Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae

Objection 1: It seems that the essence of goodness does not consist in mode, species and order. For goodness and being differ logically. But mode, species and order seem to belong to the nature of being, for it is written: "Thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight" (Wis. 11:21). And to these three can be reduced species, mode and order, as Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. iv, 3): "Measure fixes the mode of everything, number gives it its species, and weight gives it rest and stability." Therefore the essence of goodness does not consist in mode, species and order.

Objection 2: Further, mode, species and order are themselves good. Therefore if the essence of goodness consists in mode, species and order, then every mode must have its own mode, species and order. The same would be the case with species and order in endless succession.

Objection 3: Further, evil is the privation of mode, species and order. But evil is not the total absence of goodness. Therefore the essence of goodness does not consist in mode, species and order.

Objection 4: Further, that wherein consists the essence of goodness cannot be spoken of as evil. Yet we can speak of an evil mode, species and order. Therefore the essence of goodness does not consist in mode, species and order.

Objection 5: Further, mode, species and order are caused by weight, number and measure, as appears from the quotation from Augustine. But not every good thing has weight, number and measure; for Ambrose says (Hexam. i, 9): "It is of the nature of light not to have been created in number, weight and measure." Therefore the essence of goodness does not consist in mode, species and order.

On the contrary, Augustine says (De Nat. Boni. iii): "These three---mode, species and order---as common good things, are in everything God has made; thus, where these three abound the things are very good; where they are less, the things are less good; where they do not exist at all, there can be nothing good." But this would not be unless the essence of goodness consisted in them. Therefore the essence of goodness consists in mode, species and order.

I answer that, Everything is said to be good so far as it is perfect; for in that way only is it desirable (as shown above Articles 1,3). Now a thing is said to be perfect if it lacks nothing according to the mode of its perfection. But since everything is what it is by its form (and since the form presupposes certain things, and from the form certain things necessarily follow), in order for a thing to be perfect and good it must have a form, together with all that precedes and follows upon that form. Now the form presupposes determination or commensuration of its principles, whether material or efficient, and this is signified by the mode: hence it is said that the measure marks the mode. But the form itself is signified by the species; for everything is placed in its species by its form. Hence the number is said to give the species, for definitions signifying species are like numbers, according to the Philosopher (Metaph. x); for as a unit added to, or taken from a number, changes its species, so a difference added to, or taken from a definition, changes its species. Further, upon the form follows an inclination to the end, or to an action, or something of the sort; for everything, in so far as it is in act, acts and tends towards that which is in accordance with its form; and this belongs to weight and order. Hence the essence of goodness, so far as it consists in perfection, consists also in mode, species and order.

Reply to Objection 1: These three only follow upon being, so far as it is perfect, and according to this perfection is it good.

Reply to Objection 2: Mode, species and order are said to be good, and to be beings, not as though they themselves were subsistences, but because it is through them that other things are both beings and good. Hence they have no need of other things whereby they are good: for they are spoken of as good, not as though formally constituted so by something else, but as formally constituting others good: thus whiteness is not said to be a being as though it were by anything else; but because, by it, something else has accidental being, as an object that is white.

Reply to Objection 3: Every being is due to some form. Hence, according to every being of a thing is its mode, species, order. Thus, a man has a mode, species and order as he is white, virtuous, learned and so on; according to everything predicated of him. But evil deprives a thing of some sort of being, as blindness deprives us of that being which is sight; yet it does not destroy every mode, species and order, but only such as follow upon the being of sight.

Reply to Objection 4: Augustine says (De Nat. Boni. xxiii), "Every mode, as mode, is good" (and the same can be said of species and order). "But an evil mode, species and order are so called as being less than they ought to be, or as not belonging to that which they ought to belong. Therefore they are called evil, because they are out of place and incongruous."

Reply to Objection 5: The nature of light is spoken of as being without number, weight and measure, not absolutely, but in comparison with corporeal things, because the power of light extends to all corporeal things; inasmuch as it is an active quality of the first body that causes change, i.e. the heavens.

Articulus 5

Argumentum 1

Ad quintum sic proceditur. Videtur quod ratio boni non consistat in modo, specie et ordine. Bonum enim et ens ratione differunt, ut supra dictum est.

Sed modus, species et ordo pertinere ad rationem entis videntur, quia, sicut dicitur Sap. XI, omnia in numero, pondere et mensura disposuisti, ad quae tria reducuntur species, modus et ordo, quia, ut dicit Augustinus, IV super Gen. Ad litteram, mensura omni rei modum praefigit, et numerus omni rei speciem praebet, et pondus omnem rem ad quietem et stabilitatem trahit.

Ergo ratio boni non consistit in modo, specie et ordine.

Argumentum 2

Praeterea, ipse modus, species et ordo bona quaedam sunt. Si ergo ratio boni consistit in modo, specie et ordine, oportet etiam quod modus habeat modum, speciem et ordinem, et similiter species et ordo. Ergo procederetur in infinitum.

