RT Article
T1 Aquinas on Temperance
JF New blackfriars
VO 100
IS 1085
SP 5
OP 21
A1 Chua, Reginald Mary
LA English
PB Wiley-Blackwell
YR 2019
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1780358652
AB The purpose of this essay is to explore, and clarify, some key features in Aquinas’ account of the virtue of temperance, with an eye to answering some common objections raised against a positive evaluation of temperance. In particular, I consider three features of Aquinas’ understanding of temperance: First, the role of the rational mean in temperance; second, the role of rightly ordered passions in temperance; and third, the ‘despotic’ control of reason over the passions in temperance. Along the way I consider three common objections to Aquinas’ account of temperance: the objection that temperance can be misused for evil, the objection that temperance devalues effort, and the objection that temperance devalues strong passions and thereby implicitly devalues the goodness of sexuality. In responding to these objections on behalf of Aquinas, I take the opportunity to clarify and slightly extend Aquinas’ account of temperance.
K1 Sexuality
K1 Rationality
K1 Temperance
K1 Virtue Ethics
K1 Aquinas
DO 10.1111/nbfr.12329