WEBVTT NOTE Aquinas and the Scholastic Theory of Wealth Revisited 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.000 Since the publication of Murray Rothbard's economic thought before Adam Smith, the Austrian perspective on the history of economic thought 15 years ago, 2 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:19.000 a new awareness and appreciation of the importance and influence of many of the late scholastic writers as proto-Austrian has emerged in the academic literature. 3 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:25.000 Although it is undoubtedly true that many of these writers, which include De Vittoria, 4 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:33.000 De Soto, Navarres, De Molina, Cavarubias, Juan de Mariana, and Leonardo Celesius, 5 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:39.000 all blazed new paths of their own in their very theories of natural law and rights, 6 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:42.000 value, money, price, wages, profits, and so forth, 7 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:46.000 none of these advances would have been possible without the extraordinary 8 00:00:46.000 --> 00:01:01.000 An extraordinary 13th century synthesis of faith and reason by St. Thomas Aquinas, born 1225, died 1274, and is unique and, at the time, controversial acceptance and integration of the works of Aristotle. 9 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:10.000 It is the purpose of this paper to therefore reflect on and revisit the enduring economic contributions of Aquinas, especially his scholastic theory of wealth. 10 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:16.520 of Wealth. Aquinas, I believe, is the keystone by which the later scholastic writers become 11 00:01:16.520 --> 00:01:22.520 for us, all of us, more approachable and understandable. Additionally, there has been no attempt to 12 00:01:22.520 --> 00:01:27.600 place before this conference something new or something I discovered in my attic that 13 00:01:27.600 --> 00:01:34.600 was written by Aquinas, but rather to pay tribute to Aquinas in the words of Rothbard, 14 00:01:34.600 --> 00:01:39.800 quote, the towering intellect of the high middle ages, the man who built on the philosophical 15 00:01:39.800 --> 00:01:51.800 on the Concept of Natural Law and on Christian Theology to Forge Thomism, Mighty System of Philosophy, Theology and the Sciences of Man. 16 00:01:51.800 --> 00:02:01.800 According to Rothbard, this young Italian was born an aristocrat, son of Landoff, Count of Aquino at Rocaseca in the Kingdom of Naples. 17 00:02:01.800 --> 00:02:06.800 Thomas studied at an early age with the Benedictines and later at the University of Naples. 18 00:02:06.800 --> 00:02:19.800 At the age of 15, he tried to enter the New Dominican Order, a place for church intellectuals and scholars, but he was physically prevented from doing so by his parents as well as his brothers, who kept him confined for two years. 19 00:02:19.800 --> 00:02:32.800 Finally, he escaped, joined the Dominicans, he studied at Cologne and finally at Paris, the places to be, of course, in the 13th century, under his revered teacher, Albert the Great. 20 00:02:32.800 --> 00:02:38.360 Aquinas took his doctorate at the University of Paris and taught there as well as at other 21 00:02:38.360 --> 00:02:43.200 university centers in Europe. Aquinas wrote numerous works beginning with his commentary 22 00:02:43.200 --> 00:02:48.680 on Peter Lombard's sentences, which almost any philosopher worth his salt would do a commentary 23 00:02:48.680 --> 00:02:55.560 on Peter Lombard's sentences at the time in the 1250s, ending with his masterful and enormously 24 00:02:55.560 --> 00:03:01.560 and the influential three-part Summa Theologica written between 1265 and 1273. 25 00:03:01.560 --> 00:03:11.560 It was the Summa more than any other work, writes Rothbard, that was to establish Thomism as the mainstream of Catholic scholastic theology in centuries to come. 26 00:03:11.560 --> 00:03:20.560 Since Aquinas wrote no specific treatise on economics or wealth, his ideas on this topic, that is his Economia Parenis, 27 00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:28.560 are to be mostly found in his discussion of prudence in his Summa Theologica and in his commentary on Aristotle's politics. 28 00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:41.560 When Aquinas uses the word economic, he uses it in the Aristotelian sense to distinguish between the management of the individual household and the activities of civil society. 