Dynamic Transcendentals ─ Truth, Goodness, and Beauty from a Thomistic Perspective

Addressing contemporary interest in the relationship between metaphysics
and ethics, as well as the significance of beauty for ethics, Alice
Ramos presents an accessible study of the transcendentals and provides
a dynamic rather than static view of truth, goodness, and beauty.
She emphasizes the role played by the human person in the perfection
of the universe, in the return of all things to their source, and relies on
the philosophical and theological wisdom of Thomas Aquinas as well
as contemporary thinkers such as Jacques Maritain, John Paul II, and
others.
For Aquinas, the human being is the image of an exemplary cause,
made in the image of God, who is also the final cause. We are made
with a dynamic nature that pursues perfection and union with God. As
we realize our end, we bring about the intensification of our participation
in the transcendentals. Ramos explains that in pursuing truth,
goodness, and beauty and in acting from love of the true good, we are
actually pursuing God, the exemplar and end of the human person.
This study of the transcendentals helps us to make the connection between
the metaphysical order and the moral order, and also sheds light
on contemporary culture and moral questions.
The book is divided into three parts, the first of which is focused on
the transcendental of truth. It presents themes in Aristotelian metaphysics
as developed by Aquinas and shows the importance of an ethics
of knowing. The second part focuses on beauty and teleology and
discusses human and divine providence, evil and suffering, the experience
of vulnerability and shame, and the relationship between the
good and glory. The final section considers moral beauty, the ugliness
of vice, and the role of art for human perfection.

Alice M. Ramos is professor of philosophy at St. John's University. She is the editor of Faith, Scholarship, and Culture in the 21st Century (with Marie I. George) and Beauty, Art, and the Polis, both published by the American Maritain Association.