Sobre a analogia do bem comum em Santo Tomás de Aquino

Abstract

This work aims to study the analogy of the common good in the writings of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Its objective is to demonstrate, as a thesis, that in Aquinas's work, the notion of the common good is predicated analogically and that God is its primary analogate. To achieve this, the investigation first focuses on examining Aquinas's own texts on analogy, dividing them into i) Aquinas's commentaries on the works of others and ii) Aquinas's original writings, attempting, as much as possible, to present them chronologically. We then contextualize the problem within the scope of predicables, which seems better understood considering the doctrine of universals. Subsequently, we seek in the texts of Santiago Ramirez a systematization of Aquinas's writings, noting that although Aquinas extensively employs the notion of analogy, he did not write about the topic in a theoretical and general manner. From there, we explore, once again in the writings of Thomas Aquinas, everything he wrote about the common good, dividing his texts into two groups: i) the common good from a metaphysical perspective and ii) the political common good. Within the first group, we identify texts that address i) God as the common good, ii) the common good of the universe, iii) the common good of the intellectual or rational creature, iv) the common good of angels, and v) the common good of humans. Armed with this theoretical framework, we can then combine Aquinas's writings on analogy and the common good to assert the analogical predication of the common good. To this end, we address the traditional doctrine of the analogy of being, discussing the coextensibility between being and good (its transcendental property), which will explain the analogy of the good. Based on this, and supported by the writings of Félix Lamas, we present what appears to be the distinction between good and common good, that is, the fact that the common good constitutes the perfection of a whole composed of subjective parts and, as such, participable by them. Consequently, the common good, while acting as a principle of finality, produces a true order of love. We then relate the main Thomistic theses on the common good and explain, based on them, the elements that constitute the analogy of the common good: the causal relationship between the many goods, their similarity, and distinction. Finally, we identify how the many common goods relate to each other and what relationship exists between the concept of the common good and the last end.