The Specification of Human Actions in St Thomas Aquinas

✍ Scribed by Joseph Pilsner

• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 286
• Series: Oxford Theological Monographs
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Thomas Aquinas believed that human actions have species, such as theft or almsgiving. A problem arises, however, concerning his teaching on how such moral kinds are determined. Aquinas uses five different terms - end, object, matter, circumstance, and motive - to identify what gives species to human actions. Although similarities in meaning can be discerned between certain of these terms, apparent differences between others make it difficult to grasp how all five could refer to what specifies human actions. Joseph Pilsner examines and compares Aquinas's understanding of these five terms to see if a consistent account of his teaching on specification can be proposed.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents......Page 10
Abbreviations of Thomistic Works......Page 11
1. Introduction......Page 14
2. Human Actions and Aquinas's Moral Theory......Page 22
3. Two Fundamental Types of Specification......Page 43
4. End......Page 60
5. Object......Page 83
6. Matter......Page 154
7. Circumstance......Page 185
8. Motive......Page 212
9. Proximate and Remote Ends......Page 230
10. Conclusion......Page 252
Bibliography......Page 260
A......Page 270
C......Page 271
E......Page 273
F......Page 274
G......Page 275
H......Page 276
J......Page 277
M......Page 278
P......Page 280
R......Page 281
S......Page 282
T......Page 283
W......Page 285