Freddoso

Decio 324/631-7327

E-mail: Alfred.J.Freddoso.1@nd.edu

Home page: http://www.nd.edu/~afreddos

Purpose----Texts----Requirements---- Syllabus----Term Paper----Notes on the Treatises----Presentation Assignments

Purpose of Course:

A part-lecture/part-seminar course for majors, the purpose of which is to provide the student with an opportunity (a) to see in some depth the relation among the main elements of St. Thomas's general moral theory as laid out in the First Part of the Second Part of the Summa Theologiae, viz., the treatises on happiness, action, passion, habit, virtue, sin, law, and grace, and (b) to explore in more detail certain specific aspects of these treatises.  We will pay special attention to the ways in which Catholic faith and practice lead St. Thomas to appropriate, correct, and transform classical philosophical notions.
 

Texts:

The text for the course is the Prima Secundae itself. I have ordered John Oesterle's Treatise on Happiness, which includes the tracts on happiness (qq. 1-5) and human action (qq. 6-21), and Treatise on Virtue. The other tracts are available on the world wide web or from the library. Also, you can find Wordperfect 6/7/8 files for each of the treatises at http://www.nd.edu/~afreddos/summa. The relevant files are the seven whose names are of the form "st12*.wpd". There are mistakes in these files, but they're usable. I suggest that you download and print up no more than one at a time if you're using a cluster computer.
 

Requirements:

• Summaries. During the course of the semester each student will be expected to prepare one brief (15-20 minute/5-page) summary to be presented to the class. A copy should be provided for each student on the day the presentation is to be given. These summaries will deal with certain specialized questions which St. Thomas takes up within the seven treatises of the Prima Secundae and which are not assigned as general readings. As such, they are meant to supplement the instructor's lectures on the more general aspects of the treatises and to be the basis for classroom discussions. The idea is that you will be an 'expert' on the questions you summarize (25% of course grade).

• Class Participation (25% of course grade).

• Term Paper. You are required to write a 15-20 page paper, worth 50% of the course grade. A 2-3 page proposal, plus outline, is to be submitted for approval on or before April 3; the paper itself is to be handed in on or before the last class day, May 3. See below for more details.

• I. The Structure of Summa Theologiae 1-2
• 1/19: Lecture: The structure of the Summa Theologiae
• 1/24: Lecture and discussion: The structure of the Prima Secundae. General Reading: Introductions to the following questions: 1, 6, 8, 18, 22, 26, 40, 49, 55, 57, 58, 64, 71, 75, 76, 81, 85, 90, 93, 109.

• II. Treatise on Happiness
• 1/26 - 1/31 - 2/2: Lecture and discussion: the nature of human happiness. General Reading: Questions 1-5

• III. Treatise on Action
• 2/7: Lecture on voluntariness and the substance of human acts. General Reading: Questions 6-10
• 2/9-2/14: Discussion of elicited and commanded acts of will. Questions 11-17 will be divided up for summaries
• 2/16: Lecture on goodness and badness of human acts. General Reading: Questions 18-21

• IV. Treatise on the Passions
• 2/21: Lecture on the passions in general. General Reading: Questions 22-25
• 2/23-2/28: Discussion of the passions of the concupiscible appetite. Questions 26-39 will be divided up for summaries
• 3/1: Discussion of the passions of the irascible appetite. Questions 40-48 will be divided up for summaries

• V. Treatise on Virtue
• 3/6: Lecture on habits in general. General Reading: Questions 49-54
• 3/8: Lecture on virtue in general. General Reading: Questions 55-63
• 3/20-3/22: Discussion of the properties of the virtues and the things adjoined to the virtues. Questions 64-70 will be divided up for summaries

• VI. Treatise on Vice and Sin
• 3/27: Lecture on sin and the causes of sin in general. General Reading: Questions 71-75
• 3/29: Discussion of the interior and exterior causes of sin (other than original sin). Questions 76-80 and 84 will be divided up for summaries
• 4/3: Lecture on original sin. General Reading: Questions 81-83
• 4/5: Discussion of the effects of sin. Questions 85-89 will be divided up for summaries

• VII. Treatise on Law
• 4/10-4/12: Lectures on law and the parts of law in general. General Reading: Questions 90-99 and 106-108
• 4/17-4/19: Discussions of the old law and new law. Questions 100-105 will be divided up for summaries

• VIII. Treatise on Grace
• 4/26: Lecture on grace in general. General Reading: Questions 109-111
• 5/1-5/3: Lecture and discussion on cause and effects of grace. General Reading: Questions 112-114

The Term Paper

The main project for this course is a 15-20 page paper which is to be submitted on or before the last class day (May 3); a 2-3 page proposal is due on or before May 3. In what follows I will try to give you some clear indication of what I am looking for in both the paper and the proposal.

• Comments about the paper:

 
• a. The paper is meant to be a 'philosophical' paper rather than a 'research' paper that delves into secondary literature. You might, for example, articulate a thesis, whether positive or negative, and defend it by replying to objections. Alternatively, you might do a mainly interpretive paper which delves into issues that are not obvious on a first reading of St. Thomas's text or which brings together material from diverse sections of the Prima Secundae. (In other words, I expect you to do more than simply repeat what is in the text.) There may, of course, be some piece of secondary literature on St. Thomas that you want to incorporate into your discussion. So in this sense some research may be called for.
• b. The topic of the paper should be connected in some fairly recognizable way with our readings and discussions. That is, it should focus on some issue or small set of issues that come up in Summa Theologiae 1-2. Moreover, it should be a manageable topic which will allow you to delve more deeply into specific arguments and objections. This, of course, is easier said than done, but I am here to help you do it.
• c. The paper is a fairly long one, and so you will have to plan it carefully. I expect the paper to move forward at well-marked junctures instead of merely talking around one or another point in order to fill space. I especially do not want a paper consisting primarily of loosely connected observations about some topic. Further, every paper must begin with an introduction that tells the reader exactly what you mean to do in the paper and how each section of the paper is related in general to your topic.
• d. I expect the paper to be stylistically and grammatically beyond reproach. I will take off for sloppy sentence-structure, misspellings, dangling participles, etc. Proofreading is absolutely essential.

• Comments about the proposal:

 
• a. The proposal should contain two parts, viz., a narrative and an outline. The narrative should be a two-page (or so) description of the thesis or interpretation you wish to defend and of the steps by which you will defend it. (The thesis may of course be primarily negative--you may want to show, say, that what St. Thomas says about the passion of anger is dead wrong.) In order to write this sort of narrative you already have to have a fairly detailed idea of what you want to do and the series of steps by which you propose to do it. In general, your strategy must be to construct a logical sequence of steps which will correspond to the main divisions of the paper. Here is one possible example of what I have in mind: (i) exposition of St. Thomas's view on such-and-such, (ii) three criticisms, (iii) objections to the criticisms, (iv) reply to the objections. There are numerous other possibilities as well; the main thing is to order your paper in a coherent and logical sequence.
• b. The outline that accompanies the narrative should make graphically clear the main divisions and subdivisions in the text. This outline should include more than just the three or four main headings; I want to see some subheadings within each of those main divisions, so that I will have a reasonably clear idea of how the paper is supposed to progress.