NOTE TO USER Page($) missing in number only; text follows. Microfilmed as received. This reproduction is the best copy available. A Feminist Retrieval of Aquinas' Principle of the Common Good by Susanne Marie DeCrane A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Theology of the University of St. Michael's College and the Dcputment of 'Iheology of the Toronto School of Theology in partial fulfillment of the requuements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology awarded by the University of St. Michael's College Toronto 200 1 The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé me licence non exclusive licence allowiog the exclusive permethnt A la National Libmy of Canada to Bibliothkpe nationale du Canada de teprodace, 10- disûiibute or sefi rep~odpire,prêter, distriitler OU copies of this thesis in rnicrofq vaidn des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la fanne de microfichdfiim, de reproduction sur papier ou sur fomt électronique. The author retains ownersbip of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substaiitial extracts hmit Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or othenvise de ceiie-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation Acknowledgments The very existence of this dissertation is due to the support and encouragement of seved people. Thanks are due to Sr. Ellen Leonard, C.S.J. who helped this dissertation reach hilfillrnent. 1 am particularly mindful of the support of two men. 1 am grateful for the unfailing encouragement of my father, William I. DeCrane. While he himself never graduated fiom high school and worked dl his life as a meat cutter, dad knew this labor was important to me, and he was immensely proud of both it and me. Dad died in 1995, but 1 still clearly hear his voice telling me how proud he is of me, and 1 chensh this as a priceless legacy. My husband, Brian D. Beny has, more than any other penon, helped this dissertation reach fulfillment through many years of stop and start work. His love and encouragement of me and my work have been unfailing. To him it is dedicated - Brian, best cntic, best editor, best fnend. Abbreviations of Works by Aquinas CT - Compendium of Theology DR - De Regno SCG - Summa Contra Gentiles ST - Summa nieologicn Table of contents A Femkst Retrieval of Aquinas' Principle of the Common Good Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction Chapter One - Feminist Theological Hermeneutics Introduction 1. Textual Hermeneutics - Sandra Schneiders 1.1 Effective History - Effective Historical Consciousness 1 .2 Distanciation 1.3 Hermeneutics of Suspicion, Ideology Critique 1.4 hterpretation, Appropriation - Hemeneutics of Transformation s-ary 2. A Feminist Ethic - Rosemary Radford Ruether 2.1 Women's Experience 2.2 Bac kground 2.3 Dualism 2.4 The Prophetic Liberating Tradition 2.5 Apocalypticism s-ary 3. Anthropology - Martha Nussbaum 3.1 Postmodem and Hemeneutical Methodologies 3.2 Anthropology as a Methodological Issue 3.3 Anthropological Universals 3.3 1 The Roman Cathoiic Moral Tradition 3.3.2 The Experience of Women 3.4 The Human Good, Human Functioning Capabilities 4. A Proposed Feminist Hemeneutical Method Addendum to Chapter One Chapter Two - The Common Good in the Thought of Thomas Aquinas Introduction 1. Background 2. nie Anthropology of Aquinas in Relation to the Common Good 3. The Good 4. The Human Good 5. The Common Good 6. The Relationship Between the Individual Good and the Common Good 7. Justice and the Common Good 8. Examples of the Common Good in Aquinas 8.1 Capital Punishrnent 8.2 Killing During War 8.3 Private Property Conclusion Chapter Three - A Feminist Retrieval of the Principle of the Cornmon Good introduction 1. Experience, and the Experience of Women 2. Anthropology 3. Historical Consciousness and Embodiment as Elements of Critique in Retrieval 3.1 Historical Consciousness 3.2 Embodiment as an Element of Critique 4. Aquinas and the Common Good 4.1 Aquinas' Anthropology 4.2 The Good 4.3 The Human Good 4.4 The Common Good 5. The Relationship Between the Individual Good and the Retrieved Principle of the Common Good 6, Justice and the Common Good Conclusion Chapter Four - Health Care in the United States, and the Retneved Principle of the Common Good Introduction 1. The Chanpd Reality of Health Care in the United States 2. U.S. Attitudes Towards Death and Tteatrnent 3. Health Care as an Element of the Common Good 4. US. Social Values 5. The Current Situation in U.S. Health Care 6. Women and Health Care hthe United States 7. Black Women and Breast Cancer 8. The Functioning of the Reûieved Principle of the Common Good 226 9. Conciusion 230 Conclusion 23 I Bibliography A Femiaist Retrieval of Aquiau' Principk of the Cornmon Good Doctor of Pbilosophy in Theology 2001 Susannc Marie DeCrane Faculty of Theology of the University of Si. Michrel's College This dissertation explores the relationship between henneneutics and ethics when a liberationist hemeneutic is ernployed. It draws on the insights of David Tracy. that without a process of mutually