Harrison Loyd
Dr. Lyons
Western Civilization
4 December 2006
Aquinas
Aquinas was a man who put a lot of enfaces on the proper ordering of things. He believed that the proper ordering of the people and the government with nature will lead to prosperity. It will lead to prosperity because if these things are in order with nature they will, in turn, be in order with god. This is so because god created the ordering of nature and he wants to see that order upheld. Aquinas says that the first thing that one must do to be in correct order with nature is to understand that every individual is under god. That god is the pinnacle of importance in all things. Once one realizes that then one can move on to looking at the way that human society should be ordered.
Aquinas based his beliefs around the fundamental ideas that the philosopher Socrates had about societal order. Aquinas did however make a few changes in his version to accommodate some of the social changes that had occurred over the decades. His final list of order was listed in order of size in ascending order. This list said that the proper order in a society was the household, street, city, and province. The last of which, the province, being the most important. The province is the most important of the four because it is the only one that is big enough to fight and defend itself. Though it is the
most powerful of the four a strong province cannot exist without having strong households, streets, and cities underneath it. These relationships are important to keep in order and in good working fashion. But even if you do respect this order it is only one part of the process. The next factor that one must look at is the role of government and what the duties of the ki ...