トマス倫理思想の基礎 : 至福への本性的欲求について

Abstract

The moral theory of St. Thomas is a teleological one. In a teleological moral theory, every moral act is declared to be good or bad according as it is or is not compatible with the attainment of the supreme good. Consequently St. Thomas's idea about the supreme good is a basis of his moral theory. Thus this paper as an attempt at clarification of St. Thomas's idea about the supreme good embodies a basic study of his moral theory. In clarifying the idea in question, the author does the following. In the first place, the author premises, on the basis of an interpretation of Sum. theol. I-II, q. 1-3, that St. Thomas finds the supreme good to us in our intuitive knowledge of God. Secondly, the author tries to determine the exact meaning in which St. Thomas contends that man has a natural desire for intuitive knowledge of God. This determination is pursued by way of examination of some interpretaions, of which the author finds most adequate A. R. Motte's suggestive interpretation that St. Thomas views man in the concrete as being called to a supernatural end. And the author construes St. Thomas's view as thus interpreted as implying that God could not have created man without directing him to intuitive knowledge of God. Finally, the author argues that through an appropriate construal of Sum. theol. I, q. 19 & 93, St. Thomas is really found to be thinking that God could not have created man without directing him to intuitive knowledge of God.