Roline Campbell
and
Heather Sloan
Saint Thomas Aquinas
1225-1274
Summary of St. Thomas Aquinas
• Born in 1225 at family castle in
Roccasecca.
• Died 49 years later on March 7,
1274, in Fossanova, 20
kilometers from birthplace.
• Father of natural law theory
• One of 33 Doctors of the
Catholic Church
• A philosopher and theologian
• Greatest work was Summa
theologiae
• Teachings are currently used in
ethics, civil law, religious
morality, and politics.
• Bachelor and Master in
Theology.
Influences and Historical
Context
• Well traveled- lived in Paris and Naples twice, Cologne, Rome,
Orvieto, and Viterbo.
• Member of the Dominican Order
• Primary mentor Albert the Great- taught Aquinas in depth on
Aristotle
• Studied Aristotle with Islamic interpreters Averroes and Avicenna
• Aristotelian corpus recently translated to Latin.
• Christian groups of Cathars emerging with ideas of Manicheism.
• Manichaeism- Founded by the Persian Mani.
- A form of religious dualism focused on principles of good and
evil.
- Influenced by of Zoroastrian Dualism, Babylonian folklore,
Buddhist ethics, and some small Christian elements.
Aquinas’s Life Story
 1225- Born in Roccasecca
 1230- Placed in Monte Cassino Monastery
-Youngest son placed in monastery
-introduced to prayer, mathematics, reading, and writing
 1239- Transferred to the institution of general studies at Naples
- First introduction to Dominican order
- Studied philosophical and medical texts, logic, natural sciences, and metaphysics
- Studied Aristotle with Islamic interpreters
- Joined Dominican order
 1244- House arrest by family.
- Benedictines vs. Dominicans
 1245- Studied under Albert the Great at Cologne
- Expanded knowledge on Aristotle.
 1259- Finished Bachelor and Master of Theology in Paris
- Bachelor and Master in Theology
Aquinas’s Life Story
 1260- Lived in Italy educating Dominicans and
composing multiple works
-Started Summa theologiae
 1268- Second appointment to Dominican regent
master in Theology in Paris
 1272- Appointed to Naples to organize a school of
Theology
 1273- Summoned by Pope Urban IV to attend a
council meeting.
- Meeting intended to reunite Eastern
Orthodox and Catholic Churches
 1274- Died after injury sustained on journey to council
meeting.
- Injured by branch that knocked Thomas off
his mule causing an ICH
• Summa theologiae has three parts.
1.) Issues regarding God and the
process of creation
2.) The moral return of humans to
God
3.) Christ as the guide with sacramental
practices as ways of return to God
• Second part focuses on a life of virtue.
- examines happiness, the voluntary
and involuntary, will, intention,
consent, good, evil, habits, virtue, and
law
- habitual actions and character
development
- virtue and vice
• Virtues
1.) Acquired- habit allows individuals to adopt and are
directed by reason
2.) Infused- the moral virtues that God provides to
shape and guide moral development
A. Theological virtues
1.) Faith
2.) Hope
3.) Charity
B. Cardinal Virtues
1.) Prudence- the right use of reason to guide
moral actions
2.) Justice- giving what is due to each person
- Cumulative justice- trade between
people
- Distributive justice- relations between
community and individual
3.) Fortitude- the good of the individual (actions
consistent with reason)
4.) Temperance- a curb of natural passions
Four types of law:
1.) Eternal Law- the rational basis for order
among creation according to God
2.) Natural Law- the human participation in
eternal law; the degree to which order
actually exists
3.) Human Law- when natural law is drawn up
in the form of a civic law to guide
society
4.) Divine Law- the rule and measure of all
virtue
Per Mark Murphy (2008) in the online Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy:
To summarize: the paradigmatic natural law view holds
that (1) the natural law is given by God; (2) it is naturally
authoritative over all human beings; and (3) it is
naturally knowable by all human beings. Further, it
holds that (4) the good is prior to the right, that (5) right
action is action that responds nondefectively to the
good, that (6) there are a variety of ways in which
action can be defective with respect to the good, and
that (7) some of these ways can be captured and
formulated as general rules.
• Embraces virtue as
“learned, not innate”
(White
& Taft, 2004, p. 468)
• Natural Law as a virtue
theory claims that virtue is:
• acquired through habits
• infused from God
• Technological
developments
• Political developments
• Little attention to
development of
morality (acquiring
virtue)
• Not in the definitive, unfailing,
timeless answers
• In being questioned anew by every
generation
• Limited use: process of detailed moral
consideration before acting
• More useful: application of an
intellective-volitive analysis when there
was some failure to act reasonably.
• Analysis of unsuccessful moral action
to identify , provide insight and prevent
such future failure.
“Within the discipline of nursing, no matter how
speculative the inquiry, the end is practice.”
“The decision and ability to apply principles within a
particular situation is the art of practice”.
(Whelton, 2002)
Conscious powers capable of development
• Intellect
• Becoming more proficient with frequent use
• Power of willing
• Can be actualized through many habits
• Most important habits of the will = justice and charity
• Emotive capacity
• Feelings culminating in sensory desires (food, intoxicants and sexual pleasure)
 Goal to develop reasonable self-control (temperance)
• Affective reaction to difficulties & threats (hope, despair, daring, fear and anger)
 Goal is to develop fortitude (emotional strength)
Strengths
Weaknesses
Applicability
Simplicity
Empirical content
• Offers certainty and provides security to a
society.
