Utrum fruendum sit solo Deo: Thomas Aquinas on the Augustinian concept of Secular Enjoyment

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12775/BPTH.2019.016

Keywords

enjoyment, pleasure, secular enjoyment, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine

Abstract

The paper presents the hypothesis that Thomas Aquinas’s concept of ‘secular pleasure’ has been elaborated under the influence of both St. Augustine (De doctrina christiana) and Aristotle (NE book II and book IV). The paper aims at presenting their influences upon Aquinas’s account of secular pleasure. Also, it intends to focus on Aquinas’s metaphysical and psychological concept of secular pleasure and attempts to introduce his moral assessment of it.  It should be also noted that only natural perspective of pleasure will be treated; the theological aspect is excluded from the consideration.

References

[Augustine] S. Aurelii Augustini, Confessionum Libri Tredecim, Patrologia Latina, vol. 32, Parisi 1844-1855, col. 0657 – 0868;

[Augustine] S. Aurelii Augustini, De Doctrina Christiana Libri Quatuor, Patrologia Latina, vol. 34, Parisi 1844-1855, col. 0015-00122;

De Haan D., Delectatio, gaudium, fruitio. Three Kinds of Pleasure for Three Kinds of Knowledge in Thomas Aquinas, Quaestio, 15, 2015, pp. 543-552;

Kitanov S. V., Beatific Enjoyment in Medieval Scholastic Debates. The Complex Legacy of Saint Augustine and Peter Lombard, New York 2018;

Knuutila S., Emotions in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Oxford 2004;

Kramer J. F., The Metaphysical and Psychological Principles of Pleasure According to St. Thomas Aquinas, Chicago 1958;

Milhaven J. G., Thomas Aquinas on sexual desire, Journal of Religious Ethics, vol. 5, (no. 2), 1977, pp. 157-181;

Pickavé M., Pleasure in Later Medieval Latin Philosophy. The case of Thomas Aquinas, in Pleasure. A History, L. Shapiro (ed.), Oxford 2018, pp. 99-123;

Rosenfeld J., Ethics and Enjoyment in Late Medieval Poetry: Love after Aristotle, Cambridge 2011;

Roszak P., Anatomy of ludic pleasure in Thomas Aquinas, Pensamiento y Cultura, vol. 16/2, 2013, pp. 50-71

Biblica et Patristica Thoruniensia

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Published

2019-10-01

How to Cite

1.
PŁOTKA, Magdalena. Utrum fruendum sit solo Deo: Thomas Aquinas on the Augustinian concept of Secular Enjoyment. Biblica et Patristica Thoruniensia. Online. 1 October 2019. Vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 289-301. [Accessed 2 January 2026]. DOI 10.12775/BPTH.2019.016.

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 3 (2019): Biblical Thomism V

Section

Articles

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