Virtue's splendor: wisdom, prudence, and the human good

257 Pages·2001·0.83 MB·English

by  Thomas S. Hibbs

Virtue(cid:146)s Splendor
MORAL PHILOSOPHY AND MORAL THEOLOGY SERIES
Romanus Cessario, O.P., and Joseph W. Koterski, S.J., series editors
1. Martin Rhonheimer, Natural Law and Practical Reason.
Translated by Gerald Marlsbary.
2. Anton Losinger, The Anthropological Turn: The Human
Orientation of the Theology of Karl Rahner. Translation with a
foreword by Daniel O. Dahlstrom.
Virtue(cid:146)s Splendor
WISDOM, PRUDENCE,
AND THE HUMAN GOOD
THOMAS S. HIBBS
Copyright ' 2001 by Fordham University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means(cid:151)electronic,
mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other(cid:151)except for brief quotations in
printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Moral Philosophy and Moral Theology Series, No. 3
ISSN 1527(cid:150)523X
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hibbs, Thomas S.
Virtue(cid:146)s splendor: wisdom, prudence, and the human good / Thomas S.
Hibbs.(cid:151)1st ed.
p. cm.(cid:151)(Moral philosophy and moral theology; no. 3)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8232-2043-5 (alk. paper)(cid:151)ISBN 0-8232-2044-3 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Christian ethics. I. Title. II. Series.
BJ1249.H53 2001
170(cid:151)dc21 2001042494
Printed in the United States of America
01 02 03 04 05 5 4 3 2 1
First Edition
Ut Tullius dicit, (cid:147)ex justitia praecipue viri boni
nominantur,(cid:148) unde, sicut dicit, (cid:147)in ea virtutis splendor
est maximus.(cid:148)
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, 58, 3
In memory of
Monsignor Thomas Wells,
Priest, teacher, friend
During the fall of 1978, I had my first taste of philosophy at the
University of Maryland at College Park, where as a freshman I had
three avowedly atheistic professors. Not exactly a pleasant introduction
to philosophy, it was, nonetheless, exactly what I needed to awaken
me from the dogmatic slumbers of my unreflective youth. I had the
good fortune at that time to meet Father Thomas Wells, a priest for
the archdiocese of Washington, D.C. A gifted preacher and teacher
with a relentless wit, Father Wells was the first priest, indeed the first
Catholic, I encountered who could articulate the wisdom of the Catholic
faith with intelligence, enthusiasm, and joy. In the midst of my intellectual
unrest, he pointed me in the direction of St. Thomas Aquinas.
In the 1960s, Father Wells had attended Boston College, where I
now teach. On the morning of June 8, 2000, I was at my desk at
Boston College, working on yet another essay on Aquinas, when my
wife called to give me the horrifying news that Father Wells had been
murdered in his rectory in a robbery gone bad. Two thousand mourners
attended his funeral at Sacred Heart Church in Bowie, Maryland, the
first parish in which he served after his ordination and the place where
in 1798 the plans were laid for the organization of the Roman Catholic
Church in the United States and John Carroll was selected first bishop.
In death as in life, Father Wells gives testimony to the transforming
power of the Gospel, to the beauty of a life lived in imitation of Christ.
To his memory, I dedicate this book.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Obstacles to the Recovery of Aquinas(cid:146)s
Teaching on the Human Good 1
1. RETURNING TO THE HUMAN THINGS26
Nature and Human Nature 26
Problems of Soul and Body 44
Person and Nature: The Dilemma of Freedom 55
Law, Freedom, and Nature 65
2. PRECEPTS, PRUDENCE, AND POLITICS86
From Law to Prudence 88
From Prudence Back to Law 108
Justice: Its Scope and Limits 119
Friendship, Politics, and Human Excellence 129
3. CONTEMPLATION AND PRUDENCE; PHILOSOPHY AND
POLITICS138
Wisdom and/or Prudence 139
Negative Philosophy: The Limits of Metaphysics 155
4.CONTEMPLATION, ACTION, AND DIVINE ARTISTRY163
The Ultimate End: Revelation(cid:146)s Dialectical
Engagement of Nature 166
Prudence, Contemplation, and Charity 192
Beauty and Theological Pedagogy 200
The Narrative Shape of Creation and
Redemption 207
Conclusion: The Good Life as the Practice of
Truthfulness 222
Bibliography 229
Index 245
This page intentionally left blank
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The remote origins of this book date back to my graduate school days
at the University of Notre Dame, where Ralph McInerny directed my
thesis on the relationship between virtue and law in Aquinas. In addition
to him, Mark Jordan, David Solomon, Stanley Hauerwas, and Alasdair
Macintyre have over the years provided me with invaluable criticism
and advice. My debt to their interpretations of Aquinas and to their
approaches to contemporary ethics is evident throughout the book. To
exonerate them of guilt, I should add that none of them read this
manuscript, and only the first three have been my teachers in any
official way. Although it would not be logically possible for all of them
to approve equally of this or any other work on Aquinas, I consider
myself enormously fortunate to have had such teachers and
interlocutors.
After the dissertation, my work on Aquinas(cid:146)s ethics appeared in a
number of published articles, some of which reappear in revised form
in the book. I am grateful for permission to publish revised versions of
the following articles: (cid:147)Against a Cartesian Reading of Intellectus in
Aquinas,(cid:148) The Modern Schoolman 66 (1988): 55(cid:150)69; (cid:147)Divine Irony
and the Natural Law: Speculation and Edification in Aquinas,(cid:148)
International Philosophical Quarterly 30 (1990): 419(cid:150)29; (cid:147)The
Hierarchy of Moral Discourses in Aquinas,(cid:148) American Catholic
Philosophical Quarterly 64 (1990): 199(cid:150)214; (cid:147)Imitatio Christi and
the Foundation of Aquinas(cid:146)s Ethics,(cid:148) Communio 18 (1991): 556(cid:150)73;
(cid:147)Principles and Prudence,(cid:148) New Scholasticism 61 (1987): 271(cid:150)84;
(cid:147)The Revival of Prudence,(cid:148) in Postmodernism and Christian
Philosophy, edited by Roman Ciapolo (Washington, D.C.: Catholic
University of America Press, 1997); (cid:147)A Rhetoric of Motives: Thomas
on Obligation as Rational Persuasion,(cid:148) The Thomist 54 (1990): 293(cid:150)
309; and (cid:147)Transcending Humanity,(cid:148) Proceedings of the American
Catholic Philosophical Association 66 (1992): 191(cid:150)213. I am also
grateful to Hackett Publishing for allowing me to use parts of Aquinas:
On Human Nature (1999).