• Suggests that all of humanity shares a
common purpose and origin.
• States there are real reasons to live a moral
life
• Natural Law is a complete way of life,
dealing with character, motive and action.
• It gives a day-to-day and lifelong system for
living a moral life.
• Clearly calls certain acts intrinsically
wrong (torture, fraud, sexual exploitation
etc.)
• Assume that humans everywhere share a moral sense of
what is right and wrong. (moral consensus does not exist
throughout the world)
• Suggests that humans share basically the same nature,
any deviation from that nature is unnatural.
• Criticized for being rigid, inflexible and legalistic.
• Incompatible with:
• atheism (God does not exist) and
• agnosticism (refuse to commit to God’s existence or nonexistence
• One cannot have a theory of divine providence without a
divine being. Thus:
• If the world is only the result of a cosmic accident, then
there is no design or purpose to human life and the
concept of an 'inbuilt' nature placed there by a Creator to
whom we are responsible is meaningless.
• Natural Law constitutes the basic principles of
practical rationality for human beings
• Opportunity to better our understanding of human
nature
• Knowledge of human nature provides principles of
human action
• Thus human nature is source of practical truth in
nursing.
• Key Precepts of Natural Law
• Good should be promoted and carried out
• Evil must be identified and avoided.
• Key Purposes of Human Existence
• Preservation of life
• Ordering society for the benefit of its members
• Worshipping the Creator
• Education
• Reproduction of the species
• Assume all human beings share a common
nature (human nature)
• Assume Law is a dictate of reason, for the
common good, made by the one who has
authority over the community, and is
promulgated (made known).
• Identifying something as good gives us a
reason to pursue it; identifying it as bad, a
reason to avoid it.
ANA Code of Ethics and Aquinas
Sections that reflect Aquinas’s ethical principles:
 Character development and virtues vs . Vices
-5.3 Wholeness of Character
- 6.1 Influence of the environment on moral virtues
-6.2 Influence of the environment on ethical obligations
 Prudence, Justice, and Fortitude
-3.5 Acting on questionable practice
- 3.6 Addressing impaired practice
 Temperance
-2.2 Conflict of interest for nurses
-2.4 Professional boundaries
ANA Code of Ethics and Aquinas
Section 6.1 from the ANA’s Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements
in 2001, is of particular interest and states
Virtues are habits of character that predispose persons to meet their
moral obligations; that is, to do what is right. Excellences are habits of
character that predispose a person to do a particular job or task well.
Virtues such as wisdom, honesty, and courage are habits or attributes of
the morally good person. Excellences such as compassion, patience, and
skill are habits of character of the morally good nurse. For the nurse,
virtues and excellences are those habits that affirm and promote the
values of human dignity, well-being, respect, health, independence, and
other values central to nursing. Both virtues and excellences, as aspects
of moral character, can be either nurtured by the environment in which
the nurse practices or they can be diminished or thwarted. All nurses
have a responsibility to create, maintain, and contribute to
environments that support the growth of virtues and excellences and
enable nurses to fulfill their ethical obligations.
References
American Nurses Association. (2001). Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive
Statements. Retrieved from http://nursingworld.org/default.aspx
Bourke, V. (1989). Aquinas. In R. J. Cavalier, J. Gouinlock, & J. P. Sterba (Eds.), Ethics in
of western philosophy (pp. 152-183). Retrieved from
http://caae.phil.cum.edu/Cavalier/80130/part1/sect3/texts/Bourke.html
the history
Celenza, C. S. (2007). The revival of Platonic philosophy. In J. Hankins (Ed.), The
Cambridge
companion to renaissance philosophy (pp. 72-96). Cambridge,
United Kingdom: Cambridge
University Press.
Fowler, M. D. (Ed.). (2008). Guide to the code of ethics for nurses. Silver Spring, MD:
Nurses Association.
American
Inglis, J. (2002). On Aquinas. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
McInery, R. (2004). Aquinas. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Inc.
McInery, R., & O’Callaghan J. (2009). Saint Thomas Aquinas. In Stanford
Encyclopedia of
Philosophy online. Retrieved from
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aquinas/
References (cont.)
McInerny, R. (1993). Ethics. In N. Kretzman & E. Stump (Eds.), The Cambridge companion
to Aquinas (pp. 196-216). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Murphy, M. (2008). The Natural Law Tradition in Ethics. In Stanford
Encyclopedia of
Philosophy online. Retrieved from
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/naturallaw-ethics/
Owens, J. (1993). Aristotle and Aquinas. In N. Kretzman & E. Stump (Eds.), The Cambridge
companion to Aquinas (pp. 38-59). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Porter, R. S., Kaplan, J. L., & Homeier, B. P. (Eds.). (2009-2010). The Merck manual for health care
professionals (18 ed.). Retrieved from
http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec19/ch274/ch274b.html
Whelton, B. J. (2002). Human nature as a source of practical truth: Aristotelian-Thomistic realism
and the practical science of nursing. Nursing Philosophy, 3, 35-46.
White, J., & Taft, S. (2004, August). Frameworks for teaching and learning business ethics
within the global context: Background of ethical theories. Journal of
Management Education, 28, 463-477. doi: 10.1177/1052562904265656