Aprehension of the first principles of natural law in Thomas Aquinas

• Grant number: 10/06840-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: September 01, 2010
• End date: August 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: José Carlos Estêvão
• Grantee: Joel Pinheiro da Fonseca
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The subject of this dissertation is the aprehension of the principles of natural law in the thought of Thomas Aquinas. According to him, practical reason, which is human reason applied to action, functions in a way analogous to speculative reason: both of them arrive, deductively, at conclusions based on previous premises. But for this movement to be possible there must be certain first principles, not dependent on any previous premise and which must, therefore, be directly aprehended by the intellect. For speculative reason, the first principle is the principle of non-contradiction; for practical reason, it is "good is to be pursued, evil is to be avoided". This first principle, as well as others derived from it, is aprehended by what Thomas calls "synderesis". In order to properly describe it, this dissertation will consist of two parts: first, it will be shown what "synderesis" is (whether a supernatural intuition, a power of the soul, a habit or something else) and how it works; secondly, how it moves from the first purely formal principle to the aprehension of further general principles, which indicate in very broad terms what the good of man consists in.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

FONSECA, Joel Pinheiro da. Apprehension of the first principles of Aquinas\'s natural law. 2014. Master's Dissertation - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD) São Paulo.