Treatise on the Virtues

Aquinas Thomas, John A. Oesterle

Description

In his Treatise on the Virtues, Aquinas discusses the character and function of habit; the essence, subject, cause, and meaning of virtue; and the separate intellectual, moral, cardinal, and theological virtues. His work constitutes one of the most thorough and incisive accounts of virtue in the history of Christian philosophy. John Oesterle's accurate and elegant translation makes this enduring work readily accessible to the modern reader.

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Éthique et morale
• Philosophie de la religion
• Moral Philosophy
• Religious
• PHILOSOPHY
• Philosophie et théologie
• Thomas Aquinas
• Western thought
• Ethics
• Will
• Intelligence

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 15 août 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268158033
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
Treatise on the Virtues
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
Treatise on the Virtues
Translated by
JOHN A. OESTERLE
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
University of Notre Dame Press
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
www.undpress.nd.edu
Copyright 1966 by Prentice Hall, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Published in the United States of America
University of Notre Dame Press edition 1984
Reprinted in 1987, 1989, 1992, 1996, 1999, 2008
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?-1274.
Treatise on the virtues.
Reprint. Originally published: Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1966
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Virtues. 2. Virtue. 3. Habit. I. Oesterle, John A. II. Title.
BV4630.T473 1984 241 .4 84-10691
ISBN 13: 978-0-268-01855-9 (pbk.)
ISBN 10: 0-268-01855-3 (pbk.)
This book is printed on acid-free paper .
ISBN 9780268158033
This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at [e-mail] .
To Frederick, Edythe, and Helen
Table of Contents
Introduction
QUESTION XLIX
Habits in General, with Respect to What They Are
First Article:
Is Habit a Quality?
Second Article:
Is Habit a Distinct Species of Quality?
Third Article:
Does Habit Imply Ordering toward Act?
Fourth Article:
Are Habits Necessary?
QUESTION L
The Subject of Habits
First Article:
Is There Any Habit in the Body?
Second Article:
Is the Subject of Habit in the Essence of the Soul or in Its Powers?
Third Article:
Can There Be Any Habit in the Sense Powers?
Fourth Article:
Is There Any Habit in the Intellect?
Fifth Article:
Is There Any Habit in the Will?
Sixth Article:
Are There Habits in the Angels? 20
QUESTION LI
The Cause of the Formation of Habits
First Article:
Is Any Habit from Nature?
Second Article:
Is a Habit Caused by Acts?
Third Article:
Can a Habit Be Produced by One Act?
Fourth Article:
Are Any Habits Infused in Man by God?
QUESTION LII
The Increase of Habits
First Article:
Can Habits Increase?
Second Article:
Does a Habit Increase through Addition?
Third Article:
Does Every Act Increase a Habit?
QUESTION LIII
The Corruption and Diminishing of Habits
First Article:
Can Habits Be Corrupted?
Second Article:
Can a Habit Be Diminished?
Third Article:
Is a Habit Corrupted or Diminished by Mere Cessation of Act?
QUESTION LIV
The Distinction of Habits
First Article:
Can Many Habits Be in One Power?
Second Article:
Are Habits Distinguished by Their Objects?
Third Article:
Are Habits Distinguished in Terms of Good and Evil?
Fourth Article:
Is One Habit Formed Out of Many Habits?
QUESTION LV
The Essence of Virtue
First Article:
Is Human Virtue a Habit?
Second Article:
Is Human Virtue an Operative Habit?
Third Article:
Is Human Virtue a Good Habit?
Fourth Article:
Is Virtue Appropriately Defined?
QUESTION LVI
The Subject of Virtue
First Article:
Is a Power of the Soul the Subject of Virtue?
Second Article:
Can One Virtue Be in Many Powers?
Third Article:
Can the Intellect Be the Subject of Virtue?
Fourth Article:
Are the Irascible and Concupiscible Powers Subjects of Virtue?
Fifth Article:
Are Sense Powers of Knowing the Subject of Virtue?
Sixth Article:
Can the Will Be the Subject of Virtue?
QUESTION LVII
The Distinction of the Intellectual Virtues
First Article:
Are Speculative Intellectual Habits Virtues?
Second Article:
Are There Only Three Speculative Intellectual Habits, Wisdom, Science and Understanding?
Third Article:
Is the Intellectual Habit of Art a Virtue?
Fourth Article:
Is Prudence a Virtue Distinct from Art?
Fifth Article:
Is Prudence a Virtue that is Necessary for Man?
Sixth Article:
Are Good Deliberation, Sagacity and Equitable Judgment Virtues Annexed to Prudence?
QUESTION LVIII
The Distinction between Moral and Intellectual Virtues
First Article:
Is Every Virtue a Moral Virtue?
Second Article:
Does Moral Virtue Differ from Intellectual Virtue?
Third Article:
Is the Division of Virtue into Moral and Intellectual Adequate?
Fourth Article:
Can There Be Moral Virtue without Intellectual Virtue?
Fifth Article:
Can There Be Intellectual Virtue without Moral Virtue?
QUESTION LVIX
The Relation of Moral Virtue to Passion
First Article:
Is Moral Virtue a Passion?
Second Article:
