Thomas Aquinas and the Overlapping Consensus

Abstract

John Rawls claims that the belief that there is but one reasonable and rational conception of "the good" is incompatible with political liberalism. A close examination of the thought of Thomas Aquinas, however, reveals that commitment to a particular conception of "the good" need not imply a rejection of liberalism. In fact, Aquinas' notion of political virtue anticipates Rawls' overlapping consensus. In addition, a thorough exploration of Aquinas' work indicates that, for the most part, he accepts the underlying assumptions that William Galston finds at the core of political liberalism.