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The Cardinal Virtues: Aquinas,
Albert and Philip the Chancellor R. E. Houser |
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These translations from
the Latin works of Thomas Aquinas, Albert the Great, and Philip the
Chancellor concentrate on the four cardinal virtues - prudence, justice,
courage, and temperance - first identified by Plato as essential requirements
for living happy and morally good life. An historical
introduction traces the development of the doctrine of four cardinal virtues
from Greek philosophy through the thirteenth century. The treatment isolates
three stages in the development: (1) Greek and Roman philosophi:
Plato, Aristotle, early Stoics, Cicero, and Seneca; (2) early Christian Sancti: Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and
Gregory; and (3) medieval schoolmen (Magistri):
Master Peter Lombard, Philip the Chancellor, Albert, and Aquinas. The bulk of the book is
devoted to translations of texts on the topic of the cardinal virtues: Philip
the Chancellor, "On the Four Cardinal Virtues" and "On Virtue
in General: Continuation" (from the Summa on the Good); Albert
the Great, "On the Division and Sufficiency of the Virtues" (from
the Parisian Summa) and Commentary on the Sentences, Book 3,
Distinctions 33 and 36; and Thomas Aquinas, Disputed Question on the
Cardinal Virtues. Two appendices contain translations of shorter
supplementary texts on the cardinal virtues by Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome,
Gregory, Bernard of Clairvaux, Peter Lombard, and
as well as from Thomas Aquinas' Commentary on the Nichomachean
Ethics. Also included are three charts showing the development of the
doctrine of the "parts" of courage, temperance, and justice, as
well as glossary of Latin terms, bibliography, and index. |
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