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An Aquinas quote


Aquinas and the Value of Philosophy – The Virtue Blog


Here is an explanation, from Thomas Aquinas, of why patriotism is a virtue:

"A man becomes a debtor to others in divers ways in accord with the divers types of their excellence and the diverse benefits that he receives from them. In both these regards, God occupies the highest place ... in second place, the principles of our being and governance are our parents and our country, by whom and in which we are born and governed. And so, after God, a man is especially indebted to his parents and to his country. Hence, just as religion involves venerating God, so at the second level piety involves venerating one's parents and country. Now, the veneration of ... one's country includes the veneration of one's fellow citizens and of all the friends of one's country."

You're taking 'divers' leaps here, Tom, even if we grant you certain premises....

BTW, is "divers" just an alternate spelling of "diverse"? I've generally read it that way, but the translation in which I saw THIS used both spellings. So maybe "divers" is a different word.

I just looked it up. There is a difference. Divers means "several." So it seems divers/diverse differ in much the same way many differs from much.

Thanks for that, Tom.

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