29 00:03:41.560 --> 00:03:46.560 According to Aquinas, quote, there is also a multitude that is united together for the whole of life, 30 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:52.560 Such is the multitude of a home or family, and this is ruled by domestic prudence. 31 00:03:52.560 --> 00:03:58.560 Economics, then, is the prudence by which one rightly orders his household, according to Aquinas. 32 00:03:58.560 --> 00:04:02.560 The end of economics, therefore, according to Aquinas, is that which is, quote, 33 00:04:02.560 --> 00:04:05.560 directed to the common good of the home, end quote. 34 00:04:05.560 --> 00:04:11.560 The difference between the common good of the family and the common good of civil society or the state 35 00:04:11.560 --> 00:04:13.560 is found in the following expression. 36 00:04:13.560 --> 00:04:27.560 The economic end is entitled by Aquinas odd vivendum and the civil society or political end is odd bene vivendum, not just to the existence of life but to the good society so to speak. 37 00:04:27.560 --> 00:04:40.560 Thus the phrase odd vivendum is used by Aquinas in opposition to the phrase odd bene vivendum not to simply indicate the purely material estimations of civil society as opposed to the virtuous life of the individual 38 00:04:40.560 --> 00:04:48.560 but rather to bring out in sharper detail the specific difference between the domestic good life and the civil political good life. 39 00:04:48.560 --> 00:05:02.560 Economics or the art of wealth-getting, as understood by Aquinas, has a much different connotation than our modern usage as the following passage from his commentary on Aristotle's Politics Illustrates. 40 00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:21.560 And he writes, for the household manager strives about human beings more than the acquisition of inanimate things, and he should strive for the future by the virtue by which human beings live well more than by the virtue by which one acquires and increases property well, which is the meaning of the word wealth, end quote. 41 00:05:21.560 --> 00:05:32.560 Therefore, again, as Aquinas says, riches are compared to domestic prudence, not as its last end, but as its instrument. 42 00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:38.560 Further, Aquinas agrees, of course, with the philosopher, as he does so many times, the philosopher, of course, meeting Aristotle, 43 00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:45.560 in showing that the art of wealth-getting is certainly not the same as economics, since the former is concerned with acquiring wealth, 44 00:05:45.560 --> 00:05:53.560 and the latter is limited and is more inclined to using it, to quote Aquinas. 45 00:05:53.560 --> 00:05:58.560 For household management is the only skill to which using things useful for the household belongs. 46 00:05:58.560 --> 00:06:04.560 And it is also clear in other things that the skill that uses something is different from the one that produces or acquires it. 47 00:06:04.560 --> 00:06:08.560 For example, the skill of piloting is different from the art of shipbuilding, 48 00:06:08.560 --> 00:06:12.560 therefore household management is different than money making, end quote. 49 00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:21.560 Aquinas, then following Aristotle, describes the various ways by which man acquires material goods and the three distinguishable features of wealth-getting. 50 00:06:21.560 --> 00:06:26.560 That is, again, the art of household management, again, quoting Aquinas. 51 00:06:26.560 --> 00:06:34.560 For besides the way of those who produce food and those who live off commerce about which he, meaning, of course, Aristotle, will deal later, 52 00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:40.960 So later, again we're taking this out of the commentary on Aristotle's Politics, there 53 00:06:40.960 --> 00:06:51.960 are four simple ways of life, namely shepherding, raiding or piracy, fishing and hunting. 54 00:06:51.960 --> 00:06:55.520 As what he said makes clear, but since a simple way of human life is most efficient because 55 00:06:55.520 --> 00:06:59.960 it lacks many things, some human beings in order to be self-sufficient in all things 56 00:06:59.960 --> 00:07:06.500 combine the aforementioned ways. And so they live pleasantly, supplying for themselves—again, 57 00:07:06.500 --> 00:07:11.940 this is still Aquinas speaking—supplying for themselves from one way what they lack 58 00:07:11.940 --> 00:07:18.260 from another. For example, some combine the life of shepherds and raiders. As we all know, 59 00:07:18.260 --> 00:07:25.320 of course, piracy is still alive and well on the high seas. And we recently, of course, 60 00:07:25.320 --> 00:07:36.320 Some of the life of farmers and hunters in some other ways of life, as it suits the advantage of each. 61 00:07:36.320 --> 00:07:43.320 Then he shows the kind of thing, the aforementioned acquisition, that is of who is. 62 00:07:43.320 --> 00:07:49.320 First, he shows that it is natural. Second, he shows that it is part of household management. 