O bem e sua relação com o bem comum na Suma Teológica de Santo Tomás de Aquino.

Abstract

This research aims to study the common good from an metaphysical, psychological and ethical points of view, according to St. Thomas Aquinas. Its objective, then, is to find, in Aquina's work, the definition for common good, to later verify how this idea relates to the different parts of his thinking. So, a premise is necessary: the common good is, rather, good. Therefore, in each part of the research, it is convenient to examine, first, the good and, then, the common good, its logical posterior. Based on this logic, this study, first, found the thomistic definition of good - what all things tend to - and then highlighted that, in God, its substance and the common good are identified, entering, then, in the quality of the good of communicating and in its characteristic of being an analogical notion, having God - the Paramount Good and Common Good - as the first analogue. When addressing the good and the common good from the point of view of man, the study shows that the good is the object of the intelligence (= practical intellect) and will (= intellectual appetite), but under two different aspects: for intelligence (= practical intellect), the good is object as knowable, under the aspect of true - sub ratione veri -; for the will (= intellectual appetite), the good is object as desirable, amiable - ut appetibile. The will, despite the free will of man, before the Common Good, and before the Beatific Vision, cannot not want Him, that is, He necessarily wants Him, because in Him the good is in a perfect and infinite way, to satisfy the appetite in a necessary and absolute way. From an ethical point of view, the work emphasizes that one must speak of good and evil in actions in the same way as we speak of good and evil in things, since each thing acts as it is - each thing has as good as it has being. Regarding the inner acts of the will, the human actions, having dependent goodness, take their goodness from the end which they depend on. In regards to the consequences of the human acts, for St. Thomas, sin is the opposite act of the righteousness in a moral dimension, which is ensured by ordering to the end, especially the ultimate true end, according to reason. The work thus demonstrates that the morality of the human will depends on its conformity with the divine will - that is: its ordination to the common good. Furthermore, that the common good, insofar as it constitutes man's ultimate end and orders all his voluntary acts, as a final cause, works as a true limit to free will, explaining, then, the consequences of human acts, especially its merit and demerit, considering the damage or benefit caused to the common good. Finally, the research enters into the premises of political thought, understanding the idea of natural order and law.