Argumentum 3

Praeterea, malum est privatio modi et speciei et ordinis. Sed malum non tollit totaliter bonum. Ergo ratio boni non consistit in modo, specie et ordine.

Argumentum 4

Praeterea, illud in quo consistit ratio boni, non potest dici malum. Sed dicitur malus modus, mala species, malus ordo. Ergo ratio boni non consistit in modo, specie et ordine.

Argumentum 5

Praeterea, modus, species et ordo ex pondere, numero et mensura causantur, ut ex auctoritate Augustini inducta patet.

Non autem omnia bona habent pondus, numerum et mensuram, dicit enim Ambrosius, in Hexaemeron, quod lucis natura est, ut non in numero, non in pondere, non in mensura creata sit.

Non ergo ratio boni consistit in modo, specie et ordine.

Sed Contra

Sed contra est quod dicit Augustinus, in libro de natura boni, haec tria, modus, species et ordo, tanquam generalia bona sunt in rebus a deo factis, et ita, haec tria ubi magna sunt, magna bona sunt; ubi parva, parva bona sunt; ubi nulla, nullum bonum est.

Quod non esset, nisi ratio boni in eis consisteret.

Ergo ratio boni consistit in modo, specie et ordine.

Corpus

Respondeo dicendum quod unumquodque dicitur bonum, inquantum est perfectum, sic enim est appetibile, ut supra dictum est.

Perfectum autem dicitur, cui nihil deest secundum modum suae perfectionis. Cum autem unumquodque sit id quod est, per suam formam; forma autem praesupponit quaedam, et quaedam ad ipsam ex necessitate consequuntur; ad hoc quod aliquid sit perfectum et bonum, necesse est quod formam habeat, et ea quae praeexiguntur ad eam, et ea quae consequuntur ad ipsam. Praeexigitur autem ad formam determinatio sive commensuratio principiorum, seu materialium, seu efficientium ipsam, et hoc significatur per modum, unde dicitur quod mensura modum praefigit.

Ipsa autem forma significatur per speciem, quia per formam unumquodque in specie constituitur.

Et propter hoc dicitur quod numerus speciem praebet, quia definitiones significantes speciem sunt sicut numeri, secundum philosophum in VIII metaphys.; sicut enim unitas addita vel subtracta variat speciem numeri, ita in definitionibus differentia apposita vel subtracta. Ad formam autem consequitur inclinatio ad finem, aut ad actionem, aut ad aliquid huiusmodi, quia unumquodque, inquantum est actu, agit, et tendit in id quod sibi convenit secundum suam formam. Et hoc pertinet ad pondus et ordinem. Unde ratio boni, secundum quod consistit in perfectione, consistit etiam in modo, specie et ordine.

Ad 1

Ad primum ergo dicendum quod ista tria non consequuntur ens, nisi inquantum est perfectum, et secundum hoc est bonum.

Ad 2

Ad secundum dicendum quod modus, species et ordo eo modo dicuntur bona, sicut et entia, non quia ipsa sint quasi subsistentia, sed quia eis alia sunt et entia et bona. Unde non oportet quod ipsa habeant aliqua alia, quibus sint bona. Non enim sic dicuntur bona, quasi formaliter aliis sint bona; sed quia ipsis formaliter aliqua sunt bona; sicut albedo non dicitur ens quia ipsa aliquo sit, sed quia ipsa aliquid est secundum quid, scilicet album.

Ad 3

Ad tertium dicendum quod quodlibet esse est secundum formam aliquam, unde secundum quodlibet esse rei, consequuntur ipsam modus, species et ordo, sicut homo habet speciem, modum et ordinem, inquantum est homo; et similiter inquantum est albus, habet similiter modum, speciem et ordinem; et inquantum est virtuosus, et inquantum est sciens, et secundum omnia quae de ipso dicuntur.

Malum autem privat quodam esse, sicut caecitas privat esse visus, unde non tollit omnem modum, speciem et ordinem; sed solum modum, speciem et ordinem quae consequuntur esse visus.

Ad 4

Ad quartum dicendum quod, sicut dicit Augustinus in libro de natura boni, omnis modus, inquantum modus, bonus est (et sic potest dici de specie et ordine), sed malus modus, vel mala species, vel malus ordo, aut ideo dicuntur quia minora sunt quam esse debuerunt; aut quia non his rebus accommodantur, quibus accommodanda sunt; ut ideo dicantur mala, quia sunt aliena et incongrua.

Ad 5

Ad quintum dicendum quod natura lucis dicitur esse sine numero et pondere et mensura, non simpliciter, sed per comparationem ad corporalia, quia virtus lucis ad omnia corporalia se extendit, inquantum est qualitas activa primi corporis alterantis, scilicet caeli.