63 00:07:49.320 --> 00:07:53.320 Third, he shows that it is limited. 64 00:07:53.320 --> 00:08:01.320 The natural art of wealth getting, that is again household management, does not only provide the instruments for economics but also for the art of politics. 65 00:08:01.320 --> 00:08:08.320 In addition to this natural acquisition of wealth, Aquinas identifies another kind which is the acquisition of money. 66 00:08:08.320 --> 00:08:19.320 The second kind is unnatural because, quote, nature did not invent money but experience and skill introduced it, end quote. 67 00:08:19.320 --> 00:08:34.320 The crucial character of this type of acquisition derives from the fact, according to Aquinas, that man does not acquire what nature has provided for his use, but rather he acquires what man has created merely for his convenience, that is money. 68 00:08:34.320 --> 00:08:43.320 Commenting again on Aristotle's politics, Aquinas says that, quote, since money began to be exchanged for money for the sake of profit in a skillful way, 69 00:08:43.320 --> 00:08:57.320 We call the skill regarding money, money-making, and its activity is to be able to weigh from what sources a person could make a great deal of money, for money-making is directed to making a great deal of money and wealth as its end. 70 00:08:57.320 --> 00:09:06.320 Where money is the end of acquisition, for example, it is no longer desired for the pursuit of the good life, but is rather desired for itself. 71 00:09:06.320 --> 00:09:11.280 Therefore, according to Aquinas and the scholastics, at least the early scholastics, this artificial 72 00:09:11.280 --> 00:09:17.160 art of acquisition whose end is the ceaseless accumulation of money is infinite in character. 73 00:09:17.160 --> 00:09:20.880 While one might be inclined to say that money making is not part of economics because it 74 00:09:20.880 --> 00:09:26.160 is infinite, but Aquinas says that, quote, money is the end of commerce, since the aim 75 00:09:26.160 --> 00:09:31.800 of commerce is to acquire money and only a means of household management to its end. 76 00:09:31.800 --> 00:09:39.800 Therefore, money-making seeks unlimited money, but household management seeks a limited amount of money. 77 00:09:39.800 --> 00:09:43.800 There is, however, another type of activity which is not entirely unnatural. 78 00:09:43.800 --> 00:09:51.800 It is the kind in contradistinction to Aristotle, which does not seek money for its own sake, but which seeks it for the necessities of life. 79 00:09:51.800 --> 00:09:56.800 This is identified by Aquinas as commerce. 80 00:09:56.800 --> 00:10:06.000 It is, of course, and unfortunately, the perversity in human nature, says Aquinas, that causes men to pursue wealth for its own sake. 81 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:07.900 Again, Aquinas writes the following. 82 00:10:07.900 --> 00:10:14.500 Therefore, he says that the reason for this disposition, namely that household managers seek to increase money without limit, 83 00:10:14.500 --> 00:10:22.200 is because human beings are eager to live how so ever, not to live well, which is to live virtuously, 84 00:10:22.200 --> 00:10:25.000 they would be content with things sufficient to sustain nature. 85 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:34.000 But since they omit this effort, and want to live according to their own will, each of them strives to acquire things with which to satisfy the individual's desire. 86 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:43.000 And because the desire of human beings has no limit, they desire without limit things whereby they can satisfy their desire. 87 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:47.000 Now a little bit of scholastic terminology. 88 00:10:47.000 --> 00:10:57.000 When Linus first introduces wealth-getting as an activity, he uses the term ars cognitiva, 89 00:10:57.000 --> 00:11:07.000 referring to natural acquisition. I think some of these, of course, are up there for you. 90 00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:15.000 Later, in distinguishing the two kinds of acquisition, he uses the generic word postesiva, 91 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:18.520 includes both natural and artificial acquisition. 92 00:11:18.520 --> 00:11:20.660 Still later, the natural art of wealth getting is called 93 00:11:20.660 --> 00:11:25.660 by Aquinas, ours, acquisitiva, civiet, aliorum, necessariorum, vitae. 