- Title Pages
- Editors’ Preface
- Acknowledgments
- List of Abbreviations
- List of Contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Value: a Menu of Questions
- 2 Finnis on Well-being
- 3 Reasoning about the Human Good, and the Role of the Public Philosopher
- 4 On the Most Fundamental Principle of Morality
- 5 What is Natural Law Like?
- 6 Intention and Side Effects
- 7 Intention and Side Effects
- 8 John Finnis on Thomas Aquinas on Human Action
- 9 On Moral Philosophy and Kinds of Human Actions<sup>*</sup>
- 10 Finnis on Justice
- 11 Retributivism in the Spirit of Finnis<sup>*</sup>
- 12 The Nature of Limited Government
- 13 Pure Perfectionism and the Limits of Paternalism
- 14 ‘Lawful Mercy’ in <i>Measure for Measure</i>
- 15 The Basis for Being a Subject of Rights
- 16 Constitutional and Other Persons
- 17 Bioethics after Finnis
- 18 A New Father for the Law and Ethics of Medicine
- 19 Value, Practice, and Idea
- 20 The Irony of Law
- 21 Ideas of Easy Virtue
- 22 Law and Its Theory
- 23 Finnis on Legal and Moral Obligation
- 24 Constitutional Principle in the Laws of the Commonwealth
- 25 Intention and the Allocation of Risk
- 26 The Right to Religious Liberty and the Coercion of Belief
- 27 Natural Law and the Transcendent Source of Human Fulfillment
- 28 Reflections and Responses
- Bibliography of the Published Works of John Finnis
- Index Introductory Note
John Finnis on Thomas Aquinas on Human Action
John Finnis on Thomas Aquinas on Human Action
- Chapter:
- (p.118) 8 John Finnis on Thomas Aquinas on Human Action
- Source:
- Reason, Morality, and Law
- Author(s):
Kevin L. Flannery, SJ
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
This chapter argues that Finnis' understanding of the object of the human act and its bearing upon intention is not Aquinas'. Aquinas' assertion in ST 1-2.15.3 ad 3 that consent [consensus] might involve just one attractive option is incompatible with Finnis' thesis that it must include at least two. It is argued that in ST 1-2.13.4 Aquinas does not (as Finnis maintains) exclude instruments and set procedures as objects of choice. Moreover, in the first lectio of his commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics, Aquinas does not maintain that the order pertaining to crafts is ‘irreducibly distinct’ from the order pertaining to human acts. Finally, the chapter argues that Finnis' attempt to align Aquinas'understanding, as set out in a number of places, of the term obiectum with his own concept of a proposal is unsuccessful.
Keywords: Aquinas, object, intention, proposal, choice, consent, human act, means, attractive option
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- Title Pages
- Editors’ Preface
- Acknowledgments
- List of Abbreviations
- List of Contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Value: a Menu of Questions
- 2 Finnis on Well-being
- 3 Reasoning about the Human Good, and the Role of the Public Philosopher
- 4 On the Most Fundamental Principle of Morality
- 5 What is Natural Law Like?
- 6 Intention and Side Effects
- 7 Intention and Side Effects
- 8 John Finnis on Thomas Aquinas on Human Action
- 9 On Moral Philosophy and Kinds of Human Actions<sup>*</sup>
- 10 Finnis on Justice
- 11 Retributivism in the Spirit of Finnis<sup>*</sup>
- 12 The Nature of Limited Government
- 13 Pure Perfectionism and the Limits of Paternalism
- 14 ‘Lawful Mercy’ in <i>Measure for Measure</i>
- 15 The Basis for Being a Subject of Rights
- 16 Constitutional and Other Persons
- 17 Bioethics after Finnis
- 18 A New Father for the Law and Ethics of Medicine
- 19 Value, Practice, and Idea
- 20 The Irony of Law
- 21 Ideas of Easy Virtue
- 22 Law and Its Theory
- 23 Finnis on Legal and Moral Obligation
- 24 Constitutional Principle in the Laws of the Commonwealth
- 25 Intention and the Allocation of Risk
- 26 The Right to Religious Liberty and the Coercion of Belief
- 27 Natural Law and the Transcendent Source of Human Fulfillment
- 28 Reflections and Responses
- Bibliography of the Published Works of John Finnis
- Index Introductory Note
