St. Thomas and John Lock on Human Person

ST. Thomas Aquinas * Aquinas was primarily a Christian theologian. * He viewed human wisdom as structured like a pyramid with the sciences of ethics and politics at its base with philosophy above and theology at its apex. * Natural philosophy are not contradictory but complementary. * Faith and reason are valid in their own realms. * Aquinas’ scholastic method integrates Aristotle’s teleological view of nature into the biblical theology of creation and Christian salvation. * The political condition is a natural condition of human beings as part of creation. * Aquinas states: * Thus the goodness which in God is simple and unique is found in countless and differentiated creatures. Consequently it is the entire universe which shares perfectly the goodness of God and represents it more than one creature by itself. * Human beings are partners with God and politics is necessary even if there was no fall from the Garden of Eden. * Aquinas’ reflections on human mutual dependence: * Nonhuman animals have specific natural defenses (such as claws), whereas humans must rely on reason for their survival. * Human co-creation requires human cooperation and cannot be done by single individuals with their limited talents. * The power of speech show that solitary existence is inappropriate (“nature does nothing in vain”); speech and language provide the mans for interpersonal projects. * Aquinas argues humans must achieve the humanization of the world and eternal salvation and this entails a principle of government within society. * If it is natural for human beings to live in society, then it follows that there must be regulation of society. For not human group can long endure if each person sought only his individual ends. One of them would have to provide for the common interest, just as an organism would break apart unless it had some controlling power in it which worked for the good of all