The Engaged Thomist

St. Thomas Aquinas is probably most well known for his “Five Ways”, Quinquae Viae, found in the Summa Theologiae (ST I, q. 2, a. 3). However, these arguments are frequently misunderstood because they are often presented totally removed from their relation to the rest of Aquinas’s corpus, which makes them appear much weaker than they actually are. For example, Aquinas’s First Way is often displayed as being nothing more than a reiteration of Aristotle's argument for an unmoved mover in Book 8 of the physics, however this fails to capture the novelty of the First Way, and the other Five Ways in general (Physics 251a8-251b10). The actual power of these arguments comes from Aquinas’s metaphysics of esse as presented in the De ente et essentia . This power is mostly clearly observable in chapter 4 of the De ente et essentia because this is where Aquinas provides his argument for God’s existence as first cause while explicitly utilizing his metaphysics of esse . In order to fully ...

Introduction The role of patriotism and patriotic priority in addressing global justice concerns is a source of contention in contemporary political philosophy. Some philosophers argue that nationality, and its corresponding patriotic duties, either do not exist or should not be significant factors when assessing what nations and peoples should do in order to work towards remedying global injustices. In stark contrast to these thinkers, philosophers like David Miller argue that national ties are morally significant and that they must be factored into global justice considerations.  In this paper, I will first explicate what patriotism is with references to Igor Primoratz’s SEP article on patriotism and sources found in that article. I will then argue that patriotism, and its moral derivative patriotic priority, are morally significant and a moral good with the help of Alasdair MacIntyre’s awareness of the epistemological importance that community and nation have for human moral f...