Biography
Thomas Aquinas was a Dominican friar and the most influential medieval theologian. Building on Aristotle, he synthesised faith and reason and set the framework for Roman Catholic moral theology.
Key Ideas
- Natural Law: reason discerns the God-given moral order (four tiers; five primary precepts).
- Doctrine of Double Effect and the real/apparent good distinction.
- Conscience as reason: synderesis and conscientia (recta ratio).
- The Five Ways and the complementarity of faith and reason.
Topics Appearing In
Ancient Influences →Observation Arguments →Reason Arguments →Problem of Evil →Nature of God →Negative, Analogy & Symbol →Natural Law →Euthanasia →Conscience →Sexual Ethics →Death & the Afterlife →Knowledge of God →Christian Moral Principles →Nature of God →
Key Quotes
“A fornicator seeks a pleasure which involves him in moral guilt.”Aquinas
Exam Importance
The anchor scholar for Natural Law, Conscience and Christian Moral Principles. Deploy the precepts and double effect in AO1, and use Sartre/Moore against him in AO2.
Works to explore
Use these titles to locate the scholar's argument in context. Edition-specific commercial recommendations are kept on the component reading lists.
- Aquinas — Summa Theologica (by the scholar)
- Aquinas: A Very Short Introduction (about)