Part I (Prima Pars) Part 126 (2/2)

Now the sensitive appet.i.te does not consider the common notion of good, because neither do the senses apprehend the universal. And therefore the parts of the sensitive appet.i.te are differentiated by the different notions of particular good: for the concupiscible regards as proper to it the notion of good, as something pleasant to the senses and suitable to nature: whereas the irascible regards the notion of good as something that wards off and repels what is hurtful. But the will regards good according to the common notion of good, and therefore in the will, which is the intellectual appet.i.te, there is no differentiation of appet.i.tive powers, so that there be in the intellectual appet.i.te an irascible power distinct from a concupiscible power: just as neither on the part of the intellect are the apprehensive powers multiplied, although they are on the part of the senses.

Reply Obj. 1: Love, concupiscence, and the like can be understood in two ways. Sometimes they are taken as pa.s.sions--arising, that is, with a certain commotion of the soul. And thus they are commonly understood, and in this sense they are only in the sensitive appet.i.te. They may, however, be taken in another way, as far as they are simple affections without pa.s.sion or commotion of the soul, and thus they are acts of the will. And in this sense, too, they are attributed to the angels and to G.o.d. But if taken in this sense, they do not belong to different powers, but only to one power, which is called the will.

Reply Obj. 2: The will itself may be said to [be] irascible, as far as it wills to repel evil, not from any sudden movement of a pa.s.sion, but from a judgment of the reason. And in the same way the will may be said to be concupiscible on account of its desire for good. And thus in the irascible and concupiscible are charity and hope--that is, in the will as ordered to such acts. And in this way, too, we may understand the words quoted (De Spiritu et Anima); that the irascible and concupiscible powers are in the soul before it is united to the body (as long as we understand priority of nature, and not of time), although there is no need to have faith in what that book says.

Whence the answer to the third objection is clear.

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QUESTION 83

OF FREE-WILL (In Four Articles)

We now inquire concerning free-will. Under this head there are four points of inquiry:

(1) Whether man has free-will?

(2) What is free-will--a power, an act, or a habit?

(3) If it is a power, is it appet.i.tive or cognitive?

(4) If it is appet.i.tive, is it the same power as the will, or distinct?

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FIRST ARTICLE [I, Q. 83, Art. 1]

Whether Man Has Free-Will?

Objection 1: It would seem that man has not free-will. For whoever has free-will does what he wills. But man does not what he wills; for it is written (Rom. 7:19): ”For the good which I will I do not, but the evil which I will not, that I do.” Therefore man has not free-will.

Obj. 2: Further, whoever has free-will has in his power to will or not to will, to do or not to do. But this is not in man's power: for it is written (Rom. 9:16): ”It is not of him that willeth”--namely, to will--”nor of him that runneth”--namely, to run. Therefore man has not free-will.

Obj. 3: Further, what is ”free is cause of itself,” as the Philosopher says (Metaph. i, 2). Therefore what is moved by another is not free. But G.o.d moves the will, for it is written (Prov. 21:1): ”The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord; whithersoever He will He shall turn it” and (Phil. 2:13): ”It is G.o.d Who worketh in you both to will and to accomplish.” Therefore man has not free-will.

Obj. 4: Further, whoever has free-will is master of his own actions.

But man is not master of his own actions: for it is written (Jer.

10:23): ”The way of a man is not his: neither is it in a man to walk.” Therefore man has not free-will.

Obj. 5: Further, the Philosopher says (Ethic. iii, 5): ”According as each one is, such does the end seem to him.” But it is not in our power to be of one quality or another; for this comes to us from nature. Therefore it is natural to us to follow some particular end, and therefore we are not free in so doing.

_On the contrary,_ It is written (Ecclus. 15:14): ”G.o.d made man from the beginning, and left him in the hand of his own counsel”; and the gloss adds: ”That is of his free-will.”

_I answer that,_ Man has free-will: otherwise counsels, exhortations, commands, prohibitions, rewards, and punishments would be in vain. In order to make this evident, we must observe that some things act without judgment; as a stone moves downwards; and in like manner all things which lack knowledge. And some act from judgment, but not a free judgment; as brute animals. For the sheep, seeing the wolf, judges it a thing to be shunned, from a natural and not a free judgment, because it judges, not from reason, but from natural instinct. And the same thing is to be said of any judgment of brute animals. But man acts from judgment, because by his apprehensive power he judges that something should be avoided or sought. But because this judgment, in the case of some particular act, is not from a natural instinct, but from some act of comparison in the reason, therefore he acts from free judgment and retains the power of being inclined to various things. For reason in contingent matters may follow opposite courses, as we see in dialectic syllogisms and rhetorical arguments.

Now particular operations are contingent, and therefore in such matters the judgment of reason may follow opposite courses, and is not determinate to one. And forasmuch as man is rational is it necessary that man have a free-will.

Reply Obj. 1: As we have said above (Q. 81, A. 3, ad 2), the sensitive appet.i.te, though it obeys the reason, yet in a given case can resist by desiring what the reason forbids. This is therefore the good which man does not when he wishes--namely, ”not to desire against reason,” as Augustine says.

Reply Obj. 2: Those words of the Apostle are not to be taken as though man does not wish or does not run of his free-will, but because the free-will is not sufficient thereto unless it be moved and helped by G.o.d.

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