Aquinas, Aristotle, and the Promise of the Common Good by Mary M. Keys

Author:Mary M. Keys [Keys, Mary M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2006-09-18T00:00:00+00:00

All the “objections” Aquinas entertains against this depiction of the social repercussions of individual acts hinge on a surprisingly familiar claim, common in liberal political theory: that some human actions that are noble or base, good or evil, affect no one but the agent performing them, whether for good or for ill. They are in no sense “other-regarding” actions, and therefore they are simply unrelated to justice and merit. Aquinas’s replies to this position are terse to the point of seeming mere assertions: “A man’s good or evil actions, although not ordained to the good or evil of another individual, are nevertheless ordained to the good or evil of another, i.e., the community” (ad 1). “Man is master of his actions; and yet, insofar as he belongs to another, i.e., the community of which he forms part, he merits or demerits inasmuch as he disposes his actions well or ill, just as if he were to dispense well or ill other belongings of his, in respect of which he is bound to serve the community” (ad 2; cf. 96, 4). “This very good or evil, which a man does to himself by his action, redounds to the community, as stated above” (ad 3).

As we have seen, the foundation for such conclusions is the case for the “social and civic” nature of man, as presented in the Ethics, the Politics, and Aquinas’s Commentaries on the same. Even in our liberal democratic polity with theoretical and practical demands for state neutrality regarding the good life on the rise, as we reviewed in chapter 1, and where privacy regulations abound and seem to multiply daily (how many leaflets regarding privacy policies has the reader in 2006 received recently?), there is ample evidence in our institutions and actions that we still recognize elements of Aquinas’s view as correct. Special benefits – medical, social, and educational – for veterans; magnificent state funerals and national days of mourning for former presidents; monuments to our greatest leaders and our war dead: these all bear witness to the sense that those who offer direct service to the political community as a whole still seem to have a special claim on the goods, services, and honors the community can bestow. Even those who benefit society in general ways that are not specifically political or military in nature, on the local, national, or international/global levels, are frequently honored and celebrated by government institutions and leaders: poets, musicians, great scientists, religious leaders recognized as moral exemplars, educational pioneers or university chancellors, social workers, doctors who treat the poor.

Even in the case of actions that benefit primarily one or a few individuals, we also have ample experience of our sense of social value and merit. Here is one example of such an action, performed primarily for the benefit of another and at great risk to the agent.[12] During the winter of 1995–6, some little girls were playing on the banks of a frozen lake in southern Michigan. Two of them ventured out on the ice and fell through.

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