Love and the First Principles of St. Thomas's Natural Law (Volumes I and II)
Publisher: University Microfilms International
Published: 1989
Place of publication: Ann Arbor, MI    (c)1988 R. Mary Hayden  Contact copyright holder at rmlemmons@stthomas.edu
Language: eng
Format: Microform
Subjects: Thomas, -- Aquinas, Saint, -- 1225?-1274.; Thomas, -- Aquinas, Saint, -- 1225?-1274 -- Contributions in the concept of natural law; Natural law
Genres: morality love
First sentence: In the prima secundae of the Summa Theologiae [question 100, article three], St. Thomas Aquinas begins his response to an objection about whether all moral precepts of the Old Law reduce to the Decalogue by stating that the scriptural prescriptions of loving God and neighbor are the first general principles of the natural law: "Thus in response to the first [objection] it must be said that those two precepts {Thou shalt love thy neighbor, as stated in Matt. xxii.37, 39] are the first and common precepts of  natural law, that are self-evident to human reason, either through nature or through faith. Wherefore all the precepts of the Decalogue are referred to these as conclusions to common principles."
Description: This dissertation argues that the love precepts concerning God and neighbor are the first principles of Aquinas's natural law.  The argument occurs in two main stages divided into two volumes. The first stage, found in Volume One, uses Aquinas's generic definition of law and his specific definition of natural law to establish the essential characteristics of natural law principles and to resolve key foundational problems dealing with natural law's source of obligatoriness, promulgation through self-evidence, the role of natural inclinations, and relationship to Christian faith and revelation. The second stage, found in Volume Two, uses the findings of the first volume to argue that since the two loves prescribed by natural law significantly differ from Christian charity, they can be first principles of natural law.
Notes: Includes index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of St. Thomas, 1988, (xi, 487 leaves).

Bibliography: leaves 468-481.
Table of contents: label: One
class: part
title: Introduction to Volumes One and Two; title: Nature of Law
class: part
label: Two; title: Reason's Ordination of Natural Law
class: part
label: Three; title: Promulgation of Natural Law Precepts
class: part
label: Four; label: Five
class: part
title: Summary of Volume One; title: Preliminary Considerations: Natural Love and the Possibility of the Love Precepts
class: part
label: Six; title: Love of Neighbor As Self
class: part
label: Seven; label: Eight
class: part
title: Love of God as a Natural Law Precept; label: Nine
class: part
title: The Primacy of the Love Precepts; label: Ten
class: part
title: A Summary of Volume Two