Action and Conduct: Thomas Aquinas and the Theory of Action

by Stephen L. Brock

Stephen Brock examines the relation between conduct and physical action, or between the 'will' and the real events which it effects in the world, through the works of Thomas Aquinas.Few thinkers have devoted more attention to this topic than Thomas, who has influenced mainstream modern analytic philosophy through (among others) G. E. M. Anscombe, Anthony Kenny, Roderick Chisolm and the late Alan Donagan.Demonstrating an exhaustive knowledge of Thomas and of contemporary theories of action, Professor Brock provides a new interpretation of Thomas' thought on human action and exposes the incoherence of theories which place an exclusive emphasis on the morality of subjective intention

Genres: Philosophy

278 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1998

About the author

Stephen L. Brock is a priest of the Prelature of Opus Dei (ordained 1992). He is Ordinary Professor of Medieval Philosophy at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, where he has taught since 1990. He received a BA from the University of Chicago and a PhD in Medieval Studies from the University of Toronto. In 2017 he is a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago, collaborating in the Templeton Foundation project “Virtue, Happiness, and Meaning in Life,” directed by Candace Vogler and Jennifer Frey
Address: Rome, Italy

Reviews

[Alfredo Nicolás Dueñas]

Really tough nut to crack, but still a very thorough and careful treatment of action in Aquinas that gets to the heart of my questions about indirect intention and involuntary acts. Also, by way of explaining the Thomist view, I feel like I understand the Aristotelian view a million times better.