Aquinas on Paradise and Hell
example · Christian/biblical ·
retold in 10 talks
Thomas Aquinas asks if those in Paradise can see those in Hell. He argues they enjoy seeing the 'majesty of divine justice' in their suffering, not the suffering itself. Žižek calls this a 'cheap scholastic trick' and argues Paradise would be boring without the 'pleasure' of watching Hell (like TV news).
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 8
“He distinguishes between two types of enjoyment. He said it would be bad to enjoy directly when you see them burning whatever in Hell their suffering. But he said if you look as a good Christian at that suffering you are impressed by the majesty of divine justice”
“Nothing should be denied the blessed that belongs to the perfection of their beatitude... they are allowed to see perfectly the sufferings of the damned.”
“Those in heaven will also be able to see the suffering of the poor in hell… are you bored in our so-called developed societies you take a look at the news oh my God Yemen Somalia.”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
Its cast and sources
populated by
Thomas Aquinas8Pablo Picasso3Louis Aragon2Damir Arsenijević2Laurent de Sutter2Germaine Greer2Simone de Beauvoir2Daniel Cohn-Bendit2
alongside works
Every retelling 8
Thomas Aquinas asks if those in Paradise can see those in Hell. He argues they enjoy seeing the 'majesty of divine justice' in their suffering, not the suffering itself. Žižek calls this a 'cheap scholastic trick' and argues Paradise would be boring without the 'pleasure' of watching Hell (like TV news)., illustrating religion-theology,plus-de-jouir
Thomas Aquinas argues in the Summa Theologica that the blessed in heaven are permitted, indeed need, to watch the suffering of the damned so that their own beatitude may be 'more delightful.' Žižek reads this as evidence that happiness requires a surplus enjoyment of the other's misery., illustrating surplus enjoyment,objet petit a,envy
Aquinas argues the blessed in heaven can see the suffering of the damned in hell; Žižek says this is exactly how TV news functions, boredom in the developed world relieved by watching catastrophe elsewhere., illustrating ideology,spectacle of suffering,global inequality
38:38 Žižek and Friends - Philosophy, Psychoanalysis and the Spaces Between (Nov. 2017)2017-11-14 · 1:03:09
Aquinas argues the blessed in heaven must be able to see suffering in hell because they will be all-knowing. When pressed on whether this is obscene, he rationalizes that they enjoy not the suffering but divine justice, which Žižek reads as transparent ideological cover for surplus enjoyment at its purest., illustrating ideological surplus enjoyment,plus-de-jouir (surplus enjoyment),ideological rationalization
Summa Theologica asks whether the blessed will observe the suffering of the damned; Aquinas says yes, but claims they enjoy not the suffering but divine justice. Žižek reads this as an admission of surplus enjoyment, paradise needs hell as its obscene supplement., illustrating surplus enjoyment,the necessary third element,heaven and hell inversion
Aquinas in the Summa Theologica addresses whether blessed souls can see hell, and argues they feel satisfaction at 'divine justice' rather than sadistic pleasure. Žižek proposes a counter-reading: paradise is boring, the real orgy is in hell, and the damned periodically perform suffering for the heavenly audience's benefit, exactly as Western consumers need TV images of Third World suffering to enjoy their own comfortable lives., illustrating happiness ideology / manipulations with happiness,paradise at proper distance,ideology