PLEASURE AS A PRACTICAL ACTIVITY OF THE INTELLECT IN SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS

Pleasure is a prominent theme in the understanding of man and his respective activity of the highest faculty, that is, the contemplation, in the future life, of God, according to the Thomasian philosophy. It is a way of partially granting man a contemplation of goodness, of the immutable joys, in himself. What is appetizing becomes an object of delight when it fits the idea of good. Starting from this assumption, I will approach the Aristotelian-Thomasian perspective (13th century). The medieval master will present a theoretical apparatus that tends to redirect existence by containing human passions. Man still communes, in this world, with perfect goodness through contemplation and, also, through the practical activity of the intellect that orders the actions and passions proper to men, passing them through the sieve of virtue.