critical correlation classic texts become useless as a source of Uisight and guidance. in this dissertation a feminist hemeneutic is developed and applied to the principle of the common good in Aquinas' major writings. in Chapter One a feminist hermeneutic is developed drawing on the work of Sandra ~chneiâek(textuai henneneutics), Roxmary Radford Ruether (retrieval of doctrinal and ethical pnnciples) and Martha Nussbaum whose work on human Functioning capabilities shapes the understanding of the human person (anthropology) used in this dissertation. Chapter Two examines the principie of the comon good in Aquinas' writings in the larger context of his conception of the good and the human good. The relationship beween the individual good and the good of the community is explored as well as the effects Aquinas' conception of the virtue of justice has for understanding the common good. in Chapter Thethe hermeneutical method developed in Chapter One is used as a lens through which the eiements of the common gocd discussed in Chapter Two are cnticdly examined and retneved. Chapter Four presents a social issue through which to view the fùnctioning of the retrieved principle of the common gd- The issue that is explored is the availability of and access to health care by women in the United States. The issue is refined further to focus on the fact that Afican American women have a lower incidence of but a much higher mortality rate hom breast cancer. While not offering a conclusion about this situation (medical researchen are pursuing this question). this chaptrr highlights the fact that the reûieved principle of the common good causes different questions to be asked in order to determine whether the common good of the community is authentically being pursued. ifany among us in the human community are not equally welcomed at the center; if any among us is dying because they have been displaced fmm the community and denied its goods; if any among us has been subjugated by the community, enslaved by it or exploited, with their heritage stolaï or their access to it closed off; if any of us have been thought to be less "human" than others, humiliated or ignored, then these are to be given some priority in our conunitments to dl. These are the "poor," the disadvantaged or unprotected. theirs are the voices least likely to be heard, theirs is the pain Ieast likely to be seen; theirs is the participation least likely to be allowed. A "preferential option for the poor" is, therefore, a recognition of. and a granting strategic priority to, the just claims of those whom the human community has heretofore excluded, deprived, or unfairly burdened. Margaret Farley, RSM Introduction Acknowledging that the environment in which theology and ethics is pursued is profoundly shaped by the postmodem' perspective has become a de rigueur affirmation of the obvious. It is one of the most distinctive influences on theological and ethicd thought today and a writer must necessady make it clear at the outset the ways in which she responds to the postmodem challenge regarding the use of classic texts and universal claims. However, the issue is not as simple as responding to a singular postmodem2challenge. Rather, the postmodem critique of modem, liberal, Enlightenment-based convictions holds within it a range of orientations to classic texts and universal truth. This dissertation is a response to these postmodem positions, outlined below, at the same time that it offea a constructive methodology for retrieving ciassic texts from the Christian tradition fiom a feminist, hermeneutical, liberationist standpoint. '"~ostmodemism"is a very fluid term which is nor easily defined. "With some oversimplification, postmodemism might be described as the intellectual ferment in science, architecture, art and the humanities, originating in the late 1960's and early 1970ts, that radically calls into question many of the Enlightenment foundations of modem Western thought and society. Specifically under attack are the Enlightenment belief in the supremacy of human reason to mend historical and cultural particularity in order to arrive at objective, value-neutral assessments of "naturai Iaw" or universal "truth" . .The various proponents of postrnodernisrn argue that al1 human theorizing is culturally constrained and historically limited; that there can be no absolute division between objectivity and subjectivity even in science becawe the methodological and theoretical assumptions of the observer always shape the outcome of the observations; that methodologica1 and theoretical assumptions, moreover, always involve the priviieging of certain values or categories over others; and, perhaps most îùndamentally, that language does not merely represent some reality 'out thed but it~lf makes up that reality as it weaves the very fabric of hurnan interaction in historically specific, socially constructed, and thoroughly political ways." Mary Ann Tolbert, "Social, Sociological and Anthropological Methods," in Searching the Scripiwa: A Feminist Introduction, ed.