Aquinas on Virtue and the Path to Happiness | Prof. Josh Hochschild & Prof. Jane Sloan Peters

9 snips

Sep 30, 2024

Josh Hochschild is a Professor of Philosophy renowned for his work in medieval ethics, and Jane Sloan Peters is an Assistant Professor specializing in biblical interpretation. They delve into Aristotle's take on virtue and the lack of piety in his ethics, contrasting it with Aquinas's views on faith and moral living. The discussion emphasizes the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the role of contemplation for happiness, and how virtues aid in understanding complex theological truths, making the journey to true fulfillment a blend of intellect and divine guidance.

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INSIGHT

Aristotle's Implicit Piety

Aristotle does not explicitly mention piety among virtues in Nicomachean Ethics, despite its cultural importance.
He indirectly addresses it through contemplation of God as the highest good, showing embodied piety rather than defining it.

INSIGHT

Friendship and Justice with God

Aristotle claims friendship and justice only exist among equals with shared goals, excluding friendship with God.
Therefore, piety as justice concerning God is problematic, but ultimate happiness arises from contemplation of God.

ADVICE

Embrace the Spirit's Gifts

Do not neglect the gifts of the Holy Spirit in moral life, as Aquinas views them as normative for baptized Christians.
Include these gifts alongside cardinal and theological virtues to fully understand Aquinas's moral theology and path to happiness.

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Professors Josh Hochschild and Jane Sloan Peters participate in a two-person panel. First Professor Hochschild examines Aristotle’s concept of piety and its apparent absence in his writing, suggesting that Aristotle may talk about piety indirectly and in a more embodied way through discussion of contemplation of God. Then Professor Peters moves the discussion from the philosophical to the theological, specifically Aquinas’ moral theology. She discusses the often-overlooked importance of the gifts of the Holy Spirit along with the cardinal and theological virtues. Finally, the discussion explains how the gifts of the Holy Spirit complement the virtues and are necessary for salvation.

This lecture was given on June 29th, 2024, at The Dominican House of Studies.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events

About the Speakers:

Joshua Hochschild is Professor of Philosophy at Mount St. Mary’s University, where he also served six years as the inaugural Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. His primary research is in medieval logic, metaphysics, and ethics, with broad interest in liberal education and the continuing relevance of the Catholic intellectual tradition. He is the author of The Semantics of Analogy: Rereading Cajetan’s De Nominum Analogia (2010), translator of Claude Panaccio’s Mental Language: From Plato to William of Ockham (2017), and co-author of A Mind at Peace: Reclaiming an Ordered Soul in the Age of Distraction (2017). His writing has appeared in First Things, Commonweal, Modern Age and the Wall Street Journal. For 2020-21 he served as President of the American Catholic Philosophical Association.

Jane Sloan Peters is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, NY. Her dissertation explored Thomas Aquinas's reception of Greek patristic and Byzantine biblical interpretation for his four-volume commentary on the Gospels, the Catena Aurea. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and two sons.