THE ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY OF SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS

The Essay has three main parts. In Part I, the author outlines the realistic philosophy of nature of St. Thomas Aquinas and briefly sketches his presentative model of perception and his active theory of knowledge. Part I also distinguishes the Thomistic theory of creation from neo-Platonic concepts of emanation. In Part II, the author shows how Thomistic theories of knowledge and nature lead to (>ontological natural lawf) ethics and jurisprudence. Part II also applies the norms of Thomistic ethics both to community environmental policy and to personal behavior in using natural resources. Part III speculates on what St. Thomas might say about a much-debated, current topic of environmental jurisprudence: the proposal to give nonhuman creatures juridical standing to sue. The Essay concludes that Aquinas would not favor giving standing to nonhuman beings, even if the technique were acknowledged to be only a convenient legal fiction.