God, Man, Economy, and State
Aquinas’s “Letter on the Treatment of the Jews,” part 7 The final topic in Aquinas’s letter returns us to the question of the Jews, and in a way especially portentous in view of later European history: Aquinas agrees with the Countess’s belief, and with a “statue of the general Council,” that Jews should be forced …
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Aquinas’s “Letter on the Treatment of the Jews,” part 6 Surprisingly, one question the Countess asks Aquinas for advice on is whether it is legitimate for a ruler to levy taxes upon her Christian subjects, as well as whether it is legitimate to force them to loan the ruler money when needed. The modern reader …
Aquinas’s “Letter on the Treatment of the Jews,” part 5 Aquinas goes on to say that usury defrauds rulers of their own proper revenue, and that it would be better if princes compel their Jewish subjects to work for their own living rather than practice usury. What this overlooks is Aquinas’s above policy of permitting …
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Aquinas’s “Letter on the Treatment of the Jews,” part 4 While Aquinas has thus far only implied that it was permissible to take from the Jews any money that they acquired through usury, so long as it was returned to the original owner, Aquinas next goes further to suggest that rulers are morally obligated to …
Aquinas’s “Letter on the Treatment of the Jews,” part 3 At the same time, Aquinas is not interested in allowing Christian rulers to take the possessions of their Jewish subjects for just any reason whatever. For the next thing he says is that rulers may not take from their Jewish subjects, at least for their …
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Aquinas’s “Letter on the Treatment of the Jews,” part 2 Right from the start, then, Aquinas’s letter on the Jews is extraordinarily problematic. Jews are basically to be regarded as slaves and so may have their possessions taken from them at will because of the Jews’ unbelief and role in Christ’s death. But why should …
Aquinas's "Letter on the Treatment of the Jews," part 1 In 1271, Thomas Aquinas wrote a letter to Marguerite, the Countess of Flanders and a patroness of the Dominican Order, replying to her request for advice on how a civil ruler ought to treat the Jews within his or her territory, especially regarding the common …
Continue reading "On Taxing the “Perpetual Servitude” of the Jews"
Aquinas's Commentary on Aristotle's Ethics 1.1.6-14 Moral philosophy, or the science of human action, has three principal branches: individual or “monastic” ethics, which studies individual action; domestic ethics, which studies the actions of the household; and political science or politics, which studies the actions of the political community (§6). Some of the first “principles” or …
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Aquinas's Commentary on Aristotle's Ethics 1.1.5 The political communities that human beings form are not mere accidental or incidental aggregations of individual human beings, but are integrated and organic “whole” (totum) that is more than the mere sum of its parts. But just what kind of whole or unity, exactly, is the political community? Aquinas …
Aquinas's Commentary on Aristotle's Ethics 1.1.4 Man is not just a free, rational individual, but he is also by nature a social being, living in community with and depending upon the cooperation of others for those things necessary for living a properly human form of existence. These goods needed for human life Aquinas divides, following …
The Natural Law Libertarian 