The Transcendent and Causal Dimensions of Aquinas’s Action Theory: Insights from Metaphysics
-
Lingchang Gui
Abstract
Aquinas’s analyses of the action process can be traced to a twofold structure: an end as a final cause determines a human action, while the action derives causally from the rational will. By comparing the transcendent relationship between God and His creatures with the special causal and noncausal relationships between human beings and his actions, this paper aims to provide a new perspective for understanding this structure. According to Aquinas, God is the ultimate end and the first agent for all creatures in a state of absolute transcendence. In contrast, human action partially participates in the divine mode of action so that a universal good as an end of action is still transcendentally related to individual actions while the rational will, as a second agent, causally and nontranscendentally contributes to the execution of action. Thus, Aquinas’s action theory is both explanatory and causal.
Funding source: Huazhong University of Science and Technology Double First-Class Funds for Humanities and Social Sciences (Ethics of Science and Technology and “Philosophy +” Frontier Innovation Team).
Acknowledgments
The research is supported by Huazhong University of Science and Technology Double First-Class Funds for Humanities and Social Sciences (Ethics of Science and Technology and “Philosophy +” Frontier Innovation Team).
References
Aquinas, T. 1884. Pars Prima Summae Theologiae. A Quaestione L Ad Quaestionem CXIX, Opera Omnia Iussu Leonis XIII P. M. Edita t. 6. Rome: Typographia Polyglotta.Search in Google Scholar
Aquinas, T. 1891. Prima Secundae Summae Theologiae, A Quaestione I Ad Quaestionem LXX, Opera Omnia Iussu Leonis XIII P. M. Edita t. 5. Rome: Typographia Polyglotta.Search in Google Scholar
Aquinas, T. 1918. Summa Contra Gentiles, Opera Omnia Iussu Leonis XIII P. M. Edita t. 13. Rome: Typi Riccardi Garroni.Search in Google Scholar
Aquinas, T. 1971. In duodecim libros Metaphysicorum Aristotelis expositio. Taurini: Marietti.Search in Google Scholar
Aquinas, T. 1975. Summa Contra Gentiles, Book Two: Creation, transl., with an Introduction and Notes, by James E. Anderson. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.10.2307/j.ctvpj74rhSearch in Google Scholar
Aquinas, T. 1976. “De Principiis Naturae.” In Opera Omnia Iussu Leonis XIII P. M. Edita t. 43. Rome: Editori di San Tommasso.Search in Google Scholar
Aquinas, T. 2004. On the Power of God, transl. Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Eugene: Wipf & Stock Publishers.Search in Google Scholar
Aquinas, T. 2007. Summa Theologica, transl. Fathers of the English Dominican Province. New York: Cosimo, Inc.Search in Google Scholar
Cory, T. S. 2015. “Averroes and Aquinas on the Agent Intellect’s Causation of the Intelligible.” Recherches de Theologie et Philosophie Medievales 82 (1): 1–60.Search in Google Scholar
Davidson, H. 1992. Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes on Intellect. Their Cosmologies, Theories of the Active Intellect, and Theories of Human Intellect. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780195074239.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Frost, G. 2022. Aquinas on Efficient Causation and Causal Powers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/9781009225403Search in Google Scholar
Janakiefski, K. 2017. “Preserving Human Freedom: Aquinas on Divine Transcendence and Creaturely Contingency.” Dianoia: The Undergraduate Philosophy Journal of Boston College (IV): 56–65. https://doi.org/10.6017/dupjbc.v0iIV.987Search in Google Scholar
Kerr, G. 2019. Aquinas and the Metaphysics of Creation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780190941307.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Löwe, C. L. 2021. Thomas Aquinas on the Metaphysics of the Human Act. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/9781108986120Search in Google Scholar
Paul, S. A. 2021. Philosophy of Action. A Contemporary Introduction. New York: Routledge.10.4324/9781315629773Search in Google Scholar
Rooney, J. D. 2022. “The Metaphysics of Creation. Secondary, Causality, Modern Science.” In The New Cambridge Companion to Aquinas, edited by E. Stump, and J. T. White. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar
© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Original Papers
- Change and Location: A New and Old Case against Functionality
- The Dualist Metaphysics of the Incarnation and the Too Many Thinkers Problem
- The Transcendent and Causal Dimensions of Aquinas’s Action Theory: Insights from Metaphysics
- Aspectual Compresence
- Why Trope Metaphysics is Better than the Theory of Universals?
- Free Will: Evidence for the Existence of Soul
- The Same F 1 but a Different F 2 – with Absolute Identity
- The Subtraction Argument in an Infinite World
- Making Sense of Simultaneity: A Reply to Wahlberg
- Events and Facts in the Image of Modes
- Why There is No Us in Consciousness: You Are Simple, a Bodily Soul
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Original Papers
- Change and Location: A New and Old Case against Functionality
- The Dualist Metaphysics of the Incarnation and the Too Many Thinkers Problem
- The Transcendent and Causal Dimensions of Aquinas’s Action Theory: Insights from Metaphysics
- Aspectual Compresence
- Why Trope Metaphysics is Better than the Theory of Universals?
- Free Will: Evidence for the Existence of Soul
- The Same F 1 but a Different F 2 – with Absolute Identity
- The Subtraction Argument in an Infinite World
- Making Sense of Simultaneity: A Reply to Wahlberg
- Events and Facts in the Image of Modes
- Why There is No Us in Consciousness: You Are Simple, a Bodily Soul
