ARTICLE VI

In the Sixth Article We Ask: DOES THE WILL NECESSARILY WILL WHATEVER IT WILLS?

Difficulties:

It seems that it does, for

1. The nobler a thing is, the more unchangeable it is. But to live is nobler than to be; to understand, nobler than to live; and to will, nobler than to understand. Therefore to will is more unchangeable than to be. But the being of a soul that wills is unchangeable because it is incorruptible. Therefore its willing is also unchangeable; and so whatever it wills, it wills unchangeably and necessarily.

2. The more conformed a thing is to God, the more unchangeable it is. But the soul is more conformed to God by secondary conformity, which is that of likeness, than by primary conformity, which is that of an image. But in its primary conformity the soul has unchangeableness because it cannot lose its image, according to the words of the Psalm (38:7): "Man passeth as an image." Then according to secondary conformity, which is that of a likeness consisting in the due ordering of the will, it will also have unchangeableness so that the will will unchangeably will good and cannot will evil.

3. Potency stands to potential being as act to actual being. But God, being actually good, cannot actually do anything evil. Therefore His power, which is good, also cannot produce anything which is evil potentially; and thus the will, which the divine power has produced, cannot tend to evil.

4. According to the Philosopher in matters of operation and appetency ends are related to means just as in demonstrative sciences principles are to conclusions. But from principles that are naturally known necessity is imposed upon the intellect so that it knows conclusions necessarily. Then from the fact that the will necessarily wills the last end in the way already explained, it will of necessity will all other things which are directed to the ultimate end.

5. Whatever is naturally determined to something necessarily attains it unless something interferes. But the will "naturally wills good," as is said in the Gloss. It therefore unchangeably wills good, since there is nothing to stop it, seeing that it is "the most powerful" thing under God, as Bernard teaches.

6. Evil is opposed to good as darkness to light. But sight, which is naturally determined to know light and what is lighted, sees them naturally so as to be unable to see what is dark. Then the will, whose object is the good, so unchangeably wills good that it can in no way will evil. And so the will has some necessity not only in regard to the last end but also in regard to other things.

To the Contrary:

1'. Augustine says: "It is by the will that one sins or lives correctly."

2'. According to Augustine "sin is voluntary to such an extent that if it is not voluntary it is not a sin." If, then, sin is not at all from the will, there will not be any sin at all. But it is evident from experience that that is false.

REPLY:

Something is said to be necessary from the fact that it is unchangeably determined to one thing. Since, therefore, the will stands undetermined in regard to many things, it is not under necessity in regard to everything but only in regard to those things to which it is determined by a natural inclination, as has been said. And because everything mobile is reduced to what is immobile as its principle, and everything undetermined, to what is determined, that to which the will is determined must be the principle of tending to the things to which it is not determined; and this is the last end, as has been said. Now there is found to be indetermination of the will in regard to three things: its object, its act, and its ordination to its end.

In regard to its object the will is undetermined as to the means to the end, not as to the last end itself, as has been said. This is so because there are many ways of reaching the last end, and for different people different ways prove suitable. The appetite of the will could not, then, be determined to the means to the end as is the appetite in natural things, which have definite and fixed ways of reaching a definite and fixed end. And so it is evident that natural things not only desire the end necessarily, but also desire the means in the same way, so that there are among the means none to which natural things can either tend or not. The will, however, necessarily desires the last end in such a way that it is unable not to desire it, but it does not necessarily desire any of the means. In their regard, then, it is within the power of the will to desire this or that.

In the second place the will is undetermined in regard to its act, because even concerning a determined object it can perform its act or not perform it when it wishes. It can pass or not pass into the act of willing with regard to anything at all. This is not true of natural things, for something heavy always actually goes down unless something else prevents it. This is the case because inanimate things do not move themselves but are moved by other things. There is in them, then, no ability to be moved or not to be moved. But animate things are their own source of movement. Hence it is that the will can will or not.

A third indetermination of the will is found in regard to its ordination to its end inasmuch as the will can desire what is in truth directed to its appointed end or what is so only in appearance. This indetermination comes from two sources: from the indetermination in regard to its object in the case of the means, and again from the indetermination of our apprehension, which can be correct or not. From a given true principle a false conclusion does not follow unless it is because of some falsity in the reasoning through a false subsumption or the false relating of the principle to the conclusion. In the same way from a correct appetite for the last end the inordinate desire for something could not follow unless reason were to take as referable to the end something which is not so referable. Thus a person who naturally desires happiness with a correct appetite would never be led to desire fornication except in so far as he apprehends it as a good for man, seeing that it is something pleasurable, and as referable to happiness as a sort of copy of it. From this there follows the indetermination of the will by which it can desire good or evil.

Since the will is said to be free inasmuch as it is not necessitated, the freedom of the will can be viewed in three respects: (1) as regards its act, inasmuch as it can will or not will; (2) as regards its object, inasmuch as it can will this or that, even if one is the opposite of the other; and (3) as regards its ordination to the end, inasmuch as it can will good or evil.

In regard to the first of these three there is freedom in the will in any state of nature with reference to any object, for the act of any will is in its power as regards any object. The second of these is had with reference to some objects, the means and not the end itself. This too holds for any state of nature. The third is not with reference to all objects but only certain ones, the means to the end, and not with reference to any state of nature but only that in which nature can fail. Where there is no failure in apprehending and comparing, there can be no willing of evil even when there is question of means, as is clear among the blessed. For this reason it is said that to will evil is not freedom or any part of it, though it is a sign of freedom.

Answers to Difficulties:

1. The act of being of the soul is not determined for it by itself but by another, but it does determine its own act of willing. Thus, although its being is unchangeable, still its willing is undetermined and so can be directed to different things. It is not true, however, that to understand or to will is nobler than to be if they are discriminated from being. Rather being is then nobler than they, according to Dionysius.

2. The conformity of an image is viewed from the standpoint of natural powers, which are determined for the thing by nature. And so that conformity always remains. But secondary conformity, that of likeness, is had by grace and the habits and acts of the virtues, to which the soul is directed by an act of the will which stands within its power. That conformity, then, does not always remain.

3. In God there is no passive or material potency to be distinguished from act, as is supposed in the objection; but there is active potency, which is the act itself, because a being is capable of acting inasmuch as it is in act. And yet the ability of the will to be directed to evil does not come from the fact of its being from God but from that of its being made out of nothing.

4. In demonstrative sciences conclusions are so related to principles that when the conclusion is removed the principle is removed. And so from this fixity of the conclusions with regard to the principles the intellect is forced by the principles themselves to assent to the conclusions. But the means do not have with regard to the end such a fixity that upon the removal of any one of them the end is removed, since it is possible to attain the last end in various ways either really or apparently. Consequently, from the necessity which is in the voluntary appetite in regard to the end, there is not imposed upon it any necessity in regard to the means.

5. The will naturally wills good but not this or that particular good. It is like sight, which naturally sees color but not this or that particular color. For this reason whatever the will wills it wills under the aspect of good; yet it does not always have to will this or that good.

6. Nothing is so evil that it cannot have some aspect of good; and it is by reason of that goodness that it can move the appetite.