The Hidden God. Achilles, Aquinas, and Moral Action in an Ordered World

• Authors: Daniel Fitzpatrick
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The central goals of this essay are three: (1) to situate St. Thomas’s moral psychology within his cosmology, with special emphasis on the notion of virtual quantity; (2) to illuminate and confirm that moral psychology through an examination of Achilles as Homer present him in the Iliad; (3) to suggest that if St. Thomas’s picture of the psychological landscape can be validated by reference to Homer, then so, too, might his metaphysical portraiture bear more credence than it is typically awarded. Particular attention will be given to Achilles’ anger and the psychological distinctions by which St. Thomas makes such anger and its attendant acts intelligible.

Keywords

EN

St. Thomas Aquinas; Homer; Achilles; moral psychology; virtual quantity; anger

• Publisher: International Étienne Gilson Society
• Journal: Studia Gilsoniana
• Year: 2017
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 197-220

Dates

published

2017-06-30

Contributors

author

Daniel Fitzpatrick

• Holy Apostles College and Seminary, Cromwell, CT, USA

References

• Aquinas, Thomas. Commentary on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Trans. C. I. Litzinger, O.P. Notre Dame: Dumb Ox Books, 1993.
• Aquinas, Thomas. On Being and Essence. Trans. by Armand Maurer. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1968.
• Aquinas, Thomas. On the Teacher. In Thomas Aquinas. Selected Writings. Ed. Ralph McInerny. London: Penguin, 1998, 193-216.
• Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologica. Trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province. New York: Cosimo, 2007.
• Homer. The Iliad. Trans. Richmond Lattimore. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961.
• Maurer, Armand. Medieval Philosophy: An Introduction. New York: Random House, 1982.
• McInerny, Ralph. “Introduction” [to “What Makes Actions Good or Bad”]. In Thomas Aquinas. Selected Writings. Ed. Ralph McInerny. London: Penguin, 1998, 565.
• O’Rourke, Fran. Pseudo-Dionysius and the Metaphysics of Aquinas. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005.

Identifiers

ISSN

2300-0066