Aquinas’s Philosophical Commentary on the Ethics

Is Aquinas's "Sententia libri Ethicorum" an interpretation of Aristotle based on "principles of Christian ethics"? Or do we see in the work a presentation of the foundation of Aquinas's moral philosophy? The author answers these questions by examining the historical context within which the "Sententia" was composed. Chapters 1 and 2 establish the work's role as a corrective to earlier commentaries. Chapter 3 examines philosophy at Paris between 1215 and 1283 and so reveals that Aquinas's proposal of a moral philosophy would have been unexceptional. Chapter 4's investigation of the principles underlying the moral theory of the "Sententia" makes it apparent that Aquinas regarded them as both philosophical and Aristotelian. The date to be assigned to the composition of the "Sententia" is studied in Chapter 5, with the conclusion that the work is quite probably the author's final proposal of moral doctrines. The closing chapter summarizes that moral philosophy against the historical background earlier adduced.