Overview

Saint Thomas Aquinas is an Aristotelian (few scholars would question that) and he is the most important author in the entire history of natural law theory. Yet, there is no natural law theory in Aristotle. Even the concept of person, which is so important in Aquinas' ethics, seems to be foreign to Aristotle's culture and thought. How can Aquinas' ethics be said Aristotelian? How can his natural law theory? In From Aristotle to Thomas Aquinas: Natural Law, Practical Knowledge, and the Person, Fulvio Di Blasi argues that Aquinas' concept of natural law, his personalism and his overall approach to moral theory are deeply rooted in the very heart of Aristotle's ethics: in his concepts of practical knowledge, proairesis (moral choice), and practical syllogism, as well as in his account of the moral agency, the ultimate end and human social nature. Di Blasi goes as far as to connect Aquinas' definition of natural law to Aristotle's concept of proairesis. From Aristotle to Thomas Aquinas develops a line of thought that was already sketched in Di Blasi's previous book, God and the Natural Law. Di Blasi engages several authors and critics, including John Finnis, Martin Rhonheimer, Germain Grisez, and Robert George. The first part of the book relates to metaphysics, the concept of good and the concept of practical knowledge. The second part addresses issues in moral philosophy like the concepts of person, the ultimate end, marriage and contraception. The third part applies Aquinas' concepts of natural law, friendship and the person to issues in political philosophy. Di Blasi outlines an ideal of political personalism and the need to recover the concepts of nature and authority in the contemporary political debate. Every student of Aristotle's ethics and politics, and of Aquinas' thought will find this book extremely revealing and stimulating.

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9781587312731

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Fulvio Di Blasi has written a wide-ranging book that articulates and defends a classical Thomistic conception of natural law and brings it to bear on a wide range of contemporary ethical, legal, and political questions. He develops his positions through dialogue with and critique of a variety of contemporary major philosophical figures, both within the natural law tradition and outside of it. Developing and applying key ideas from his earlier God and the Natural Law, he defends a conception of natural law that is based on a natural order that is unintelligible without an understanding of its grounding in and orientation toward its Author. This book is invaluable reading for everyone interested in the revival of the natural law tradition and its centrality for ethical, legal, and political theory. - Christopher Wolfe, Professor of Politics, University of Dallas In this volume, Fulvio Di Blasi exemplifies the integration of natural law reasoning with the whole of Christian ethics. Ranging widely across ethical domains--including the nature of the human person, marriage and contraception, friendship and political life, democracy and liberalism, and beatitude or the goal of human life--Di Blasi exhibits a powerful mind and a spirit energetically committed to the good as known through reason and faith. Anyone who hopes to understand the scope and significance of natural law reasoning must read this book. -- Matthew Levering, James N. and Mary D. Perry, Jr. Chair of Theology, Mundelein Seminary

Author Information

Fulvio Di Blasi is an Italian attorney and an international scholar expert in moral philosophy and natural law theory. He is the Founder and President of the Thomas International Project. He has a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Law from the University of Palermo, and has taught in several universities both in Europe and in America. His books include, God and the Natural Law (2003), John Finnis (2008), Ritorno al Diritto (2009), Questioni di Legge Naturale (2009), and Ancient Wisdom and Thomistic Wit (2017).

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