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
57. Acts Elicited by the Will.--The first class of acts under the
control of the will are those that are performed by the will
itself--i.e., that are begun and completed in that power of the soul.
58. There are three acts of the will that are directed to the end the
will has in view, viz., wish, intention and fruition. Wish is the love
or inclination of the will towards the end without any reference to the
means by which it is to be obtained: this is the first act of the will.
Intention is the direction of the will to the gaining of the end
through certain means. Fruition is the enjoyment of the end after it
has been gained: this is the last act of the will.
59. There are three acts of the will that are directed to the means and
that follow after intention, viz., consent, election, and use. Consent
follows upon the counsel of the intellect, and is an act of the will
agreeing to several means as suitable for the intended end. Election
follows after a practical judgment of the intellect about the means
consented to, and is an act of the will which chooses one of the means
in preference to the others, as being most suitable for gaining the
intended end. Use is the act by which the will directs and moves the
other powers to employ the particular means that has been chosen.
60. Acts Commanded by the Will.--The second class of acts that are
under the control of the will are those that proceed, not from the will
itself, but from the other powers under the direction of the will.
61. Acts commanded by the will are of various kinds: (a) intellectual
acts, such as judgment, reasoning, etc., performed under the direction
of the will, (b) sensible acts such as sight, hearing, imagination, the
passions of love, hate, etc.; (c) external corporal acts, such as
walking, writing, etc. None of the foregoing acts need be commanded by
the will, as they may be indeliberate (see 23).
62. The following kinds of acts are not subject to the control of the
will: (a) intellectual acts, such as the assent of the reason to
self-evident truths, as regards the specification of the act; (b)
sensible acts, such as the passions considered as arising from bodily
dispositions before they are adverted to; (c) acts of the vegetative
life, such as digestion and growth; (d) bodily movements, such as the
circulation of the blood and the beating of the heart.
Art. 3: ACTS AS MORAL
(_Summa Theologica_, I-II, qq. 18-20.)
63. In order that an act be a means by which man may tend to his Last
End, it is not sufficient that it be human (proceeding from knowledge
and will); it must also be morally good.
64. Definition.--Morality is the agreement or disagreement, of a human
act with the norms that regulate human conduct with reference to man’s
Last End. The act which is in agreement with those norms is morally
good; the act which is in disagreement with them is morally bad. An act
that neither agrees nor disagrees with the norms of morality, is called
morally indifferent.
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