94 00:11:27.400 --> 00:11:30.640 And finally, he distinguishes natural acquisition of money, 95 00:11:30.640 --> 00:11:33.400 where the end is directed toward the necessities of life, 96 00:11:33.400 --> 00:11:35.680 from the artificial acquisition of money, 97 00:11:35.680 --> 00:11:38.440 where the end of the activity is simply 98 00:11:38.440 --> 00:11:40.600 economic or monetary gain. 99 00:11:40.600 --> 00:11:44.840 The former, he titles, precognitiva economica, 100 00:11:44.840 --> 00:11:54.840 and the latter is called Cognitiva Numelaria, which I will put up here for you just to take a look. 101 00:11:54.840 --> 00:11:58.840 So these are the relationships between economics and the acquisition of wealth. 102 00:11:58.840 --> 00:12:08.840 Venice, economica, final end of economics, bona vita, vita domestica, the discipline of obviously employing the virtues. 103 00:12:08.840 --> 00:12:13.840 Nasaria vitae, obviously the food and all the things of course that we have. 104 00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:31.840 and then, of course, the natural art of acquisition being then dropped down to what later is, of course, our Pecunia Tiva Numeladia, which is the artificial act of acquiring goods and services. 105 00:12:31.840 --> 00:12:42.840 According to Aquinas and early scholastic thought, the end of economics is the good life of the domestic society, 106 00:12:42.840 --> 00:13:00.840 Just as the end of politics is the good life of the civil society. Wealth getting, that is again in the proper setting of the 13th century, is the proper management of the household, supplies the instruments of the economist and the statesman in order that their respective ends are attained. 107 00:13:00.840 --> 00:13:07.840 The process of wealth-getting, however, is of two kinds, again, as we can see up here, natural and artificial. 108 00:13:07.840 --> 00:13:14.840 Natural wealth-getting is as a means to an end and therefore subservient both to economics and politics, 109 00:13:14.840 --> 00:13:19.840 while artificial wealth-getting has no proper connection with either economics or politics. 110 00:13:19.840 --> 00:13:23.840 In addition, the natural art of wealth-getting has two aspects. 111 00:13:23.840 --> 00:13:27.840 It may seek the necessities of life from what nature itself has provided, 112 00:13:27.840 --> 00:13:32.840 or it may acquire the necessaries of life through the medium, again, of commerce. 113 00:13:32.840 --> 00:13:40.840 And, of course, at the end here we see, of course, the final end of economics to the far left-hand side, 114 00:13:40.840 --> 00:13:43.840 to the far right-hand side, of course, is that general term. 115 00:13:43.840 --> 00:13:52.840 So we go from the general on the far right-hand side, ours, possessiva, to the far left-hand side, which is finis economiche. 116 00:13:52.840 --> 00:14:01.480 For Aquinas and the early scholastics, therefore, the economic setting was placed in the context 117 00:14:01.480 --> 00:14:06.160 of the proper duties in the management of the household. But management of the household 118 00:14:06.160 --> 00:14:10.560 does not merely imply the managing of the material wants of the family. Instead, it 119 00:14:10.560 --> 00:14:16.480 embraces all the needs, physical, mental, and moral, whose satisfaction is necessary 120 00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:22.520 for the good and virtuous life of domestic society. In short, the economy for Aquinas 121 00:14:22.520 --> 00:14:33.520 Aquinas is a prudence as well as a practical science and can be only understood within an ethical context like he describes. 122 00:14:33.520 --> 00:14:39.520 In Aristotle's system as well as in Aquinas, the discussion of wealth is predominantly a moral discussion. 123 00:14:39.520 --> 00:14:45.520 In other words, the quote-unquote problem of wealth is primarily viewed as a moral problem 124 00:14:45.520 --> 00:14:51.520 whose implications involve the application of the ethical, the economic and political. 125 00:14:51.520 --> 00:14:59.520 And Aquinas' notion of wealth is intrinsically modified by the conception of the supernatural character of man's final destiny. 126 00:14:59.520 --> 00:15:11.520 The term divicia, which I don't have up here, but in Latin translated into English, divicia typically means divine good. 127 00:15:11.520 --> 00:15:16.520 And Aquinas includes both external goods and temporal goods. 