‘Natural Inclinations’ in Aquinas and His Modern Interpreters



• ‘Natural Inclinations’ in Aquinas and his Modern Interpreters

  Item Type	Journal Article
  Author	Tom Angier
  Abstract	In this paper, I tackle Aquinas’s notion of ‘natural inclinations’, specifically as it occurs in his seminal elaboration of the natural law in Summa Theologiae I-II. Question 94. Article 2. Maintaining that it constitutes a departure from Aristotle’s terminology, and is hence puzzling, I go on to investigate a raft of modern, mainly Anglophone, interpretations of the concept. Beginning with Jacques Maritain, I move through the broadly chronological sequence of John Finnis, Jean Porter, Steven Jensen, Justin Matchulat and Stephen Brock. In each case, I argue that – despite these scholars’ philosophical ingenuity and textual facility – there are crucial problems with their respective approaches and construals. I end the paper by outlining my own construal of ‘natural inclinations’, which, even if not bolstered by heavy textual scholarship, is at least coherent and, moreover, avoids the philosophical pitfalls of the above interpretations.
  Date	2023
  Language	English
  Rights	© 2023 Aletheia - Associação Científica e Cultural
  Volume	79
  Pages	261-284
  Publication	Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia
  DOI	10.17990/RPF/2023_79_1_0261
  Issue	1-2
  ISSN	0870-5283 ; 2183-461X
  Date Added	31/07/2023, 7:21:44 PM
  Modified	31/07/2023, 9:23:28 PM

  Tags:

  • Aquinas, Brock, natural inclinations, natural law, Maritain.

  Notes:

  • Andersen, Svend. ‘Theological Ethics, Moral Philosophy, and Natural Law’. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 4, no. 4 (2001): 349–64.

    Angier, Tom. Natural Law Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021.

    Angier, Tom. ‘The Ontological and Epistemological Foundations of Natural Law’. In The Cambridge Handbook of Natural Law and Human Rights, edited by Tom Angier, Iain T. Benson and Mark D. Retter, ch. 8, 119–32. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023.

    Aristotle. The Complete Works of Aristotle, edited by Jonathan Barnes (in 2 vols). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984.

    Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologica, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1947.

    Brock, Stephen L. ‘Natural Inclinations and the Intelligibility of the Good in Thomistic Natural Law’. Vera Lex VI, no. 1-2 (2005): 57–78.

    Brock, Stephen L. The Light that Binds: A Study in Thomas Aquinas’s Metaphysics of Natural Law. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2020.

    Finnis, John. Aquinas: Moral, Political, and Legal Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

    Finnis, John. Natural Law and Natural Rights, 2nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

    Finnis, John, Germain Grisez and Joseph Boyle. ‘Practical Principles, Moral Truth, and Ultimate Ends’. The American Journal of Jurisprudence 32, no. 1 (1987): 99–151.

    Grisez, Germain G. ‘The First Principle of Practical Reason: A Commentary on the Summa Theologiae, 1-2, Question 94, Article 2’. Natural Law Forum 107 (1965): 168–201.

    Haldane, John. ‘Reasoning About the Human Good, and the Role of the Public Philosopher’. In Reason, Morality, and Law: The Philosophy of John Finnis, edited by Jonathan Keown and Robert P. George, 37–55. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.

    Jensen, Steven J. ‘Aquinas’. In The Cambridge Companion to Natural Law Ethics, edited by Tom Angier, ch. 2, 31–50. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.

    Maritain, Jacques. Man and the State. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 1951.

    Maritain, Jacques. Maritain. Challenges and Renewals: Selected Readings, edited by Joseph W. Evans and Leo. R. Ward. Cleveland, OH: Meridian Books, 1966.

    Maritain, Jacques. Natural Law: Reflections on Theory and Practice. South Bend, IN: St. Augustine’s Press, 2001.

    Matchulat, Justin. ‘Thomas Aquinas on Natural Inclinations and the Practical Cognition of Human Goods: A Fresh Take on an Old Debate’. American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 94, no. 2 (2020): 239–71.

    Oderberg, David S. ‘The Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Law’. In Natural Moral Law in Contemporary Society, edited by H. Zaborowski, 44–75. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2010.

    Porter, Jean. Nature as Reason: A Thomistic Theory of the Natural Law. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2005.

    Porter, Jean. ‘Does the Natural Law Provide a Universally Valid Morality?’. In Intractable Disputes about the Natural Law: Alasdair MacIntyre and His Critics, edited by L. S. Cunningham, 53–95. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2009.

    Seagrave, S. Adam. ‘Cicero, Aquinas, and Contemporary Issues in Natural Law Theory’. The Review of Metaphysics 62, no. 3: 491–523.

    Williams, Bernard A. O. ‘Internal and External Reasons’. In Moral Luck, 101–113. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.