Phil
43148:
Aquinas on Virtue and Law
Freddoso
Malloy 304
E-mail: afreddos@gmail.com
Home page:
Purpose----Texts----Requirements----
Syllabus----Online
Handouts-----Paper
Assignments
Purpose
of Course: A
part-lecture/part-seminar course for majors, the purpose of which is to
provide the student with an opportunity (a) to see in some depth the
relation among the main elements of St. Thomas's general moral theory
as laid out in the First Part of the Second Part (Prima Secundae) of
the Summa Theologiae,
viz., the
treatises on happiness, action, passion, habit, virtue, sin, law, and
grace, and (b) to explore in great detail the twin realities of virtue
and law as complementary (rather than, as some would have it,
fundamentally opposed or at least wholly independent) influences on
morally upright human action. We will pay special attention
to
the ways in which Catholic faith and practice lead St. Thomas to
appropriate, correct, and transform classical moral theories.
Requirements for the course include active class participation, a daily
question/comment, and three 6-7 page papers.
Texts:
Requirements:
- Note on reading assignments: The only
assignments from St. Thomas's text for
which you are responsible are those listed at the beginning of entries in the syllabus
below. I will, however, be talking about other parts of the Prima Secundae as
well, specifically the treatises on beatitude, action, passion,
habit, sin, and grace. I have assigned my own notes, found
on the handout page, for those classes, but in many ways
these are a poor substitute for the real thing.
- Class Participation (25% of course grade):
- Daily Question/Comment: You must submit
to me by email, before 10:00AM on
each class day, a question/comment based on the readings assigned for
that day. (When we are spending more than one day on a given topic, I
will give more specific instructions about which texts are relevant for
a given class.) I expect the questions/comments to be well thought out
and well articulated, but not particularly long. They will serve as the
starting point for my class comments on the day in question. (I pay
close attention to the quality of these questions in determining the
participation component of the grade.) (15% of course grade)
- Seminar Participation: Active and intelligent
participation in seminar
discussions. In
general, student initiative and signs of self-motivation will be
rewarded in this course. (10% of course grade)
- Papers (75% of course grade): You are required to
write three 6-7 page papers, worth 75% of the course grade. These will
be due on 10/1, 11/5, and 12/10. The topics are assigned and are found
below.
- Before the course begins, you are required
to
read my
classnotes on Aristotle
and Faith
and Reason and God
and Human Nature
from Phil 30301, Ancient and Medieval Philosophy. The last of these is the section of 30301 I hardly
ever get to. So read it especially carefully even if you have had 30301 with
me.
Tentative
Syllabus:
I. An Introduction to the Prima
Secundae: Beatitude,
Action, and Passion
- 8/27 and 9/1 and 9/3
and 9/8:
Lectures on, and discussion of, qq. 1-5, the
Treatise on Beatitude. Topics: the structure of the
Prima
Secundae; Aristotle on beatitude; Aquinas on
beatitude; Aquinas'
distinction between complete (perfect) and incomplete (imperfect)
beatitude; two forms of incomplete beatitude (?); the objections to
Aristotle on beatitude: motivated by narrow self-interest?;
too
dependent on moral luck?; the alleged insufficiency of the desire for
beatitude as a moral motive and the alleged need for some basic desire
other than the desire for beatitude as a moral motive, along
with brief
discussion of Plato, Duns Scotus, Hobbes, Hume, and
Kant. (Reading: Notes
on treatise on beatitude and Servais Pinckaers, OP, "The Place of Philosophy in Moral Theology".) (Questions: 8/27, q. 1-2; 9/1, q.
3; 9/3, q. 4, 9/8, q. 5 and Pinckaers.)
- 9/10 and 9/15: Lectures
on, and discussion of, qq. 6-21, the Treatise on Action.
Topics:
voluntariness; the interplay between intellect and will in
the
structure of human action; the specification of human actions; the
moral evaluation of human actions. (Reading: Notes
on treatise on action.) (Questions: 9/10, qq. 6-17;
9/15, qq. 18-21)
- 9/17 and 9/24:
Lectures on, and discussion of, qq.
22-48, the Treatise on Passion. Topics: the nature
of
passion or emotion; lower and higher emotions; the
distinction
betwenn the concupiscible and irascible appetites; the distinction
between love of concupisence (amor
concupiscentiae) and love of friendship (amor amicitiae);
St. Thomas's
taxonomy of eleven basic passions; love and aversion as basic passions.
