ABSTRACT
Modern Thomistic ethics takes its origins in the writings of Thomas Aquinas, the thirteenth-century Dominican friar who taught at the universities of Paris and Naples. His moral philosophy is found in his Commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics, plus several theological works such as the Summa contra Gentiles and the Summa Theologiae. Many Thomists consider human nature to be the norm whereby good acts are distinguished from bad ones. Some Thomists are partially influenced by linguistic philosophy and have adopted an analytic modification of Aquinas’s ethics. The ethics of Transcendental Thomism is another move away from the older tradition. It is mainly prominent in continental Europe. Special ethical problem areas in which Thomists have been most active are: bio-medical issues, property and business problems, and socio-political questions. Thomists are also concerned with ethical problems involving property and business transactions. Aquinas clearly distinguished right to manage the production and distribution of material goods from the quite different right to use such things.
