. Meyer
Archiepiscopus Milwaukiensis
Milwaukiae, die 22 mensis Septembris, 1955
SECOND PRINTING, 1957
MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY PRESS
COPYRIGHT, 1955
Library of Congress Catalogue No. 55-9017
Page iii
Virgini
Prudentissimae
Page v
Prefatory
The Aristotelian Society of Marquette University each year invites a
scholar to deliver a lecture in honor of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Customarily delivered on the Sunday nearest March 7, the feast day of
the Society's patron saint, these lectures are called Aquinas lectures.
On Sunday, March 13, Dr. Charles J. O'Neil delivered the lecture,
"Imprudence in St. Thomas."
Dr. O'Neil received his A.B. degree from St. Louis University in 1932
and his M.A. the following year. He held the Captain the Reverend W.
L. Murray Memorial Fellowship in Mediaeval Studies at the Pontifical
Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto, 193839. He received the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Toronto in
1939 and the Licentiate in Mediaeval Studies from the Pontifical
Institute in 1940.
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He was a member of the philosophy faculty of Loyola University,
Chicago, from 1934 to 1947, joined the Marquette University faculty
as associate professor of philosophy in 1947 and was made professor
of philosophy in 1951.
During World War II he was a member of the United States Air Force,
for a time serving as Information-Education officer of the India-
Burma theatre.
He was president of the American Catholic Philosophical Association
194555. He is one of the founding members of the Wisconsin
Philosophical Association and a member of the American
Philosophical Association.
Dr. O'Neil has written many reviews for various scholarly journals
and is the author of the following articles:
"Prudence, the Incommunicable Wisdom," Essays in Thomism, edited
by Fr. Robert E. Brennan, S.J., Sheed and Ward, N.Y., 1942;
"Locke: Essay Concerning Human Understanding" in The Great
Books: A
Page vii
Christian Appraisal, Vol. III, edited by Fr. Harold C. Gardiner, S.J.,
Devon-Adair, New York, 1951;
"The Triumph of the Theatetus," (in three parts), The Modern
Schoolman, vol. XI (1934) pp. 3538; 5559 and 8794;
"The Notion of Beauty in the Ethics of Aristotle," Proceedings of the
American Catholic Philosophical Association, vol. XII (1939) pp.
180191;
"The Notion of Beauty in the Ethics of St. Thomas," The New
Scholasticism, vol. XIV (1940) pp. 346378;
"Plotinus as Critic of the Aristotelian Soul" Proceedings of the
American Catholic Philosophical Association, vol. XXIII (1949) pp.
156164;
"St. Thomas and the Nature of Man," Proceedings of the American
Catholic Philosophical Association, vol. XXV (1951) pp. 4166;
"Is Locke's State the Secular State?" The New Scholasticism, vol.
XXVI (1952) pp. 424440;
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"Thomist Textbook for Thomists," The New Scholasticism, vol.
XXVII (1953) pp. 205209;
"Aristotle's Natural Slave Re-examined," The New Scholasticism, vol.
XXVII (1953) pp. 247279;
"Invalid Proofs for God's Existence," Proceedings of the American
Catholic Philosophical Association, vol. XXVIII (1954) pp. 5054;
"Practical Knowledge and Liberty," Proceedings of the American
Catholic Philosophical Association, vol. XXIX (1955);
"Philosophers Never Leave Home" (radio address), Proceedings of the
American Catholic Philosophical Association, vol. XX (1946) pp.
173177.
At present he is at work translating book IV of St. Thomas' Summa
Contra Gentiles, to be published by Doubleday and Co., New York.
To these the Aristotelian Society takes pleasure in adding Imprudence
in St. Thomas Aquinas.
Page 1
Imprudence In St.Thomas Aquinas
. . . love all love of other sights controls.
John Donne
The Good Morrow
I
The Aristotelian Prudent Man.
1. The Problem
In the depths of his being man's knowledge of himself is a knowledge
of God. For this reason every sinner knows in the depths of his heart
that he is a fool, and every repentant sinner knows that he sinned in
ignorance. He sinned without the light. For all that, sin has its own
rationality. Be an act virtuous or vicious, St. Thomas says,
1 it issues from a kind of syllogistic process. What, then, is this weird
light which lightens the way to sin
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in him who is marked by the light of God's countenance? It is, of
course, the vice of imprudence and it is worthy of some attention.
To be sure, it is worthy of no practical attention. It is, like every sin,
brushed aside by that all but innate precept of the law: do no evil. But
it is worthy of our speculative attention. This is not because there is
any vice whatever worthy of consideration in itself, but because the
consideration of this vice may tell us something about the nature of
man.
Among the philosophers who have instructed us on the nature of man
there are but few, if any, greater than Aristotle. And when Aristotle
chose to write on man and his pursuit of happiness, he did it by
describing carefully the virtues which together constitute the good
life. To enrich our understanding of a virtue he very often describes
the corresponding vice. In fact, we look upon the contrast of virtue
and vice as an accepted Aristotelian technique.