Abstract

Saint Thomas Aquinas commences his study distinguishing the types of order that exist and with these he determines that moral philosophy studies, on one hand, the order of voluntary acts and, on the other hand, the human acts as ordered together and as orderd towards an end. The social character of the human being and the type of help he gives and receives in the order of the whole and the part is attended, and this leads to Aquinas dividing moral philosophy in three parts: the monastic, which orders the acts towards an end; the economic, which orders the acts of the domestic multitude; and the politic, which orders the acts of the civil multitude.