128 00:15:16.520 --> 00:15:25.520 And according to Aquinas, external goods refer to something more than just material objects, and it includes goods of the body as well as goods of the mind. 129 00:15:25.520 --> 00:15:43.520 In the early 20th century, Father Isaac Smith, in a hard to get book and certainly long forgotten, entitled Classification of Desires in St. Thomas, put forward his complete accounting of external goods, which I have here. 130 00:15:43.520 --> 00:15:51.280 Here, in restricting the meaning of the term to external goods or wealth to those things 131 00:15:51.280 --> 00:15:56.800 which pertain to the body, one is preserving, I think, to some extent, the essential elements 132 00:15:56.800 --> 00:16:02.360 which are proper to the modern concept of economic wealth, meaning what? Its external 133 00:16:02.360 --> 00:16:08.340 and material aspects. Again, there are two kinds of wealth according to Aquinas, which 134 00:16:08.340 --> 00:16:12.680 he gets most of this, of course, from Aristotle, natural and artificial. Again, to quote from 135 00:16:12.680 --> 00:16:20.680 Natural wealth is that which serves man as a remedy for his natural wants, such as food, drink, clothing, dwellings, and such like. 136 00:16:20.680 --> 00:16:31.680 While artificial wealth is that which is not a direct help to nature as money, but is invented by the art of man for the convenience of exchange and as a means of things saleable. 137 00:16:31.680 --> 00:16:37.680 Both are, from the scholastic point of view, distinguished on the basis of final causality. 138 00:16:37.680 --> 00:16:45.680 Causality. Natural wealth is a means toward an end, while artificial wealth is viewed as a means to a means. 139 00:16:45.680 --> 00:16:50.680 Whatever desirability natural wealth has, it receives it from the end which it serves. 140 00:16:50.680 --> 00:16:54.680 That is the satisfaction of material needs. 141 00:16:54.680 --> 00:17:00.680 Artificial wealth, on the other hand, is not directly related to nor measured by the end. 142 00:17:00.680 --> 00:17:05.680 Whatever desirability it has, it comes from the means. That is, from natural wealth. 143 00:17:05.680 --> 00:17:17.680 In book one of, again, Aristotle's politics, Aristotle references the famous fable of Midas to illustrate the two kinds of wealth. 144 00:17:17.680 --> 00:17:27.680 Artificial wealth by itself is really without an end, says Aristotle, and it is put in relation to an end only through the existence of natural wealth, 145 00:17:27.680 --> 00:17:34.680 and currency has the unfortunate distinction of being changed by those who use it and manipulate it. 146 00:17:34.680 --> 00:17:42.680 Additionally, utility and value according to Aquinas function as determinants of wealth. 147 00:17:42.680 --> 00:17:54.680 He says that, quote, each thing has two uses, which are the same in that each use is of the thing as such and not incidental to another use, 148 00:17:54.680 --> 00:18:02.680 but differ in that one use is the proper use of the thing and the other is a common rather than a proper use. 149 00:18:02.680 --> 00:18:09.680 Aquinas then quotes Aristotle's famous shoe example from a politics, for example, he quotes from Aristotle, 150 00:18:09.680 --> 00:18:15.680 A shoe is used for wear, and is used for exchange. Both are uses of the shoe. 151 00:18:15.680 --> 00:18:22.680 He who gives a shoe in exchange for money or food to him who wants one, does indeed use the shoe as a shoe. 152 00:18:22.680 --> 00:18:28.680 But this is not its proper use, for the shoe is not made to be an object of barter. 153 00:18:28.680 --> 00:18:33.680 Proper use is simply the scholastic term for utility. 154 00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:42.680 Common use, on the other hand, is that use which all exchangeable goods enjoy by virtue of its exchangeability. 155 00:18:42.680 --> 00:18:46.680 The common use of shoes and of food is the same. 156 00:18:46.680 --> 00:18:51.680 Shoes can be used to get food or food can be used to acquire shoes. 157 00:18:51.680 --> 00:18:56.680 Common use, therefore, is simply the scholastic term for value. 158 00:18:56.680 --> 00:19:25.680 Although utility is easily seen to be inherent in each good, Aquinas foresaw that one might easily conclude that value is something extrinsic or accidental, as Aquinas quotes, in using shoes in exchange, although not a proper use of shoes, nonetheless uses them as such and not as incidental to another use, since the one who exchanges them uses them according to their worth, end quote. 159 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:38.680 By using the scholastic phrases proper use and common use, one, I think, can understand a little bit better the intrinsic character of each much more clearly than, obviously, the modern terms utility and value. 