Some Considerations on the Psychological Experience of Time in Friendship According to Thomas Aquinas

Abstract

For Thomas Aquinas, man's goal is the complete actualization of his potentialities, which he achieves in this life in a progressive manner as he affirms himself more and more in the plenitude of the act of being. On the other hand, Aquinas understands eternity not in the sense of an endless life but, rather, as a life that lacks temporal succession and, moreover, that possesses full actuality. Friendships founded on virtue put man in contact with this ultimate perfection because they order it to it, producing in him, to a certain extent, a psychological experience of absence of succession when he enjoys the company of a friend. The incontinent man, who acts according to the incessant movement of his passions and whose sensitivity is dulled by the succession of images, on the other hand, frequently establishes friendships founded on mere pleasure or utility. Because they are closed to true friendship, these relationships, very common in our time, cause man more suffering than pleasure, especially because they keep him subject to the uninterrupted desire for goods that never end up satisfying him, immersing him, in a certain way, in the becoming of material things.