Wisdom, Law, and Virtue: Essays in Thomistic Ethics

The focus of this book is morals--how human beings should live their lives. For Dewan (and Thomas Aquinas) "morals" is "the journey of the rational creature toward God."

While philosophical considerations are central here, Christian revelation and its truth constitute an enveloping context. These essays treat the history of philosophy as a development that proceeds by deepening appreciation of basic questions rather than the constant replacement of one worldview by another. Thus, the author finds forebears in Plato and Aristotle, in Augustine and Boethius, and especially in Aquinas.

Written over a period of more than thirty years, the essays collected here treat both perennial issues in philosophy and such current questions as suicide as a weapon of war, the death penalty, and lying. Above all, they present the wisdom, the sapiential vision, that makes morals possible.

Author: Lawrence Dewan
Publisher: Fordham University Press
Published: 02/15/2007
Pages: 600
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 2.36lbs
Size: 9.17h x 6.33w x 1.77d
ISBN: 9780823227969

Review Citation(s):
Reference and Research Bk News 05/01/2008 pg. 17

About the Author

LAWRENCE DEWAN, O.P., is Professor of Medieval Philosophy and Metaphysicsat the Dominican University College in Ottawa and a member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas. In 2006 he received the Maritain Medal for Scholarly Excellence, conferred by the American Maritain Association.