The Language of Causality by Human Actions: Redefining dominus in Thomas Aquinas

Abstract

The present paper deals with the theory of Dominion/Dominium, trying to show some aspects of Aquinas’ interpretation on the works of Aristotle. To begin with, we discuss with Hannah Arendt’s understanding of the issue —resumed again by Jürgen Habermas—. According to it, Aquinas would be who have initiated a philosophy properly social of dominium at the expense of the political theory on it held by Aristotle. In order to evaluate the strength or weakness present in Arendt’s point of view, we first bring about a linguistic analysis on how some Aristotle’s and Aquinas’s texts use the term dominium (arjé), and others closely related to it. Departing from the highly analogical feature in that term, then we conclude in the absence of any antagonism between «the social» and «the political» within the Thomistic or Aristotelian philosophy of Dominion/Dominium. The falsity of Arendt’s exegesis is finally revealed in detecting its disagreement with the main direction of the Thomistic and Aristotelian theory of dominium, namely, that the most properly human activity —that of noûs (mens)— is above any ethical dimension of human power.

Keywords

• dominio, poder, Tomás de Aquino, Aristóteles