Ethical views of Ibn miskawayh and Aquinas

Abstract

Ibn Miskawayh is one of the greatest Iranian Muslim philosophers in the eleventh century. His views particularly on ethics are very famous and important. On the other hand, Thomas Aquinas is the greatest Christian theologian and philosopher in the thirteenth century. He has also many famous and interesting ideas regarding ethics. The study of these tow scholars, as the representatives of Islamic and Christian philosophy respectively, will reveal their similarities concerning one of the most important sub – divisions of philosophy, i.e. ethics. The goal of this article is to extract and explain their ethical views so that a common model of Islamic and Christian ethics might be identified which would be usable for all Muslim and Christian philosophers of the world. Key words: Ibn miskawayh, aquinas, ethics, happiness, pleasure, virtue, vice, evil.