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The Concept of Relation in the Thomistic Perception of a Person

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Procopiou E.

Studia Gilsoniana

2016

vol. 5

issue 4

619-632

The article aims to show that the connection of the metaphysics of being with Aristotle’s philosophy of nature allows for the composition of anthropology per se which involves the concept of a person as it emerges from the two fundamental issues: the metaphysical approach to a person ontologically connected with nature, and the concept of a person as relation. The article concludes with the claim that, in Thomistic anthropology, the supernatural world of persons coexists with the natural world of persons who are subject to cosmic order and legal relations. Thus, a person’s inclusion in the framework of legal relations and its ontological liberation in the supernatural field open up the way for the social acknowledgement of the human person.

The Thomistic Perception of the Person and Human Rights

100%

Procopiou E.

Studia Gilsoniana

2017

vol. 6

issue 1

131-152

The idea of human rights is connected to the modern perception of law founded on subjectivity, in the context of which rights are authorizations of individual action versus a higher authority, resulting in a subjectivity of law. The huge importance of the thomistic perception of the person is connected with the issue of relations between the individual and society, as well as relations between law and state, since Thomas Aquinas foresaw what we call ‘rights of man’. Thus, the person, in a metaphysical context, is associated with natural order, since natural sociability forms the basis of a person’s supernatural fulfillment. Because of his social nature, the person is also a carrier of social relations and a product of his own encounter with other persons. In this way, Thomas Aquinas makes a synthesis of man per se, as part of mankind, and man as a person vis-à-vis others in the sphere of justice, consisting ‘in rendering to each one his right’. Ius is a relation of justice concerning what is right (iustum) from the point of view of the other, “to whom something is due.” Aquinas can be considered a forerunner of human rights of the modern era, as demonstrated by the issue of natural equity, the issue of unjust law and obedience and the issue of political legitimization. In this framework, “human” or “natural” rights are considered moral rights. However, in the sphere of law they are perceived only within the community and common good, by no means constituting exclusive and absolute rights but only rights corresponding with duties and obligations. The Thomistic approach expresses both the free side of man vis-à-vis the state and its structures (in the spiritual level) and the egalitarian demand of law within social relations. Furthermore, it places the sphere of law on the background of common good and common interest. The Thomistic approach of the human person is a response to the modern perception of legal subjectivity and the priority of individuals, associated with the ideology of rights and leading to a confrontation of individual and society and a division of man to natural man and citizen, a product of the antithesis between society and state.

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2 Studia Gilsoniana

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The Concept of Relation in the Thomistic Perception of a Person

The Thomistic Perception of the Person and Human Rights