善そのものの認識 : アリストテレスの場合とトマスの場合

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to suggest the interpretation that the " naturale clesiderium" of Thomas Aquinas, referred to in his Summa Theologica and Summa contra Gentiles, is substantially an Aristotelian concept. " Naturale" in its originally Aristotelian sense proves flexible enough to meet even the utterly unanticipated case of " the Christian man", although, as is notably exemplified in Augustine's experiences, the " naturale desiderium " of the Christian man was practically shown to extend beyond our naturalia (here, of course, in contrast with super-naturalia) as far as to visio Dei as its ultimus finis. This fact, needless to say, has nothing to do with the question of whether Thomas mixed up what he himself methodically distinguished as philosophy and theology. The paper compares in this connection the attitude of Aristotle and of Thomas towards the Platonic ιοεα του αγαθου in its deepest motivation, and comes to the conclusion that, while Aristotle seriously weakened his system by completely expelling Plato's "the Good Itself" from his practical philosophy, Thomas, accepting Aristotle for the most part in the realm of philosophy, succeeded in making his Aristotelianism of more consequence than the original. And this was solely because he was enterprising enough to introduce "the Good Itself" of Plato in its christianised form into his philosophy.