The Political Thought of Thomas Aquinas PDF
Preview The Political Thought of Thomas Aquinas
THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OL THOMAS AQUINAS By the same author POETIC EXPERIENCE AN INTRODUCTION TO THOMIST AESTHETICS MORALS AND MARRIAGE THE CATHOLIC BACKGROUND TO SEX BARBARA CELARENT A DESCRIPTION OF SCHOLASTIC DIALECTIC PHOENIX AND TURTLE THE UNITY OF KNOWING AND BEING ST THOMAS AQUINAS PHILOSOPHICAL TEXTS BRITAIN AT ARMS A SCRAPBOOK OF MILITARY HISTORY BETWEEN COMMUNITY AND SOCIETY A PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY OF THfi STATE ST THOMAS AQUINAS THEOLOGICAL TEXTS UP THE GREEN RIVER A NOVEL THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OF THOMAS AQUINAS Thomas ^Gilby THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS Library of Congress Catalog Number 58-5539 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, CHICAGO 37 Longmans, Green & Co., Ltd., London W.i, England. The University of Toronto Press, Toronto 5, Canada Copyright in the International Copyright Union. Published 1958 Second Impression 1963 Printed in Great Britain TO HARRY WALSTON Attendendum est quod aliter sumunt politicum vel civile apud Philosophum et aliter apud Juristas. Commentary, V Ethics, lect. 12 vi J* CONTENTS viii SYNOPSIS xiv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xiv ABBREVIATIONS INTRODUCTION XV THE INFLUENCES AT WORK 2 PART ONE. Chapter I. THEOLOGIANS 5 1. The Bible as Mundane Guide 10 2. The Theology of Natural Law 16 Chapter II. JURISTS 23 1. Canonists 31 2. Civilians 48 Chapter III. 55 LANDED MEN AND WANDERERS 1. The Social Scene 55 2. The Order of Preachers 66 Chapter IV. 73 PHILOSOPHERS 1. The New Naturalism 75 2. Aristode from the Arabic and Greek 78 PART TWO. THE DEVELOPMENT IN ST THOMAS 90 Chapter V. THE ADVANCE FROM THE THEOLOGIANS 107 1. Law in Nature 111 2. The Concept of Law 124 3. Types of Law 136 4. The Jus Gentium, 142 5. Dominion a Natural Condition 146 Chapter VI. A 159 DRAFT FOR THE JURISTS 1. Law-Making as Art 162 2. The Limits to Legalism 175 3. Legality and Politics 187 4. Legal Supremacy 191 • • Vll yiii THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OF THOMAS AQUINAS Chapter VII. CITIZENSHIP AND ECCENTRICITY 203 1. Justice, within the Official Community 208 2. Private and Public 214 3. Individual and Social Justice 219 4. Politics and Morals 227 5. Personal and Common Good 237 6. The Corporate Group 251 7. State Personality 256 8. A Note on Terminology 261 Chapter VIII. THE RECEPTION OF ARISTOTLE 265 1. The Commentaries on the Ethics and Politics 267 2. The Brief Neo-PIellenism 271 3. Political Method 279 4. The Polity 284 5. Political Equity 299 CONCLUSION. THE POLITICAL DISCOUP.SE 312 1. The Plistorical Effect 313 2. The Three Social Phases 316 3. Summary 328 INDEX 333 SYNOPSIS INTRODUCTION Rise of the. European State from feudalism—Frederick II and the Regnum St Thomas’s background His four new principles: — — 1, Political authority based on nature, not convention; 2, Not de- rived from ecclesiastical authority; 3, Limited to the maintenance of external justice; 4, Exercised as art, not expansion of ethics— Political science subsumed in a wider philosophical and theological doctrine. PART ONE THE INFLUENCES AT WORK Augustinian theology—Roman Law—Medieval culture—Aristo- telean philosophy. CONTENTS IX Chapter I. THEOLOGIANS St Isidore’s Etymologies—Greek and Latin Fathers—St Augustine -—Identification of Christian philosophy and theology—Influence of the social doctrines of the Stoics—Contrast of innocence and convention—Religious acceptance of State not founded on righteous- ness, 1. The Bible as Mundane Guide.—The world of allegory and twelfth-century humanism—John of Salisbury—Beginnings of natural philosophy and study of social institutions—Parisian Sum- mists—Commentaries on the Sapiential Books—Vincent of Beau- vais. 2. The Theology of Natural Law.—Natural right and the Greeks— and the Romans—Early Schoolmen—-Nature as opposed to arti- ficial, rational, supernatural—Impression of Eternal Law on the human mind—Scientific classification of laws not yet achieved. Chapter II. JURISTS Medieval legal temper—Wariness of theologians about legal studies—Bologna—Recovery of Justinian’s Law—Government— The Gloss of Accursius. 1. Canonists.—Line of lawyer Popes—St Raymund of Penna- fort—Internal and external forum—Mixture of law and theology— The Canonical Movement as a political cause—Aloofness of theo- logians and friars—John of Paris—Humane effect of Canonists— Contract and the free society—Representative government—Office and person—Paternal and political association. 2. Civilians.—The Four Doctors—Glossators—Post-Glossators— Legal Scholasticism—Italian and French schools—Paris and Orleans—The Equity Wing—Placentinus—The power of the Princeps—The right of the Populus. Chapter III. LANDED MEN AND WANDERERS 1. The Social Scene.—Growth of trade—Town life—Personifica- tion of official power—Professionalism—Custom and Statute— Law—Aristocratic reaction to monarchy—Pilgrims—Non-classical influences. 2. The Order of Preachers.—Vagrants—Friars—Dominicans— Manichees—Spirituals. X THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OF THOMAS AQUINAS Chapter IV. PHILOSOPHERS Neo-Platonic and Stoic sources of Christian philosophy. 1. The New Naturalism.—Growth of natural sciences—The humanism of Chartres—Gradual discovery of Aristotle—Logic— Natural and metaphysical philosophy—Moral and political philo- sophy—Hostility of traditional divines. 2. Aristotle from the Arabic and Greek.—Arabic and Jewish com- mentators—Avicenna—Averroes—Translation from the Greek by Robert Grosseteste and William of Moerbeke—Latin Averroism— The Double Truth theory—The two worlds—The two cities— Germs of secularism. PART TWO THE DEVELOPMENT IN ST THOMAS Movement from Imperium to Polis—Decline in the political power of Emperor and Pope—The Nation-State—Teaching career of St Thomas—His position between Augustinianism and Averroism— The function of Reason—Values in the material wrorld—Humana civilitas—Pre-Thomist and Post-Thomist Dominicans. Chapter V. THE ADVANCE FROM THE THEOLOGIANS Contrast of Greek and Latin concepts of community—of author- ity—Moral requirements for the possession and exercise of power— Legal positivism. 1. Law in Nature.—The idea of law wider than that of ‘positive legality’—Basis of rationalism—Political law' independent of sin— New respect for material Nature—Interdependence of sciences— Morality and economics—Biological springs of lawr—Jus according to philosophers and lawyers—Justice a condition of all virtue. 2. The Concept of Law.—Gradual development of the definition— The Ordinance of Reason and the Lex Regia—The commonwealth and the ultimate common good—Sovereign authority and the people—Promulgation and the canonical insistence on scientia. 3. Types of Law.—Seven classes considered—Eternal Law— Natural Law, primary and secondary precepts—The Gospel Law— The Lex Fomitis—Positive Divine Law and the Mosaic Lawr— Positive Human Law.
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