Saint Thomas Aquinas The Second Treatise Of Government

In John Locke’s, “The Second Treatise of Government,” supreme power and authority is given to every individual person. John Locke's primary argument is that all people are born with equal rights, termed natural rights, that allow them to be treated the same and should be treated as such throughout their lives. He believed that all people have the natural right to govern themselves and their surroundings, free from outside duress. He stated that each of us has an equal right to the food, land, etc. that God has supplied us and we should all take it freely, but just what we must to satisfy our needs. He envisioned a world where, as humans who are rational creatures, we should govern ourselves. We have the natural right to life, personal property, …show more content…
In all of these, God is the central truth. Aquinas believes that law was given to us by God’s divine existence, and as such is the eternal law. According to Aquinas, because God is inherently good, any laws and their subsequent punishments that are based on eternal law are considered virtuous and good as they are a means to make man moral and true. Laws based on tyranny cannot be considered true laws because their basis is personal rather than divine and therefore they do not serve God and do not contribute to the greater good.
Once the assertion is made that God is everything, Aquinas explains his feelings on natural law, which is derived from eternal law. Aquinas believed natural law is the human conscience which is controlled by reason telling us what is right and wrong. However, Aquinas also believes that the supernatural world was of the highest importance to man and if a person is commanded by God, it is not a violation of natural law. He believed that there were three distinct types of law given to us by Him: divine/eternal law, natural law, and positive/human law. He felt that these laws should be obeyed in that …show more content…
As such, it is the supreme good. Aristotle defines the supreme good as an activity of the rational soul in accordance with virtue. A virtuous person is someone who performs the distinctive activity of being human well. Rationality is the attribute that differentiates us from plants and animals. All living things have a nutritive soul, which governs growth and nutrition. Humans and animals are distinct from plants in having a sensitive soul, which governs movement and instinct. Humans are distinct above all else for also having a rational soul, which governs thought. Since our rationality is a distinctive human attribute, its application is the supreme good.
In “Nicomachean Ethics,” Aristotle defines moral virtue as a disposition to behave in the right manner and as a mean between extremes of deficiency and excess, which are vices. Moral virtue is learned through habit and practice rather than through reasoning and instruction. Virtue is defined as having the proper attitude toward pain and pleasure. Aristotle lists the principle virtues along with their corresponding vices and believes that a virtuous person exhibits all of the virtues, not as distinct qualities but as different aspects of a virtuous