Thomas Aquinas · Deep Essay · Chapter 05
Aquinas for Today: Virtue with the Whole Heart
Is a virtuous person someone who feels less, or someone whose whole being moves toward the good?
The short answer
Aquinas argues that well-ordered passion can increase the excellence of action. Courage with fitting confidence and generosity with genuine delight may be more fully human than correct conduct performed through total inner resistance.
Read more deeply
Moral growth therefore includes emotional formation. We cannot guarantee a feeling on command, but we can shape its conditions through repeated action, chosen company, stories, attention, and bodily care. Over time, practices can make worthwhile goods more visible and destructive reactions less automatic.
This account also leaves room for conflict. Acting well while afraid can be courageous even before fear changes. The goal is not emotional perfection as a prerequisite for goodness, but increasing cooperation among judgment, desire, body, and choice across a life.
Context and caution
People should not be morally blamed for symptoms they cannot control. Virtue concerns responsible agency within real capacities, and humane support expands those capacities.
Primary-source guide
Primary guide: Summa Theologiae I–II, qq. 22–48, especially qq. 24, 25, 38, and 40–48.
Pathos Editorial · Reviewed 2026-09-12