Moral Theology: A Complete Course Based on St. Thomas Aquinas and the Best Modern AuthoritiesCallan, Charles J. (Charles Jerome)
Religion
Moral Theology: A Complete Course Based on St. Thomas Aquinas and the Best Modern Authorities
Callan, Charles J. (Charles Jerome)
Christian ethics -- Catholic authors
47. With reference to the will, passion is twofold. (a) It is
antecedent, when it precedes the act of the will and causes it. In this
case the passion arises not from the will, but from some other cause
(e.g., the bodily state, as when a sick man longs for food that is
forbidden). (b) Passion is consequent when it follows the act of the
will and results from it. This may happen either without the will
choosing the passion (as when the very vehemence with which the will
desires some object causes a corresponding sensitive emotion to
awaken), or because the will has deliberately aroused the emotion in
order to be able the better to act through its cooperation.
48. Antecedent passion makes an act more voluntary, since it makes the
will tend with greater inclination to its object; but it likewise makes
an act less free, since it impedes deliberation and disturbs the power
of choice. Example: A man who takes extreme delight in sports, plays
voluntarily, but is less free than if he were not so immoderately
inclined that way.
49. Consequent passion which results naturally from an intense act of
the will does not increase the voluntariness of the act, since it is
not its cause; but it does show that the act of the will is intense,
for it is only that which is willed vehemently that overflows from the
will and affects the emotions.
50. Consequent passion which results from the deliberate choice of the
will increases the voluntariness of the act that follows, since the act
is performed with greater intensity on account of the passion that has
been deliberately excited.
51. What has been said about the passions that tend to sensible good
can be applied also to the passions that are concerned with sensible
evils, such as hatred, sadness, aversion, boldness, anger. If they are
antecedent, they increase the voluntariness of an act, but diminish its
freedom; and, if they cause a passing frenzy or insanity, they take
away all responsibility. If they are consequent, they either increase
the willingness of the act, or indicate that it is willed with great
intensity.
52. Violence, or coercion, is the use of force by an external agent to
compel one to do what one does not want to do. Its effects on
voluntariness are: (a) it cannot affect the internal act of the will,
else we should have the contradiction that the act of the will was both
voluntary, as proceeding from the will, and involuntary, as proceeding
from external coercion; (b) it can affect external acts, such as
walking, and so make them involuntary. If a boy is driven to school,
the violence makes his going involuntary, but it does not make his will
not to go to school involuntary.
53. Habits.--Characteristic of habits is a constant inclination,
resulting from repeated acts, to perform similar acts (see 133 for
definition of habit). Its effect[s] on the voluntariness of acts are:
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