(Reading: Notes
on treatise on the passions.) (Questions: 9/17, qq. 22-39;
9/24: qq. 40-48)
- NOTE:
NO CLASS ON 9/22
II.
Virtue
- 9/29: Lecture
on, and discussion of, qq.
49-54, the Treatise on Habit. Topics: the nature
and causes
of habits; the intensification and remission of habits; different ways
to divide habits up; the difference between habituation and training.
(Reading: Notes
on treatise on habits.)
- 10/1: qq. 55-56 (the
essence
of virtue; the ontological subject of a virtue conceived
of as an accidental modification, i.e., which 'part' or 'parts' of the
soul have virtues?)
- 10/6: qq. 57-58
(the intellectual virtues; the distinction between
the intellectual
virtues and the moral virtues).
- 10/8: qq. 59-60
(the relation
of the moral virtues to the passions; the distinctions among
the moral virtues).
- 10/13: qq. 61-62 (the
cardinal
virtues; the theological virtues).
- 10/15: qq.
63-67 (the two causes of virtue, the mean of virtue, the connectedness
of the virtues, the equality of the virtues, and the duration of the
virtues).
- 10/27:
qq.
68-70
(the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit, and the beatitudes) and Lecture on,
and discussion of, qq. 109-114 (Treatise on Grace).
Topics: the transformation of Aristotelian moral
theory
into Catholic moral theory; divine adoption; infused moral virtues.
(Reading: qq. 68-70 and Notes
on treatise on grace and Servais Pinckaers, OP, "The Place of Philosophy in the Moral Theology of St. Thomas Aquinas")
- 10/29:
Very
selective lecture on, and discussion of, qq. 71-89 (Treatise on Sin)
(Reading: Notes on treatise
on sin and vice).
III.
Law
- 11/3: qq. 90-92 (the
nature of law; the different kinds of law; the
relation between law and virtue).
- 11/5: qq. 93-94
(eternal law; natural law).
- 11/10: qq.
95-97 (human law; the power of human law; changes in
human law).
- 11/12: qq. 98 and 99
(the
Old Law; the kinds of precepts found in the Old
Law).
- 11/17 and 11/19:
q.
100 (the relation between the natural law
and the
moral precepts of the Old Law; the relation between the moral precepts
and the virtues, both in their mode and in their content; the
enumeration of and distinction among the moral precepts; the moral
precepts and dispensations; the fulfillment of the moral precepts and
justification before God). (Questions: 11/17, aa. 1-7; 11/19, aa. 8-12)
- 11/24: qq. 101 and 104
(the
ceremonial precepts in themselves; the judicial precepts in themselves).
- 12/1: qq.
102,
103 and 105 (overview of the reasons for
the
ceremonial and judicial precepts; the duration of the ceremonial
precepts).
- 12/3: q.
106 (the nature of the New Law; the effects
of the
New Law, especially justification).
- 12/8: q. 107 (the
relation between the New Law and the Old
Law).
- 12/10: q. 108 (contents of the New
Law).
Paper
Assignments
- 7-page paper due October 1: Take one of the
five passions that St. Thomas
talks about at length, viz., love, pleasure (or being pleased), pain
(or being saddened), fear, or anger. Lay out in an
intelligent, orderly, and concise fashion what St. Thomas has to say
about this passion.
- 7-page paper due
November 5: Discuss intelligently Question 65, St. Thomas's
account of the connectedness of the virtues, i.e., the claim
that you cannot have one moral or theological virtue without having all
the others or, conversely, that if you lack one of the moral or
theological virtues, you lack them all. The two virtues which
turn out to be crucial here are prudence
among the moral virtues and charity
among the theological virtues. Your paper should include
sections on the connectedness of the moral virtues, the connectedness
of the theological virtues, and the relation between the moral virtues
and the theological virtues. (In preparation for this last
part, you should also look at Question 63, article 3-4 on the
difference between acquired moral virtues and infused moral virtues.)
- 7-page paper due
December 10: In various places in the Treatise on Law St.
Thomas explicitly discusses the relation between law and virtue.
See, for example, q. 94, a. 3; q. 96, aa. 2-3; q. 100, aa. 2
and
9-10. In addition, the course has tried to show how virtue
and
law come together in St. Thomas's moral theory, despite the fact that
these are often thought by contemporary philosophers to be competing
foundational notions in moral theory. Using the above cited
articles as your starting point, paint an intelligent portrait of the
relation between law and virtue in St. Thomas's moral theory.
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