ARTICLE VI

In the Sixth Article We Ask: DOES THE GOOD OF A CREATURE CONSIST IN MEASURE, SPECIES, AND ORDER AS AUGUSTINE SAYS?

Difficulties:

It seems that it does not, for

1. Good, according to the Philosopher, has the character of an end. But the whole character of an end consists in order. The whole character of good, therefore, consists in order; and the other two are superfluous.

2. Being, good, and one differ in meaning. But the notion of being consists in species; that of one, in measure. That of good, therefore, does not consist in species and measure.

3. Species designates a formal cause. But in this respect, according to some, good differs from the true, because the true expresses the notion of a formal cause whereas good expresses that of a final cause. Species therefore does not pertain to the notion of good.

4. Evil and good, being opposites, are applied to the same thing. But as Augustine says, "evil is discovered to consist entirely in the privation of species." The whole notion of good, therefore, consists in the positive presence of species; and so measure and order seem superfluous.

5. Measure pertains to the properties of a thing; but a certain goodness belongs to its essence. Measure is therefore not an essential note of good.

6. What God can do through one thing He does not do through several. But God could have made a creature good through one of those three notes, because each one has some aspect of goodness. All three are not, therefore, to be considered necessary for the formal character of good.

7. If those three notes are essential to goodness, then in every good the three must be found. But each of the three is itself good. In each of them, then, there are all three; and so they should not be distinguished from one another.

8. If those three notes are good, they must have measure, species, and order. There will therefore be a measure of the measure, a species of the species, and so on to infinity.

9. Measure, species, and order are decreased by sin, according to Augustine. But the substantial goodness of a thing is not decreased by sin. The formal character of good therefore does not consist universally in those three notes.

10. Whatever is essential to good does not have evil predicated of it. But measure, species, and order can have evil predicated of them, according to Augustine; for he speaks of "a bad measure," "a bad species," etc. The character of good therefore does not consist in those three notes.

11. Ambrose says: "The nature of light does not consist in number, weight, and dimension like any other creature." But according to Augustine species, measure, and order are constituted by these three. Since, therefore, light is good, the character of good does not include species, measure, and order.

12. According to Bernard the measure of charity is not to have any measure; and yet charity is good. It does not, then, require the three notes mentioned.

To the Contrary:

1'. Augustine says: "Where these three are great, the good is great; where they are small, it is small; where they are not at all, it is not at all." The essence of the good therefore consists in measure, species, and order.

2'. Augustine says again: "Things are called good inasmuch as they are measured, specified, and ordered."

3'. A creature is called good from its relation to God, as Boethius maintains. But God bears to the creature the relation of a threefold cause: efficient, final, and exemplary formal. The creature is therefore said to be good according to its relation to God under the aspect of a threefold cause. Accordingly, because it is referred to God as its efficient cause, it has the measure set for it by God. Referred to God as its exemplary cause, it has species. Referred to Him as its end, it has order. The good of the creature therefore consists in measure, species, and order.

4'. All creatures are oriented to God through the mediation of a rational creature, which alone is capable of beatitude. And this occurs inasmuch as God is known by the rational creature. Since, then, a creature is good from its orientation to God, three things are required for it to be good: that it be existing, that it be knowable, and that it be oriented. But it is existing by its measure, knowable by its species, and oriented by its order. In these three, therefore, the good of a creature consists.

5'. It is said in Wisdom (11:21): "But thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight." But according to Augustine measure sets the limit of each thing; number gives its species; and weight gives order. In these three, then, limit or measure, species, and order, consists the goodness of a creature, since a creature is good in virtue of the disposition given it by God.

REPLY:

The essence of good consists in the above-mentioned three notes, as Augustine says. For the elucidation of this point it should be noted that a name can imply a relation in two ways. (1) The name is used to signify the relation itself, as father or son or even fatherhood. (2) Some names are said to imply a relation because they signify a thing of a given kind which is accompanied by a relation, although the name is not used to signify the relation itself. Thus the word knowledge is used to signify a certain quality which entails a relation, but not to signify the relation itself.

