Saint Thomas Aquinas Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Saint Thomas Aquinas - Essay ExampleIt follows a cycle-God, Gods creation, Man, Mans purpose, Christ, the Sacraments, and back to God. He delves into the various concepts of theological system and explains it with logical and simple reasoning. No wonder it has often been consulted and cited in case of religious discussions and debates over the ages.Since this essay forms a part of our Theory of Rights course, let us digress a bit and try to understand the background of this essay. A right can be defined as a special advantage for obtaining a liberty, a power, an entitlement, or an immunity that someone gains because of his or her particular status. The general notion of right applies in both legal and moral contexts. It was the famous slope philosopher Thomas Hobbes who introduced the English term right into political philosophy with his interpretation of ius naturale as right of nature. As he mentions in the chapter 14 of LeviathanThe right of nature is the liberty for each one m an has to use his own power as he will himself, for the preservation of his own nature, that is to say, of his own life, and consequently of doing anything which, in his own judgment and reason, he shall conceive to be the aptest means thereunto.John Locke and William Paley also offered their significant contributions towards the body of work of the theory of rights. John Locke also an English philosopher argues that God created people deliver and equal in the state of nature. Unlike Hobbes, who supported the theory of natural reason and natural practice of law, Locke proposes the theory of natural right. He further said that as such in this condition, no one is naturally sovereign over anyone else. William Paley, a British divine, best remembered for his watchmaker analogy on the other cut into says that rights are either natural or adventitious and that its distinction here rests on whether rights are created by society or not. It is in this background that we shall feat to co mprehend St Thomass views on law and its specific relation with reason.Coming back now to St Thomas, it is also in Summa Theologica that St Thomas talks about the various aspects of law and the role of justice in human community, his basic premise being that law essentially pertains to reason. It is much later in the Summa Theologica that Thomas turns to the problem of law. His secure treatment of the subject throws light into the coherence of his thought and his confidence in the ability of reason to guide us in making ethical decisions. The classic philosopher Aristotle was perhaps one of the first few great masters who portrayed and analysed the intent behind mans actions in their writing and tried to give it a pellucid form through a well-structured approach. According to Aristotle, the first principle of all activity is reason. It is through reason that we reach an end to any problem or discussion. St Thomas too concurs with Aristotle in this basic premise. Let us now examine in depth St Thomass ideas