A lei natural em Tomás de Aquino: da natura à civitas

Abstract

The result of a study on the concept of natural law in Thomas Aquinas, this work was written based on the analysis of the so-called Treatise on Law of Summa Theologica I-II pars. From the moral and epistemological conception of a set of laws the task was undertaken to demonstrate the political character that the concept of natural law incures through the transit of human nature from its state of sociability to that of politicity. In fact, natural law transits from the social sphere, in which it acts as a moral rule conducting human action, to acting as a political rule in the sphere of dominium in civitas, as part of the legal structure composed on human law, justice and the different types of rights. In a preliminary way, this investigation has inferred the analysis of some moments and authors of the history of philosophy, such as, Aristotle, Augustine, and Cicero, who were characterized as keys to reading not only the concept of natural law, but the moral and political theory of Thomas Aquinas.