Aristocracia y estructura social medieval: un estudio histórico-conceptual desde la obra de Santo Tomás de Aquino

The thought of Thomas Aquinas is marked by a profound reworking of Aristotelian legacy within a Christian framework, aiming to harmonize reason and faith in the context of 13thcentury scholasticism. This article seeks, as its general objective, to analyze the notion of aristocracy in Aquinas's work, based on his appropriation and reinterpretation of Aristotle’s political philosophy. In particular, it examines how Aquinas adopts the key elements of Aristotelian aristocracy—virtue and wisdom as the foundations of good governance—and integrates them into his political theology by presenting them as reflections of divine grace. As a specific objective, the article explores how this reinterpretation is articulated through Aquinas's theory of the common good and natural law, allowing him to expand Aristotle’s political horizon and adapt it to the hierarchical and moral structure of the Christian order. Using a historical-conceptual methodology inspired by Michel Foucault’s archaeology of knowledge and Elías Palti’s reflections on political languages, this study moves beyond a linear and progressive narrative of ideas to focus instead on the epistemic frameworks that shape Aquinas's understanding of power, justice, and governance. The article also examines Aquinas’s distinction between aristocracy and oligarchy, where the former is understood as a regime oriented toward the common good and the latter as its corrupt version driven by private interest. Within this framework, the moral and intellectual formation of the ruler becomes essential to achieving a just society—structured hierarchically but not unequal in dignity. All of this is situated in the context of the late Middle Ages, marked by intense conflicts between Church and State and by growing tensions between royal authority and the nobility, which gives Aquinas’s political vision both a normative dimension and a critical reflection of his time’s social and institutional challenges.