Finality, command and action

Abstract:

The present article constitutes an attempt to show how the concept of imperium (command) in Thomas Aquinas, read in light of authors such as Alejandro Vigo and Harry Frankfurt, contributes to the understanding of the action in the context of the human life.
It is when the free action is considered in light of the imperium that we recognize it as something more than itself: more than the effect of an impulse, more than a corporal movement, more than an isolated act from a sole operative principle.
Such something more means that an action can contain, in its apparent meaningless reality, the very purpose of a life.

Key words:

Command, action, Thomas Aquinas, Harry Frankfurt, Alejandro Vigo.