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Thomas Aquinas took much of the direction of his work on virtue from his understanding of Aristotle.

But Aquinas had some challenges or advantages that Aristotle did not.

Aquinas had Augustine as an important predecessor, and in Augustine we confront an extraordinary

thinker who was already intellectually and psychologically mature

before a conversion experience altered his understanding

of good and bad in human life fairly dramatically.

If you're accustomed to Aristotle's ethics,

you're accustomed to this idea that either you're properly brought up

or you're deeply unfortunate.

So you've got somebody here who's properly brought up and undergoes this dramatic change.

That's a huge, huge shift from Aristotle. I like using Augustine because he looks like somebody who might have been in the constituency

for Aristotle's Nicomachean ethics. I mean, he is this kind of upright, bright sort of individual man.

Now, although Aquinas recognizes the importance of childhood moral education in the cultivation of virtue,

...