Sobre a origem e a natureza do mal em Tomás de Aquino

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation paper is to present an analysis of the origin and nature of evil from the point of view of St. Thomas Aquinas, based mainly on his following works: “Summa Theologiae”, “Summa contra Gentiles”, and “Treatise of Evil”.We explain how Thomas interprets the so-called “moral evil” and its direct correlation with the will, faculty that allows human beings to make choices, may they be good or bad ones. According to Thomas, evil is basically a deficiency, a faulty choice made by a perverse will that does not conform to the human being righteous rule. No less problematic is the matter of the relationship between God and evil, to this day an object of constant philosophical interest.If God exists and is good, how is it possible that evil exists? Thomas attempted to show us, joining faith and reason, that evil is not incompatible with God’s existence, and that God, for superior reasons that escape us, can allow Evil without, however, being responsible for it.In short, the two main theses in our work are: God is sovereignly good and author only of all goodness, and man is the only responsible being for the evil that exists in the world. We also show that men, having been created limited and faulty, evil had to exist in the world. As a complement, we add that God has the power to make a greater good from evil.