Metaphors and Leadership Education in the De Regno of Thomas Aquinas

Metaphors are valuable epistemological tools for understanding leadership. This paper presents a study on the metaphors employed by Thomas Aquinas to conceptualise and educate for leadership, based on the work De Regno (ca. 1266) addressed to King Hugh II of Cyprus, following the ‘mirror of prince’ genre. Aquinas employs mainly the metaphor of the pilot guiding a ship to a safe harbour. In addition, he utilises other metaphors (e.g. the divine government, the rational soul, the organization of bees or the armourer), along with verbs associated with leadership that carry implicit metaphorical significance. Thomas Aquinas can be regarded as a pioneering theorist of leadership, avant la lettre, whose ideas provide valuable insights into the conceptualisation of leadership. In affinity with the thought of Aquinas, we offer a definition of leadership as guiding others towards a common good. This definition allows us to discuss the nature of leadership and its end, with applications in the field of education, particularly in leadership education and the common good.