160 00:19:38.680 --> 00:19:44.680 The proper and final cause of shoes, according to Aquinas, therefore, is a specific good. 161 00:19:44.680 --> 00:19:49.680 That is, if it can be exchanged for some other article which satisfies a different one. 162 00:19:49.680 --> 00:20:02.680 Thus, whether it be by its proper or common use, the final cause of the thing is some good, and for this reason both utility and value are intrinsic to the thing or material good. 163 00:20:02.680 --> 00:20:10.680 And yet, although both uses are intrinsic, they do not enjoy an equal dignity in the scholastic sort of framework. 164 00:20:10.680 --> 00:20:15.680 Utility is prior to value, and value without utility, of course, would be meaningless. 165 00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:21.680 In other words, there would be no value to a shoe unless it had some kind of utility for someone. 166 00:20:21.680 --> 00:20:28.680 Additionally, utility is based on a relationship between the thing needed and, of course, the person needing. 167 00:20:28.680 --> 00:20:32.680 Consequently, between the thing and the person, there is a relationship of measure. 168 00:20:32.680 --> 00:20:37.680 That is, the utility of the thing is measured by the need or desire of the person for a thing. 169 00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:41.680 And the greater the need or desire, of course, the greater the utility. 170 00:20:41.680 --> 00:20:51.680 Value, on the other hand, is based on the relation between one exchangeable thing and another, and cannot be determined by referencing utility alone. 171 00:20:51.680 --> 00:21:03.680 According to Aquinas, the other determinants of value in the trading process include differences in time, place, risk, and a moderate profit motive, according to Aquinas. 172 00:21:03.680 --> 00:21:25.680 Hence, training, considered in itself, has a certain debasement attaching thereto, insofar as, by its very nature, it does not imply a virtuous or necessary end. Nevertheless, gain, which is the end of trading, though not implying by its nature anything virtuous or necessary, does not, in itself, connote anything sinful or contrary to virtue. 173 00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:37.680 Additionally, labor as well as an element used in computing value, merit and reward, says Aquinas, refer to the same, for a reward means something given to anyone in return for work or toil as a price for it. 174 00:21:37.680 --> 00:21:47.680 Hence, as it is an act of justice to give a just price for anything received from another, so also is it an act of justice to make a return for work or toil, end quote. 175 00:21:47.680 --> 00:22:00.680 Thus the value of a commodity, according to Aquinas and early scholastic thought, is determined not only by the cost of labor and other expenses incurred by the producer, but by the usefulness which it has for the consumer. 176 00:22:00.680 --> 00:22:07.680 Aquinas recognized as well in the above passage that there is a definite relationship between wealth and ultimately scarcity. 177 00:22:07.680 --> 00:22:30.680 Finally, when discussing the knowledge necessary for the successful application of the art of exchange, Aquinas makes the very astute observation that human beings should be knowledgeable about such things that they acquire, which of them are the most valuable, where they are sold at the highest price, and how they are sold, when and under what conditions. 178 00:22:30.680 --> 00:22:53.680 In the thirteenth greatest of centuries, the advance of civilization, the increased organization of feudalism, the development of industry, the extension of commerce, largely under the influence of the crusades, all created a condition of affairs in which economic questions, of course, could no longer be overlooked or neglected. 179 00:22:53.680 --> 00:23:12.680 There is no doubt that feudal concepts played a part in framing Aquinas' thought on economic matters, and yet it was largely his efforts within the context of an emerging scholastic moral philosophy that laid the groundwork for the late scholastic renaissance in economic thought. 180 00:23:12.680 --> 00:23:21.680 And Aquinas' most enduring contribution to the history of economic thought, according to Murray Rothbard, was the scholastic superstructure that he built. 181 00:23:21.680 --> 00:23:26.680 And this is what Murray says, sort of to end his section in the history on Aquinas. 182 00:23:26.680 --> 00:23:34.680 For in reviving and building on Aristotle, St. Thomas introduced and established in the Christian world a philosophy of natural law, 183 00:23:34.680 --> 00:23:45.080 A philosophy in which human reason is able to master the basic truths of the universe in the hands of Aquinas as in Aristotle. 184 00:23:45.080 --> 00:23:50.780 Philosophy with reason as its instrument of knowledge became, once again, the queen of the sciences.