Ebook: Disputed Questions on Virtue

Contemporary readers approaching one of Plato's Socratic dialogues for the first time will be drawn in quickly. The vivid characterization, the drama of the debate, and the importance of the resolution will all be clear to them. We can expect much the same when they read Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy or Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments, two of the most engaging ethical texts in Western thought. But on picking up a copy of Aquinas' Disputed Questions on Virtue, these same readers might at first be mystified and confused. Each article is headed by a mass of objections that seem to come from nowhere, the terse replies are filled with technical language and complex arguments, and it is not immediately clear why Aquinas treats the particular topics he discusses. Each article piles more of the same on the earlier ones, and a quick perusal of the work might impress us as just so much sound and fury. The task I undertook in writing the commentary on these disputations was precisely to demystify them so that contemporary students and scholars can see their considerable value. The language, it is true, is technical, but no more so than Aristotle's. The arguments are complex but wonderfully clear, and Aquinas' crisp and plain style is perfectly suited for elucidating their structure. The topics for discussion grew out of Aquinas' own engagement with thinkers who shaped his intellectual milieu, including those long past, such as Aristotle and Augustine; those more recently past, such as Peter Lombard and W illiam of Auxerre; and those alive at the time Aquinas was writing. In this respect, his practice was no different from that of contemporary writers on ethics. Moreover, Aquinas orders the discussion of these topics carefully and crafts his discussions ingeniously in order to accomplish his overarching goal: to develop a theory of virtue that is both intellectually satisfying and morally and spiritually advantageous. Disputed Questions on Virtue is an astounding accomplishment in its own right and, together with its companion piece, the Second Part of the Summa Theologiae, constitutes one of the few truly great ethical systems in Western thought. The philosophical commentary that accompanies the translation does most of the work of clarifying and explaining Aquinas' views. In this brief introduction, I will simply try to put the Disputed Questions in its context by saying a few words of background about its author, the practice of disputation, and why Aquinas thought virtue so important for human life.