Oblicza umiarkowania. Cnota skromności w aretologii Tomasza z Akwinu

The paper presents an analysis of Tho­mas’ thought on the virtue of modesty and shows its relation to temperance and nobility. The matter of modesty is of lesser im­portance in the ethics of Thomas Aquinas. The virtue of modesty is subor­dinated to the virtue of temperance and its role is to help us shape our external steps and actions in order. When spe­aking of modesty Thomas willingly turns to the views of Cicero and Andronicus. In the Summa, in its parts dedicated to temperance, Aquinas analyses all kinds of modesty. Important among them is humility, which directly perta­ins to temperance. Its subject is to regu­late our desire to be exceptional. Hence, humility gives us ability to proper self­-esteem. All other virtues, which are kinds of modesty, regulate: our longing to knowledge, attitude toward neighbo­urs, ways of spending our leisure time, ways of dressing up. Thomas points out in his texts that the process of achieving the virtue of mode­sty is not a complicated task, because its object does not cause any particular dif­ficulties. Not as in the case of modera­tion, which needs auxiliary virtues in or­der to restraint our strong natural craving.