Aquinas’ Eudaimonism, Natural Law, and Ockham’s Nominalism
Ethics and Policy: Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas defends eudaimonist ethics: the ultimate end of man is happiness. The greatest good that human beings can aspire to is this vision of God. Practical reason is oriented to order human life according to principles and standards. The first principle: “one must seek the good and avoid evil.” The good is that to which we naturally tend. There are certain natural tendencies man, as a rational being, can recognize and infer precepts or rules of conduct. These trends are rooted in human nature and are called natural law, which is immutable and universal. As a natural being, there is a tendency to preserve life; as an animal, to breed and care for children; and as a rational being, to seek the truth and convivencia. Natural law is an expression of the eternal law. Management consists of divine nature, the plan that God has established to govern and rule the world. Only by revelation can we partially access it. Man is sociable by nature and therefore requires the existence of the state. The basic purpose of any state is to achieve the common good. It is a natural institution, autonomous in operation, but subordinate to the Church in matters affecting the salvation of the soul. The state has the capacity to establish positive laws, an adaptation of the natural laws and the specific circumstances of each society. To be valid and legitimate, they must conform to natural law. Law and morality are closely connected, justice being both a moral and foundation of law. This is one of the basic principles of natural law theories.
The Crisis of Scholasticism: William of Ockham
William of Ockham’s late medieval thought refers to an intellectual movement which was widespread during the XIV and XV centuries. He was the initiator of the “via modernorum” with nominalist assumptions and principles:
- The appeal to experience: understanding the senses as the origin, nature tends to be open to our senses.
- Individualism: experience shows that in reality there are only unique individuals. Relations or similarities between individuals are secondary and contingent, without any implication that they share an essence.
- Nominalism: universals do not exist; they are terms or names used to designate a plurality of singular objects that have affinities with each other. They have been freely arranged by God.
- Almighty God: it advocates a radical contingency in the physical and moral world: there are no natural laws. Ethical standards do not have their origin in basic human needs. The only basis of both is the will of God, who wanted it that way.
- Separation between reason and faith: these are separate areas, with no intersection between them. Truths such as the existence or nature of God and the immortality of the soul cannot be proved by reason, belonging exclusively to the realm of faith. He also advocates the separation of church and state.
- Principle of economics: “Ockham’s razor”: “Do not multiply entities without necessity.” Do not assume the existence of more entities than are strictly necessary to explain the facts; exclude any redundant concept. It will be particularly relevant in the approach followed by modern science. The explanation of the phenomena should be as easy and simple as possible, provided it gives sufficient justification for them.
Critique of Scholastic Metaphysics: applying Ockham’s razor, he shattered a critique of metaphysics. The epistemological process is simplified by removing the bodies of knowledge and mental elaborations made by the Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy to explain abstraction. Unnecessary ontological numerous and complex distinctions and determinations of beings, matter/form, essence/existence, power/act, substance/accident… The only real distinction is between one individual and another.