In the middle ages

219

say that it is based on observation and anchored to

the very rock of reality/

7 The following schema may aid in clarifying the metaphysical

doctrines and the relations explained in this chapter:

'Prime matter {materia prima)

Essence

[essentia)

Existence

(esse)

Substance

(substantia)

Accidents

(accidentia)

Substantial form (forma sub-

stantialis)

'Qualities, for instance: shape,

power, habit (habitus)

Quantity

Action

Passion

Relation

Time

Space

Posture (tie habere)

State

CHAPTER TEN

Individualism and Social Industry

i. Social theory the last addition to scholastic philosophy,

ii. Fundamental principle: the group exists for its members,

and not conversely, iii. Ethical foundation of this principle,

iv. The idea of the group in the teaching of canonists and

jurists. V. Metaphysical basis: the group not an entity out-

side of its members, vi. Comparison of the group with the

human body. vii. Conclusion.

Social philosophy is the last addition to the

edifice which the scholastic thinkers reared. In

point of fact, it is iinhistorical to speak of a social

philosophy before 1260, the year in which William

of Moerbeke's translation of the Politics of Aris-

totle came into circulation among scholars. Prior

to that time we find, to be sure, discussions on iso-

lated questions, such as natural law or the divine

origin and the moral function of political authority.

But these questions were not combined in any phil-

osophical system, — although they received remark-

able elaboration in the works of Manegold of Lau-

tenbach and of John of Salisbury especially (in his

Polycraticus, 1159).

However, in saying that social philosophy is

220

In the middle ages 221

one of the last additions to the scholastic edifice,

some explanation is necessaiy, in order to make

valid this temporal comparison. A philosophy does

not grow as a house, to which a wing is added from

time to time, nor as a landed estate to which one

adds gradually adjoining fields. For, new doc-

trines that are introduced in philosophy must not

destroy those which have been already adopted; on

the contrary, they must be suited to form with the

doctrines adopted a coherent whole, and to this end

each and every addition must be carefully re-

thought.

The systematic character of scholastic social

philosophy is striking in the works of Thomas

Aquinas. He is the first to succeed in constructing,

out of the new material, a doctrine in which every-

thing holds together, and which is entirely impreg-

nated with the social mentality of the thirteenth

century. This doctrine appears in his Summa The-

ologica and in his commentary on the Politics of

Aristotle; we know that he also intended to write

a treatise De Regimine Principum, for the educa-

tion of a ruling prince, Hugh II of Lusignan, king

of Cyprus.^ Other philosophers followed his ex-

iSee Summa Theol, la 2ae, qq. XCIII-CV. Thomas himself com-

mentated only Books I and II and III (part only chs. 1-6) of Aris-

totle's Politics. This is now clear from an ancient MS cited by

Grabmann (See "Welchen Teil der Aristotelischen Politik hat der

hi. Thomas selbst Kommentirt?" in Philos. Jahrbuch, 1915, pp.

373-5). As for the De Regimine Principitm, only Book I and part

of Book II (chs, 1-4) were written by Thomas. The authenticity of

222 PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION

ample and his teachings; they addressed their

works to princes and kings, in order to enhghten

them regarding both their rights and their duties.

Thus, for instance, the Franciscan Gilbert of

Tournai wrote, at the request of Louis IX of

France, a treatise Eruditio Regum et Principum,

which has been recently published;^ and Gilles of

Rome composed a similar work for the king's son.

II

As preliminary to a discussion of the more im-

portant questions with which scholastic social

philosophy concerned itself — a subject which we

reserve for the next chapter — I wish here to ex-

amine its basic principle. This principle consti-

tutes the broad foundation of political and so-

cial theory, and upon it the superstructure of the

state was laid, very much as the stories of a house

are made to rest upon the main floor. The principle

may be briefly stated as follows: The State exists

for the good of the citizen, or obversely, it is not the

even so much has been doubted by J. A. Endres ("De regimine prin-

cipum des hi. Thomas von Aquin," in Baeumker's Beitrdge, Fest-

schrift, 1913, pp. 261-267). However, his reasoning is not at all con-

clusive; and the oldest and best catalogues attribute this portion to

Thomas himself. It is my own opinion that Thomas was the author

of the beginning of the work (Bks. I and II, chs. 1-4), and that the

remainder was inspired by his doctrine.

2 A. De Poorter, — in the series: Les Philosophes Beiges, collection

de iextea el d'Hudes, vol. IX, Louvain, 1914.