Being and Action: A Metaphysical-Ethical Analysis of St. Thomas and Friedrich Nietzsche

Abstract

In this paper, I seek to identify the applicability of the theorem that we only ever act in accord with how we perceive things to be—generally viewed as self-evident until the advent of modernity—to Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica and to Friedrich Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morals. More specifically, I seek to determine the relationship between these author’s metaphysical presuppositions (or lack thereof) and their respective ethical theories which differ in both content and aim. More generally, I ask: what can the differences in these authors’ metaphysical and ethical beliefs teach us about what we owe our fellow human beings?