Friday, February 05, 2010

1a 2ae q14 a5: Whether the process of counsel is one of analysis? Yes.

Inquisitio consilii sit resolutiva, incipiendo scilicet, ab eo quod in futuro intenditur, quousque perveniatur ad id quod statim agendum est, quia autem in inquisitione consilii est finis, qui quidem est prior in intentione, posterior tamen in esse.

Counsel's investigation must needs be one of analysis, beginning that is to say, from that which is intended in the future, and continuing until it arrives at that which is to be done at once, because the principle in counsel's investigation is the end, which precedes indeed in intention, but comes afterwards into execution.

Consilium est quidem de operationibus. Sed ratio operationum accipitur ex fine, et ideo ordo ratiocinandi de operationibus, est contrarius ordini operandi.

Counsel is indeed about action. But actions take their formal aspect from the end, and consequently the order of reasoning about actions is contrary to the order of actions.

Philosophus dicit, in III Ethic., quod "ille qui consiliatur, videtur quaerere et resolvere."

The Philosopher says (Ethic. iii, 3) that "he who takes counsel seems to inquire and analyze."