Can There Be Moral Virtue Together with Passion?
Third Article:
Can There Be Moral Virtue Together with Sorrow?
Fourth Article:
Are All Moral Virtues about the Passions?
Fifth Article:
Can There Be Moral Virtue without Passion?
QUESTION LX
The Distinction of Moral Virtues from Each Other
First Article:
Is There Only One Moral Virtue?
Second Article:
Are Moral Virtues about Operations Distinct from Moral Virtues about Passions?
Third Article:
Is There Only One Moral Virtue about Operations?
Fourth Article:
Are There Different Moral Virtues about Different Passions?
Fifth Article:
Are Moral Virtues Distinguished according to the Diverse Objects of the Passions?
QUESTION LXI
The Cardinal Virtues
First Article:
Should the Moral Virtues Be Called Cardinal or Principal Virtues?
Second Article:
Are There Four Cardinal Virtues? 110
Third Article:
Should Any Other Virtues Be Called Principal Rather than These?
Fourth Article:
Do the Four Cardinal Virtues Differ from Each Other?
Fifth Article:
Are the Cardinal Virtues Appropriately Divided into Political, Purifying, Perfect and Exemplar Virtues?
QUESTION LXII
The Theological Virtues
First Article:
Are There Theological Virtues?
Second Article:
Should the Theological Virtues Be Distinguished from the Intellectual and the Moral Virtues?
Third Article:
Are Faith, Hope and Charity Appropriately Proposed as Theological Virtues?
Fourth Article:
Is Faith Prior to Hope and Hope to Charity?
QUESTION LXIII
The Cause of Virtue
First Article:
Does Virtue Exist in Us by Nature?
Second Article:
Is Any Virtue Caused in Us by Our Actions being Habituated?
Third Article:
Are Any Moral Virtues Infused in Us?
Fourth Article:
Is the Virtue We Acquire from Habitual Acts the Same in Kind as Infused Virtues?
QUESTION LXIV
The Mean of Virtue
First Article:
Do the Moral Virtues Observe a Mean?
Second Article:
Is the Mean of Moral Virtue a Real Mean or a Mean of Reason?
Third Article:
Do the Intellectual Virtues Observe a Mean?
Fourth Article:
Do the Theological Virtues Observe a Mean?
QUESTION LXV
The Connection of the Virtues
First Article:
Are the Moral Virtues Connected with Each Other?
Second Article:
Can the Moral Virtues Exist without Charity?
Third Article:
Can Charity Exist without the Moral Virtues?
Fourth Article:
Can There Be Faith and Hope without Charity?
Fifth Article:
Can There Be Charity without Faith and Hope?
QUESTION LXVI
The Equality of the Virtues
First Article:
Can One Virtue Be Greater or Less than Another?
Second Article:
Are All the Virtues in One Man Equal?
Third Article:
Do the Moral Virtues Surpass the Intellectual Virtues?
Fourth Article:
Is Justice the Principal Moral Virtue?
Fifth Article:
Is Wisdom the Greatest of the Intellectual Virtues?
Sixth Article:
Is Charity the Greatest of the Theological Virtues?
QUESTION LXVII
The Duration of the Virtues after this Life
First Article:
Do the Moral Virtues Remain after this Life?
Second Article:
Do the Intellectual Virtues Remain after this Life?
Third Article:
Does Faith Remain after this Life?
Fourth Article:
Does Hope Remain after Death in the State of Glory?
Fifth Article:
Does Anything of Faith or Hope Remain in the State of Glory?
Sixth Article:
Does Charity Remain after this Life in the State of Glory?
INTRODUCTION
The meaning of virtue in modern time has lost some of the original force it once had. Thanks in part to an extremely rigid moral tradition, stretching perhaps back at least to Puritan times, virtuous living has been linked with joyless living, and the very notion of virtue has been narrowed to signify principally some form of temperate conduct. And just as temperance, in turn, has been primarily restricted to restraining the appetite for alcoholic drink (in which respect, temperance has sometimes been confused with abstinence) so virtue, though actually much broader in meaning than temperance, has been largely confined, in the minds of many, to another area of temperance, restraint or even abstinence in regard to matters pertaining to sex; it is in this sense, for example, that some speak of a woman s virtue, as the dictionary acknowledges.
However, the dictionary also indicates, and first of all, the more basic meaning of virtue, supported by etymology as well: manliness or worth, and hence general moral excellence based on right action and right thinking, which produce goodness of character. The English word virtue derives from the Latin virtus , and virtus signifies at once strength and power ( vir ). It is this broad, positive, strong meaning of virtue that St. Thomas Aquinas has in mind when he discusses and analyzes virtue at great length in the Summa Theologiae . Thus when St. Thomas begins to consider what virtue essentially is and how it is to be defined (question 55), his first point is that virtue implies perfection of a power. This phrase already lays the groundwork for the complete definition of virtue, by locating precisely where virtue is found, namely, in distinctively human powers, and by emphasizing the wholly positive character of virtue, that it is a perfection , the activity of human powers at their best.
In the course of his extensive analysis of virtue, St. Thomas con