Is the Individual Subordinate to the City? A Response through a Consideration of Contemplation
The relationship between the individual person and the political community has been intensely debated by disciples of St. Thomas Aquinas. On the one hand, St. Thomas teaches that the whole is more perfect than the part, which suggests that the individual is ordered to the city as to an end. On the o...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2025
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| In: |
The Thomist
Year: 2025, Volume: 89, Issue: 1, Pages: 65-108 |
| IxTheo Classification: | CB Christian life; spirituality KAE Church history 900-1300; high Middle Ages NBC Doctrine of God NBD Doctrine of Creation NBE Anthropology NCA Ethics VA Philosophy |
| Further subjects: | B
Contemplation
B Ethics B Common Good B Happiness B Aquinas B Politics B Community |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The relationship between the individual person and the political community has been intensely debated by disciples of St. Thomas Aquinas. On the one hand, St. Thomas teaches that the whole is more perfect than the part, which suggests that the individual is ordered to the city as to an end. On the other hand, he holds that man's happiness consists principally in contemplation, which might seem to imply that the city is ordered to the private happiness of the individual. In order to understand St. Thomas's account of the relationship between the individual and the city, one must recognize contemplation itself as a common good that is the chief goal of the city and that is engaged in by the city as such. For St. Thomas, the common good of the political community is the shared life of virtue. This shared life of virtue is realized most fully when citizens delight in the truth together. This shared contemplation finds its supernatural perfection in the act of Christian worship. This understanding of the relationship between contemplation and the common good reveals that it is precisely in the act of contemplation that one most fully fosters and participates in the common good of the city. |
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| ISSN: | 2473-3725 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The Thomist
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/tho.2025.a947192 |
