Jacques Maritain Center

Moral Philosophy


[31]

1 Eudemian Ethics, I, 1, 1214 a 31. (Author's translation.)

2 Ibid., I, 1, 1214 b 10.

[32]

1 Nicomachean Ethics, VI, 1141 a 3-8. (Author's translation.) This corresponds to "synderesis" or the habitus of first practical principles in the vocabulary of the scholastic tradition.

[33]

1 Nicomachean Ethics, X, 7. Cf. below, p. 47, notes 1 and 2.

2 Eudemian Ethics, VII, 14, 1248 a 26-29. I quote from the Eudemian Ethics because I have a predilection for this work and have always thought it authentic. It happens that scholarly criticism now considers it one of Aristotle's earliest works, along with the Topics and the Politics (Cf. M.-D. Philippe, "La participation dans la philosophie d'Aristote", Revue Thomiste, 1949, I-lI, p. 269).

3 Eudemian Ethics, I, 1, 1214 a 8-9.

[34]

1 Cf. Nicomachean Ethics, X, 7, 1177 a 12-18.

[36]

1 Eudemian Ethics, 1,3, 1215 a 11-12.

[38]

1 Cf. Polit., I, 4, 1254 a 71-77, 1255 b 40 -- "It is clear," Aristotle teaches, "that certain men are by nature free, and others slaves, and that for the latter slavery is at once just and expedient" (Ibid., 5, 1255 a 2-3, author's translation). On the other hand (ch. 6) he questions the legitimacy of enslaving prisoners of war.

[39]

1 Eudemian Ethics, I, 4, 1215 b 12-14; cf. Nicomachean Ethics, X, 7.

2 Ibid., VII, 15, 1249 b 16-19.

3 Polit., I, 5, 1254 b 4-5.

[40]

1 Eudemian Ethics, II, 3, 1221 b 1-3.

2 Ibid., II, 5, 1222 a 41-42.

[41]

1 Hamelin, Le Système d'Aristote, Paris: Alcan, 1931.

2 On Interpretation, 9, 19 a 30-34, in The Basic Works of Bristotle, ed. Richard McKeon, New York: Random House, 1941.

3 Ibid., 18 b 26-35.

4 Eudemian Ethics, 1, 5, 1216 b 21-25.

5 Nicomachean Ethics, II, 4, 1105 b 1-2.

[42]

1 Polit., 1, 2, 1253 a 29.

2 Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Sum. theol., II, 188, 8: "Sicut ergo id quod jam perfectum est, praeeminet ei quod ad perfectionem exercetur, ita vita solitariorum, si debite assumatur, praeeminet vitae sociali. Si autem absque praecedenti exercitio talis vita assumatur, est periculosissima, nisi per divinam graham suppleatur quod in aliis per exercitium acquiritur; sicut patet de beatis Antonio et Benedicto."

3 Nicomachean Ethics, X, 7, 1177 b 26.

4 Ibid., 1177 b 30-31.

[43]

1 Politics, III, 13, 1284 a 3-1284 b 34.

2 Ibid., 1284 b 30-31.

3 Ibid., 1284 a 10-11.

4 Cf. Eudemian Ethics, I, 4,1215 a 34-1215 b 4.

5 Politics, VII, 2, 1324 a 25-34.

6 In the rest of his discussion Aristotle is chiefly preoccupied with showing that the life of the despot or power-hungry man, who sacrifices virtue and justice to success, is worth nothing compared to the life of the statesman who is eminent in virtue as well as in capacity for action, and who never strays from justice (cf. VII, 3, 1325 b). But if he denounces the error of those who, putting the enjoyment of liberty without care above all else, "place inactivity above action" (1325 a 31), let us not forget that for Aristotle contemplation is the highest form of activity. Thus his apology for the authentic statesman is also, and even more, an apology for the life of the philosopher: to such a degree that since the best life for the city is the same as the best life for the individual, he considers the ideal condition for the city to be one of self-sufficiency, of having all its activity within itself, as it is for "God and the universe". (VII, 3, 1325 b 14-32.)

7 Cf. Nicomachean Ethics, X, 7, 1177 b 19-23 and 1177 b 22-1178 a 2. Quoted below, p. 47.

[44]

1 The happiness of the city, and of humanity taken collectively, is the same sort of happiness as the happiness of the individual. (Polit., VII, 2, 1324 a 5-7; 3, 1325 b 14-16; 1325 b 23-32) -- Cf. Polit., VII, 13, 1332 a 30-38; 14, 1333 a 11-16; 1333 b 36- 37; 15, 1334 a 11-40.

2 Politics, VII, 1, 1323 b 30-36.

3 Cf. Nicomachean Ethics, 1, 2, 1094 b 6-10: "For even if the end is the same for a single man and for a state, that of the state seems at all events something greater and more complete whether to attain or to preserve; though it is worth while to attain the end merely for one man, it is finer and more godlike to attain it for a nation or for city-states."

4 Cf. Sum. theol., I-II, 21, 4 ad 3: "Homo non ordinatur ad communitatem politicam secundum se totum et secundum omnia sua." -- For a more fundamental understanding of the relation between individual and society one must have recourse to the distinction between individuality and personality which we consider one of the keys to the philosophy of St. Thomas. ("Ratio partis contrariatur rationi personae," in III Sent., d. 5, q. 3, a. 2, resp. Cf. our book The Person and the Common Good (New York: Scribners, 1947), p. 61, and note 39 same page.) This distinction has been the source of many misunderstandings because certain intellects who are made uncomfortable by metaphysical "subtleties" took it for a distinction between things, whereas it is a distinction between one ratio and another, let us say between two notional aspects or two different poles of intelligibility within the same concrete "thing", which is the individual person. Cf. our books Three Reformers (New York: Scribners, 1937; London: Sheed and Ward, 1932), pp. 193-194; Du Régime Temporel et de la Liberté (Paris: Desclée De Brouwer et Cie, 1933), pp. 55-65.

5 Cf. for example Summa contra Gentiles, III, 17: "Bonum gentis est divinius quam bonum unius hominis"

6 Politics 1,1, 1252 a 3-5.

[45]

1 Nicomachean Ethics, 1, 2, 1094 a 27-29.

2 Cf. Magna Moralia, 1, 1, 1181 a-1181 b.

3 In Ethic., I, lect. 2, n. 31.

4 Cf. De Virt. in communi, a. 9; De Virt. cardin., a. 4; in III Sent., dist. 33, q. 1, a. 4, resp.; Sum. theol., 1-11, 65, 2; In Polit., Prooemium, no. 7.

5 In Ethic., I, lect. 2, n. 31.

6 Ibid., I, lect. 1, n. 6.

7 "Virtutes cardinales ordinantur ad bonum civile," writes St. Thomas, De Virt. cardin., 4, obj. 3 (but "bonum ci vile non est finis ultimus virtutum cardinalium infusarum, sed virtutum acquisitarum de quibus philosophi sunt locuti", ibid., ad 3).

[46]

1 Cf. our book, The Person and the Common Good, pp. 75-76.

2 Cf. below, Chap. V, p. 76.

3 Cf. our books The Person and the Conunon Good, pp. 52-55 and 71-74, and Man and the State, Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1951, pp. 148-150; London: Hollis and Carter, 1954.

[47]

1 Nicomachean Ethics, X, 7, 1177 b 19-22.

2 Ibid., 1177 b 32-1178 a 2.

[48]

1 Eudemian Ethics, 1, 3, 1215 a 13-19.

2 Cf. Eudemian Ethics, 1, 5, 1215 b 20-22.

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