Aristotle and Aquinas's Views on the Human Good - Essay Example

In his argument of a good citizen, he contends whether the virtue of the good man and the excellent citizen is to be regarded as the same or as not the same.... That a good man is the one who lives in accordance with virtue and finds happiness in doing so.... Turning to positions various political philosophers would have taken on these two global phenomena, we need to closely scrutinize their thoughts on citizenship, liberties, freedom, and human rights....

Hundreds of years later, Christians today still subscribe to Aquinas' belief that it is possible to distinguish truths about God based on both human reasoning and revelations from God.... Aquinas was, as were many intellectuals of his time, influenced by the works of aristotle (384-322 BC) who had argued that for something to be created or to changed necessitated the influence of an outside source....

Among other similarities in thinking, both philosophers emphasize on the importance of law in ethics and both make claims that certain kinds of actions are good and evil in themselves (Hinton, 2002).... Kant and Aquinas agreed that ethics are derived from practical reasoning and suggested that this concept allows one to distinguish good actions from bad ones.... Aquinas held that what is good should always hold superiority over what is right....

The philosophical concept of ethics draws a perspective of what is good or bad in the society in aid to help in drawing an understanding of disputes that encompass moral diversity.... The aristotle's moral theory is the most appropriate because it is focused on promoting virtues irrespective of the prevailing circumstances....

Any 'will' can be good or bad, as defined in the terms of goodwill and bad intention.... These terms being the virtues of good and evil, imply that cause cannot always be associated with goodness.... ccording to the philosopher, Saint Thomas, goodness is termed as transcendental, as it encompasses all the categories, like quantity, quality, and substance, which are associated with goodness as good quality, good substance and so on....

For instance, in the first book of Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle claims that happiness (or eudaimonia) is such thing that all people should strive to achieve, but not because people tend to satisfy their selfish needs, but because good must be itself a goal.... Aristotle's “Nicomachean Ethics” (books from 1 to 3) is absolutely a unique text that considers the cores of what does it really mean to be happy and how to become a virtuous human being.... This touched me deeply when I was reading the book, because it made me think of those wrong values like having constant fun or being careless and I realized that this is not how a rational human being should behave....

Aquinas asserted that the fundamental command is that good should be pursued while evil should be avoided, and this is a command that is supposed to be obeyed by everyone (St.... human beings are sinful in nature as reflected in their way of interaction with the natural laws.... nbsp; In his understanding of the natural law, Aquinas underscores the sinful nature of human beings with regards to their treatment of non-believers.... He terms this tendency as the most sinful perversion of human tendencies that culminate into sin....

This work "The Problem of Ensoulment" describes modern views on the process of ensoulment, hylomorphic concepts of this issue.... Modern views on the process of ensoulment, however, are considered to undermine the traditional religious beliefs on this issue.... His opinions on these interpretations are as follows: the first one is impossible and absurd because it results in the conjoining of the twins and dissociative disorder, the second variant is problematic because, first, it could suggest a possibility of two deaths, and, second, the embryo could become a new human being which contradicts with the generally accepted theological suggestion of ensoulment happening at fertilization, and the third is “the safest bet… where one soul would be removed and the other would remain and be attached to the new fused product”....