In this way the essence of good implies a relation, not because the name good itself signifies only a relation, but because it signifies something which has a relation along with the relation itself. The relation implied in the word good is the status of that which perfects. This follows from the fact that a thing is capable of perfecting not only according to its own specific character but also according to the act of being which it has in reality. In this way an end perfects the means to that end. But since creatures are not their own act of existing, they must have a received existence. Thus their existence is limited and determined according to the measure of the thing in which it is received.

Among the three notes which Augustine lays down, the last, order, is the relation which the name good implies; but the other two, species and measure, are causes of that relation. For species belongs to the very specific character which, having existence in a subject, is received in a determined measure, since everything which is in a subject is in it according to the measure of the subject. Thus every good, being perfective in accordance with both its specific character and its act of being, has measure, species, and order: species in its specific character, measure in its act of being, and order in its status as perfective.

Answers to Difficulties:

1. That argument would hold if the name good were used to signify the relation itself; but this is false, as is apparent from what has been said.* The reasoning is therefore not consequent.

2. Good does not differ from being and the one because the notions are opposed but because the notion of good includes those of being and the one and adds something to them.

3. According to the Philosopher, just as in regard to numbers the addition or subtraction of one changes the species of the number, so also in definitions the addition or subtraction of anything constitutes a different species. Thus from the species alone is constituted the essence of the true inasmuch as the true is perfective according to the specific character alone, as is clear from what has been said; but from the species plus the measure is constituted the essence of good, which is perfective not only in regard to species but also in regard to the act of being.

4. When Augustine says that evil is discovered to consist entirely in the privation of species, he does not exclude the other two because, as he himself says in the very same book, "where there is any species there is necessarily some measure." Order also follows upon species and measure. But he names species alone because the other two are consequent upon species.

5. Wherever something has been received, there measure must be found, since what is received is limited in proportion to the recipient. Since a creature's act of being, both accidental and essential, is received, measure is found not only in accidentals but also in substantials.

6. Since the essence of the good consists in species, measure, and order, even God could not bring it about that anything should be good without having species, measure, and order, just as it would be impossible for Him to make a man who was not a rational animal.

7. Measure, species, and order are each good, not in the sense in which something subsisting in goodness is called good, but in the sense in which the principle of goodness is said to be good. Hence it is not necessary that each of them have measure, species, and order, just as it is not necessary that a form have a form, although it is a being and every being is in virtue of a form. This is the explanation of some who say that, when we speak of all things having measure, species, and order, this applies to things created, not to those which are co-created.

8. The answer is clear from what has just been said.

9. Some say that the measure, species, and order which constitute the good of a real being and those which are in the domain of moral good and are decreased by sin are really the same but differ in concept. One and the same will, for instance, can be considered from the point of view of being a certain reality and thus having in it a measure, species, and order which constitute it a good in the real order, and also from the point of view of being specifically a will with an ordination to grace, and thus having attributed to it a measure, species, and order able to be decreased through sin, which constitute it a moral good.

Or a better answer would be that, in view of the fact that good is consequent upon existence and is constituted by species, measure, and order, just as substantial and accidental existence are distinct, so substantial and accidental form are obviously distinct; and each has its own measure and order.

10. Measure, species, and order, according to Augustine, are not called bad because they are bad in themselves but either because "they are less than they ought to be" or because "they are not adapted to the things to which they should be adapted." It is accordingly from some privation in point of measure, species, or order that they are called bad, not of themselves.

11. Ambrose's statement is not to be understood in the sense that light is entirely without measure, since it has a limited species and power, but in the sense that it is not determined as regards any particular corporeal beings because it extends to all things corporeal inasmuch as all of them are capable of being illuminated or of receiving the other effects of light, as Dionysius makes clear.

12. Charity has measure arising from the existence which it has in a subject. In this sense it is a creature. But as referred to an infinite object, God, it has no measure beyond which our charity should not go.