Virtue's Splendor

"In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in classical conceptions of what it means for human beings to lead a good life. Although the primary focus of the return to classical thought has been Aristotle's account of virtue, the ethics of Aquinas has also received much attention. Our understanding of the integrity of Aquinas's thought has clearly benefited from the recovery of the ethics of virtue.". "Understood from either a natural or a supernatural perspective, the good life according to Aquinas involves the exercise not just of the moral virtues, but also of the intellectual virtues. Following Aristotle, Aquinas divides the intellectual virtues into the practical and the theoretical, or speculative. With few exceptions, however, contemporary discussions of Aquinas ignore the complex and nuanced relationships among these different sorts of intellectual virtue; particularly striking is the general neglect of the speculative virtues and the role of contemplation in the good life. Virtue's Splendor attempts to redress this neglect, approaching the ethical thought of Thomas Aquinas in terms of the great debate of antiquity and the Middle Ages concerning the rivalry between the active and the contemplative lives, between prudence and wisdom as perfective of human nature."--BOOK JACKET.