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<p>What Aquinas calls the passions play an important role in his ethics. He discusses eleven different passions, although the most important one for my purposes is the passion of love. Passions are located in what Aquinas calls the sensory appetite, which is one of the capacities that enable human beings to engage in action. They incline the sensory appetite toward a&#xa0;material object evaluated as suitable or away from an unsuitable or dangerous object. Because of their nature as inclinations, passions are able to influence the alternatives we choose to achieve our goals. Since action is an important part of Aquinas’s moral domain, the passions have important implications for his ethics.</p><p>In particular, Aquinas’s account of the passions is significant for his discussion of moral authority. He argues that because women are less capable of controlling their passions, they cannot provide moral guidance for their children. This guidance must be provided by men.</p><p>In this paper, I&#xa0;critique Aquinas’s view of women’s moral authority. In order to set up the discussion, I&#xa0;examine his philosophical psychology, since it provides the foundation for his ethical theory. I&#xa0;present his theory of the passions and their place in the larger account of action and moral appraisal. Finally, I&#xa0;discuss the implications of this account for his understanding of moral authority as it arises in his discussion of marriage and parenthood. I&#xa0;argue that his account of love creates an inconsistency for his commitment to women’s diminished moral authority.</p>

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Passion and moral authority in Thomas Aquinas’s ethics

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年10月7日

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  • Colleen McCluskey

摘要

What Aquinas calls the passions play an important role in his ethics. He discusses eleven different passions, although the most important one for my purposes is the passion of love. Passions are located in what Aquinas calls the sensory appetite, which is one of the capacities that enable human beings to engage in action. They incline the sensory appetite toward a material object evaluated as suitable or away from an unsuitable or dangerous object. Because of their nature as inclinations, passions are able to influence the alternatives we choose to achieve our goals. Since action is an important part of Aquinas’s moral domain, the passions have important implications for his ethics.

In particular, Aquinas’s account of the passions is significant for his discussion of moral authority. He argues that because women are less capable of controlling their passions, they cannot provide moral guidance for their children. This guidance must be provided by men.

In this paper, I critique Aquinas’s view of women’s moral authority. In order to set up the discussion, I examine his philosophical psychology, since it provides the foundation for his ethical theory. I present his theory of the passions and their place in the larger account of action and moral appraisal. Finally, I discuss the implications of this account for his understanding of moral authority as it arises in his discussion of marriage and parenthood. I argue that his account of love creates an inconsistency for his commitment to women’s diminished moral authority.