Moral Agent Of St. Thomas Aquinas

Out of all the philosophers that we’ve studied this semester, in my view St. Thomas Aquinas offers the best account of the moral agent because his works on morality are the most relevant to how morality works in our world. In my paper I will argue in defense of multiple St. Thomas Aquinas’ views on morality and life in general. For example, his view on free will states that God ultimately knows what is going to happen, but that we still have the freedom to make decisions on our own. Even though whichever decision we make God does not influence our decision, but he knows ultimately what we will choose to do. Also, his description of the effect of original sin is very accurate. Aquinas states that our whole nature is not completely tarnished …show more content…
It can mean living by the rules and laws of life, or it can mean making the right decisions based on your gut feeling. I believe that as long as you get a sense of moral pleasure after making a decision, you have made the right choice. Most decisions have a clear good and bad choice, and it is up to you to make the right choice. If one repeatedly makes the right choices, they are living a moral life, and most likely a happy life. The feeling after making the right choice is a satisfactory feeling like no other. For example, say you inherit a large amount of money. There is then a decision to be made whether to spend the money on yourself or on others. According to author Shawn Floyd of the article Thomas Aquinas: Moral Philosophy “Some goods provide immediate gratification but no long-term fulfillment”(Floyd). To give an example of Floyd’s point, you can spend the money on a brand new car, or you can donate the money to a nearby children’s hospital. The brand new car you might be happy with for half a year or so, but eventually you will get tired of the automobile. On the other hand, the fact that knowing you donated your hard work toward saving children’s lives and curing them of diseases is a happiness that will stay with you forever. No one will commend you for buying a new car, however you would receive endless recognition for a donation to a children’s hospital. Recognition is not the reason why you should donate at all but it is a benefit. Life is what you make of it. That being said you could spend a bunch of money on a vacation to a tropical island and be happy there, or you could go to a local park with some close friends and be just as happy as you would be on the tropical island, without having spent any