Answer to Question #294103 in Political Science for Soul Chan

Question

How is Aquinas’ political philosophy similar to and or different from Aristotle’s?

Answer 1

Thomas Aquinas, much like Aristotle, wrote that nature is organized for good purposes.

Both philosophers Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas describe, in their own words, what happiness means to them and how they think it should be obtained. In the book Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle explains how happiness is a type of flourishing or being successful in life. In the book Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle explains how happiness is a type of flourishing or being successful in life. In Summa Theologica, Aquinas ultimately turns his focus to God and believes to be happy you need to give everything up to God. Both philosophers have their own different views on happiness to compare and contrast.

On the case of difference, Aristotle's Pure Act is a mere giver of forms and the final cause of reality. This Pure Act does not have, nor it can have any other causal influence on the rest of reality, while Aquinas' Unmoved Mover is necessarily the Pure Act of Existence whose activity we call creation.