Thomas Aquinas

Question description

In 200-300 words discuss Aquinas’ view on war, stating where you agree and/or disagree with him.Make sure that you respond to another student’s post. Note that you must submit your post before you can see other students’ posts. Your response should be 100 words (Maximum points=30).

students post:

Thomas Aquinas proposed a doctrine called Just war theory that laid out a series of criteria which must be met for a war to be considered just. He proposed three conditions all of which must be met to consider the war as morally just. The first condition was that the war must be waged by a properly instituted authority such as the state or a official political authority. Secondly, the war must occur for a good and just purpose rather than for self-gain or selfish purposes. Whereas self-defense can be considered a just purpose to participate in a war while material gain or as an exercise of power is not. Thirdly, the war must be fought with the right intention and the authority must fight for the just reasons like restoring the peace. The third condition proposes that peace must be a central motive even in the midst of violence. I do agree with Aquinas’s two conditions aside from the first one that ensures whether the war is morally justifiable or not. An instituted authority can be a legitimate person to declare war but he/she cannot be competent enough to make distinctions of justice. While I agree with other conditions that a just purpose and intention can ensure that the war is morally just.