Das Naturgesetz als dialogische Emergenz des Ethischen: zum Verhältnis zwischen lex aeterna, lex naturalis und motus rationalis creaturae im De-lege-Traktat der Summa Theologiae

The present article investigates the correlation between the concepts of lex aeterna, lex naturalis and motus rationalis creaturae in the famous tract De lege in Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae. The result offers a new comprehension of the notion of natural law, according to which it has to be understood no longer propositionally, i.e. as a list of universally valid norms, but as a performative process in which the bonum in particulari, i.e. the concrete good, dialogically emerges as product of a network of instances. In fact, the ethical good can never be the pure implementation of a general rule; moreover, it is able to bind the will of the acting person only if at the same time it appears as good for him, i.e. for the person who acts here and now. In doing so the ethically acting person realizes himself ontologically becoming the free and creative principle of the own actions.