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Notion Of Freedom And Law In St. Thomas Aquinas
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Thus human freedom is not a state, as it
is in things, freedom from this or that compulsion nor is it as in God a
pure act of self-consciousness. Freedom is the history of a person’s
coming to himself, which culminates in fully conscious self-possession.
In the strict sense, only the individual is with himself,
self-possession can be predicted only analogously of a community or a
people.
All these principles recur in the principle which regulates
the mode of realization of freedom, the freedom of subsidiary. Freedom
in act is identical with the personality of the person. It is the
person’s mode of being. This mode of being is at once individual and
supra individual condition and uncondition. Conscious selfhood, as an
act feasible only to the self, makes the individual unique as a person.
These
common works are modes of self-realization, of the reality of freedom
and the person. But as such modes, there are forms taken by freedom and
they retain their meaning and purpose only by being referred back to the
person and its reality.
1 K. Rahner, ed., Encyclopedia of Theology. Vol. II (New York: Macmillan Pub. Co. Inc. 1965) P.
534.
2 Maslaw, A.H. New Knowledge in Human Values. (New York: Harper and Row. 1959), P. 60
3 P. Edward, (ed) Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Vols 3 & 4 (New York: Macmillan Publishers Company. 1967), P. 222.
4 Yves, R.S, Freedom of Choice (New York; Ford ham University press 1969} pp 12-13
5 Murray J.C, Religious liberty an end & beginning {New York; Macmillan Company, 1996} P.17
6 Storr., A. The Integrity of Personality. (USA Penguin Books. 1960)., P. 27.
7 K. Rahner, op. cit, P. 537.
8 Locke., J. Treatise on Civil Government. Gough, J. (ed) (New York: Oxford Black Wall. 1948). P. 523.
9 Mary T. C., [ed] An Aquinas Reader {New York; Doubleday and company., 1972} P. 207
10 ibid, P. 126
11 R.S. Peters, Ethics and Education. (London, 1966), P. 187.
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