Good and Evil Actions a Journey Through Saint Thomas Aquinas

ISBN-13: 9780813217277 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 324 str.

Steven J. Jensen

Opis

Modern philosophy has long dismissed the traditional moral notion that some actions are inherently good or evil, claiming rather that actions lack clear boundaries and have no set nature, whether good, evil, or anything else. We might expect to find resources to rebut these consequentialist assertions in the perennial philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas. Unfortunately, the analysis of the moral species within Aquinas confounds even the most resolute. Thomists are far from unanimity on the very questions at issue, such as the role of intention in moral judgment and the importance of the exterior or 'physical' act. One influential reading of Aquinas assigns intention a central role - another extols a return to teleology and to the physical nature of the action. In Good and Evil Actions, Steven J. Jensen navigates a path through the debate, retrieving what is of value from each interpretation.