Aquinas on Temperance

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 temperanc...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Chua, Reginald Mary (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Wiley-Blackwell 2019
In: New blackfriars
Year: 2019, Volume: 100, Issue: 1085, Pages: 5-21
Further subjects:B Temperance
B Rationality
B Aquinas
B Sexuality
B Virtue Ethics
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Parallel Edition:Electronic
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Summary: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.
ISSN:1741-2005
Contains:Enthalten in: New blackfriars
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/nbfr.12329