Las valoraciones del deseo: Felicidad, ley natural y virtudes en Tomás de Aquino

Abstract

The article stresses the interest of Aquinas’ ethics today. Thanks to the unity of his Anthropology, there is a strict connection between inclinations, principles of natural law, virtues and happiness. Not every desire is object of natural law, natural law is the work of practical reason, there is no deduction from the principles of law, but flourishment of virtues from the principles (seeds of virtues), the desire for happiness plays a synthetic role. The more the true goods and the true goals are known and loved, the more there is happiness (imperfect happiness), the more the order of reason (ordo rationis) informs life, inclinations and passions. The topic of the true object of happiness is important also for the ethics of a post-Christian age.