The principles that found the office of the wise man according to Thomas Aquinas

Abstract

In this present article, it will be questioned which principles that Thomas Aquinas, a medieval friar, uses in the first chapter of the Summa Contra Gentiles, where it is discussed what is the office of the wise man. It is questioned in this manner, indeed, since, considering the briefness of the chapter, there might be several implicit and presupposed conclusions in it, or, in the case of being explicit conclusions, they lack in depth. The article, based on other works from Aquinas, mainly the Summa Theologiae and the Commentary on the Metaphysics of Aristotle, or based in the Suma Contra Gentiles itself, and without refusing the support from thomist commentators, will put in evidence the implicit principles present on the analysed chapter and will deepen the explicit ones, recognizing in this way which ones are they, and then concluding exposing the profundity of the chapter, despite of its briefness. In this way, there can be a contribution for a more detailed vision of the thomistic notion of the wise man, which inserts itself inside a contemplative and pedagogical office, as from a teleological view of the world.