Abstract

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The validity of the scholastic method of problem analysis has been shown. The reproducing the Aquinas’s arguments concerning genesis and essence of the act of commanding will be presented.

THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The Aquinas’s method of discussing different answers to what is today called a problem question was used when difficult problems arose of confronting the revealed truths of Christianity, which are the subject of faith (guided by will), with the conceptual apparatus of philosophy, which is the subject of reason (ratio). It is worth recalling the intertwining of will and reason in undertaking actions as shown by the example of act of commanding.

THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: Since a command is an order related to duty, and this – to the norm of conduct, a part of considerations is devoted to the personalistic concept of good (value) as the goal and principle of human action. Next the issue of commanding act from the Summa Theologica and the last order of General Kleeberg will be analyzed.

RESEARCH RESULTS: The Maritain’s classification of the norm delivers an original specification of command types It helps to reconstruct the structure of arguments leading Aquinas to the thesis on the participation of will and reason in commanding act. The order of General Kleeberg serves to illustrate the application of the scholastic analysis of commanding.

CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The Aquinas’s art of argumentation masterfully used by him should be more widespread in analyses of issues in various fields. Its restoration becomes all the more important because of focussing the information war on linguistic messages which, without the ability to analyze them, become an effective weapons.