Drawn from a wide range of writings and featuring state-of-the-art translations, Basic Works offers convenient access to Thomas Aquinas' most important discussions of nature, being and essence, divine and human nature, and ethics and human action. The translations all capture Aquinas's sharp, transparent style and display terminological consistency. Many were originally published in the acclaimed translation-cum-commentary series The Hackett Aquinas, edited by Robert Pasnau and Jeffrey Hause. Others appear here for the first time: Eleonore Stump and Stephen Chanderbahn’s translation of On the Principles of Nature, Peter King’s translation of On Being and Essence, and Thomas Williams’ translations of the treatises On Happiness and On Human Acts from the Summa theologiae. Basic Works will enable students to immerse themselves in Aquinas’s thought by offering his fundamental works without internal abridgments. It will also appeal to anyone in search of an up-to-date, one-volume collection containing Aquinas' essential philosophical contributions—from the Five Ways to the immortality of the soul, and from the nature of happiness to virtue theory, and on to natural law. This book is paperback and is recommended reading for Hillsdale's free online course, "Introduction to Western Philosophy" --- "An excellent anthology well-suited for university courses on Aquinas' philosophy. The translations are clear and tend to be fairly literal. Scholars who appreciate the old pre-Vatican II translation of Summa Theologiae by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province for its accuracy but not its archaisms will find this anthology refreshing. "Perhaps the best way to praise this book . . . is to say that I use [it] in the classroom and intend to continue to do so. Without revolutionizing the teaching of philosophy and theology at my university, it makes most sense to teach a philosophy class on Aquinas in a way that focuses on his more overtly philosophical work. The text-selections and high-quality translations of Basic Works are well-suited for his pedagogical task."—Thomas M. Ward, Philosophy, Loyola Marymount University, in Comitatus
