The social principle of subsidiarity, both regarding the federalism debate in North America and the principle’s role in the formation of the European Union, has garnished increased attention in recent years. In this paper I will argue that if one looks for the historical seed of the principle of subsidiarity in Aristotle—as many authors do—then attention should fall more properly on his analysis of practical reasoning in Book VI of the Nicomachean Ethics than on Book I of the Politics. The (...) treatment of practical reasoning more aptly explains the need for the principle of subsidiarity and, indeed, averring that it is based on an Aristotelian sense of autonomy is misplaced at best and dangerous at worst. (shrink)

This paper argues against the current presentation of Aquinas’s conception of pagan virtue because that conception fails to take into account the full weight of the corruption of the goods of nature on which the virtuous unbeliever must found his good acts. I go on to establish that postlapsarian man is in too capricious a position realistically to maintain a prolonged life of virtue. I conclude that while Aquinas’s conception of virtue renders a much more pessimistic picture of the virtuous (...) pagan than recent literature has presented, his reputed theoretical optimism is correct, but is founded on his conception of God’s help. Thus, it makes little sense to have a philosophical discussion about Aquinas’s notion of pagan virtue, because it is impossible to separate the «gifts of God» from «the unbeliever.». (shrink)