Chapter 15 Aristotle and Aquinas

Intended Learning Outcomes: At the end of this chapter, the students are expected to:

1. Articulate what virtue ethics is;

2. Critique virtue ethics; and
3. Make use of virtue ethics.

15.1 Aristotle's ethics is the protracted answer to three basic questions:

(1) Who am I? (2) How should I live? (3) Where am I going?

• To these questions, Aristotle responds by explaining that we are social beings; that
we should live a life of virtue in accordance with reason; and that our end is happiness.

• Aristotle's ethics is very sensible. He elaborates on the fact that we are social beings
who, if we are to achieve happiness, must be reasonable and live a life of virtue.

• If there is a flaw or weakness in this scheme, it is because Aristotle assigns reason far
more prominence than love.

• We know that a cunning person who is not concerned about behaving ethically can
employ reason in ways that are not virtuous. Reason, then, does not guarantee virtue.

15.2 Aquinas asks four questions:

(1) Who am I? (2) What should I do? (3) How can I do what I should do? (4) Where am I
going?

• Aquinas answers the first question, in effect, by explaining that we are simultaneously
unique individuals as well as socially responsible beings. In a word, we are persons.

• What we should do, essentially, is love. The way we express love is through virtue.

• If we are bereft of virtue, we are unable to express love.

• Finally, our destiny is happiness (beatitude) that begins in this world, but is
consummated with God.

The difference between the ethics of Aristotle and Aquinas has to do with how virtue
comes about. It is reasonable to be virtuous. Surely "honesty is the best policy." That is
simply a reasonable statement that does not require love. And virtue, for Aristotle, lies
between two extremes. Thus, the virtue of courage, for example, is the midpoint between
the vices of timidity and foolishness. This is all very sensible, though something is missing.

Perhaps Aristotle overestimated our capacity to be reasonable and under-estimated

the importance of love. Whereas Aristotle links virtue to reason, Aquinas links it more
properly to love. Therefore, as the Angelic doctor states, "Love is the form of all
virtues." This means that every virtue derives its degree of virtuousness by its association
with love.

In his book The Four Loves, C. S. Lewis refers to a poem entitled, "Love Is Enough" and
the critic who is said to have responded to it by stating, tersely, "It isn't." Just as virtue needs
love as its root, love needs virtue for its mode of expression. Aquinas asked and responded
to the core question that Aristotle tended to ignore: "How can I be virtuous (since reason
does not always direct me to what is good)?"

Aristotle had the right outline, but Aquinas filled in a critical gap. The Christian
attitude seems more realistic than the pagan one. St. Paul tells us how he agonized over the
fact that he was neglectful in doing what he should do and guilty of doing the evil he knew
he should avoid. We read in Matthew 26: 41, "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into
temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." We need not only love, but grace, as
well, in order to be virtuous.

A handy way of putting it is that love

for others evolves in three
stages: attentiveness, appreciation,
and affection.

Many of today's self-help books proceed from the assumption that it is reasonable to
do the virtuous thing and unreasonable to do the opposite. But rational man does not
become virtuous by reading a book, though a book might set him on the right path. He
becomes virtuous when he is able to love.

Ethics
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Module

USMKCC-COL-F-050