Knowledge of the basic goods by Thomas Aquinas

There are 2 views that arise in the understanding of the Basic goods by Aquinas, these are Derivationism &
Inclinationism. Before dicussing the two lets define Derivation and Inclination.

Derivation - the obtaining or developing of something from a source or origin.

Inclination- a person's natural tendency or urge to act or feel in a particular way.

Knowing the meaning of the 2 words lets now discuss what is its role in the understanding of the basic goods.

Derivationism is the idea that people can only identify what is good by deriving it from Human Nature. It can either be
from plain sight or looking in a person’s perspective or based on a scientific observation of humans. Example: According
to Aquinas human is a sociable creature that it is in our nature to be a part of a pack or group thus it is one of the basic
goods. We tend to seek to be a part of a group like families group of friends, society and such kinds.

While Inclinationism is the idea that states people can innately identify what is good. This is reflection or reflecting on
immediately or underived knowable facts about our own inclinations, or desires likes and preferences. Example:
Creatures have their own inclinations like for example in animal food chains, herbivores like to eat grass as it is in its
preferences while carnivores eat meats of other animals because it is in their instinct that they cannot .

Now lets proceed to aquinas’ basic goods.

The first one is Life, aquinas believes that creatures identify their life as a good thing and that they need to preserve it.
Example: when we encounter a shark during swimming we wouldn’t stop and stare at the shark our human nature or
insticnt tells us to swim away and escape in order to live.

Next is procreation, As we preserver our life aquinas also believes that it is in our nature to reproduce and create more
life, as there are creatures that can reporduce by themselves but human and other animals tend to do a process called
mating in order to reproduce. Also after producing offsprings part of the procreation process it that parents educate
offspring like teaching baby animals to hunt for their own food.

Next is Sociability,Some say that this good can only be applied to humans in terms that we are the only creature capable
of speaking. But no, As creatures created by god, animals tend to be a part of a group or a pack which is also sociablity
whilst humans tend to be like that too and that our way of thinking according to aquinas is that when we are part of a
pact or a group we tend to protect and preserve their lives to in order to gain acknowledgement.

Knowledge- Aquinas said that humans tend to be curious about things that we cant identify so we sought for knowledge
of these things. An example is humans sought to identify the truth behind God’s existence, as we desire to know more
about gods. It can also be reflected nowadays as no one is still able to prove the existence of god with scientific
explanations hence the argument between the religious beliefs and scientific studies.

Lastly is Rational Conduct, aquinas believes that humans have this behavior or thought process in which we make
choices depending on what we believe will give us more benefits. Example when we choose our career we always
choose whichever will we gain more income to support our family.

so that’s it for my report of the knowledge of the basic goods. Another version of the basics goods are to be discussed by
the next reporter which is Ms. Manaloto.