‘Ordo rationis’, virtue and law. Reflections on a book by Marco Panero

Abstract

In his book ‘Ordo rationis’, virtù e legge. Studio sulla morale tomista della ‘Summa Theologiae’, Panero displays an exceptionally well organised, comprehensive and convincing view of the moral philosophy of Aquinas. The rational order is at the core of a two-level theory. Firstly as a formal link that guarantees unity and structural coherence to the different dimensions of action, and secondly as the material content of the good life understood as the excellence of action, i.e. the rational structure of the different virtues and the particular types of activity that realise or contradict them.