THOMAS AQUINAS ON WOMAN NATURE: TEACHING AND MODERN INTERPRETATIONS

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THOMAS AQUINAS ON WOMAN NATURE: TEACHING AND MODERN INTERPRETATIONS

Journal Title: Філософські обрії - Year 2018, Vol 0, Issue 40

Abstract

The aim of the article is in defining of Thomas Aquinas’ use of «defective man» and «incomplete nature» expressions towards women as well as of forthcoming interpretations of Aquinas’ teaching on females in works of Catholic philosophy adherents through their efforts to bring into one line the modern tendencies and contradicting philosophical tradition. By means of Aquinas’ original texts analysis it appeared to be possible to define that Aquinas attributed «defective man» expression to the other philosophers (mainly, when he interprets the teaching of Aristotle), but on his own he avoids using such radical phrasings. Moreover, Aquinas uses the thesis about woman’s generation from the man’s rib not to justify the woman’s remoteness from the Image of God, but to describe the necessity of making a connection between woman and man stronger. Therefore, as the result of suchlike generation, man and woman are able to feel the unity and responsibility for each other. This situation is rather contrary to the animal world, where male and female generated apart without each other, cannot feel any link, meaning not able to show social behavior. In accordance with Aquinas’ teaching, man and woman are similar from the substantial perspective, but the difference is hidden in contingent aspects, which are defined during the process of bodily generation. This means, that actual difference between sexes lies only in material part, whereas through having intellectual soul, a woman is totally equal to a man. Moreover, the significant reason of generation of a woman body can be even specific move of heavenly bodies or just an accident, which proves that definition of a role and aim of each person varies not from the perspectives of essential core, but through accidental and contingent features of body. As for modern Thomism, it is oriented on apology of Aquinas’ position. Some adherents (i.e. J. Hartel) tend to attribute to St. Thomas so called «integral feminism», the main idea of which is that a woman according to her nature recognizes her role, which mostly corresponds to the role of a man, – it is in humanization of the world. However, this position doesn’t make a man and a woman equal in their rights, since it doesn’t reflect a problem, which feminism tries to combat. One more approach, which exists in Catholic philosophy, tends to prove the equality of a man and a woman specifically from the point of view of their social roles. Basically, this approach is popular among representatives of personalistic and phenomenological Thomism (specifically, K. Wojtyla and K. Edman). The article also provides a reader with translation of Thomas Aquinas’ works into Ukrainian

Authors and Affiliations

Олександра Юріївна САКОВСЬКА

Keywords

Thomas Aquinas neothomism matter active powers of nature passive powers of nature agent feminism integral feminism

EP ID EP492312
DOI 10.5281/zenodo.2535623
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