Saturday, March 13, 2010

1a 2ae q19 a5: Whether the will is evil when it is at variance with erring reason? Yes.

Voluntas discordans a ratione errante, est mala, quia voluntas discordans a ratione errante, est contra conscientiam.

The will is evil when it is at variance with erring aspectual apprehension because when the will is at variance with erring aspectual apprehension, it is against conscience.

Iudicium rationis errantis licet non derivetur a Deo, tamen ratio errans iudicium suum proponit ut verum, et per consequens ut a Deo derivatum, a quo est omnis veritas.

Although the judgment of an erring aspectual apprehension is not derived from God, yet the erring aspectual apprehension puts forward its judgment as being true, and consequently as being derived from God, from Whom is all truth.

Voluntas erit mala, quia vult malum, non quidem id quod est malum per se, sed id quod est malum per accidens, propter apprehensionem rationis.

The will is evil, because it wills evil, not indeed that which is evil in itself, but that which is evil accidentally, through being apprehended as such by the formal aspect.

Et ideo philosophus dicit, in VII Ethic., quod, "per se loquendo, incontinens est qui non sequitur rationem rectam; per accidens autem, qui non sequitur etiam rationem falsam". Unde dicendum est simpliciter quod omnis voluntas discordans a ratione, sive recta sive errante, semper est mala.

Hence the Philosopher says (Ethic. vii, 9) that "properly speaking, the incontinent man is one who does not follow correct aspectual apprehension; but accidentally, he is also one who does not follow incorrect aspectual apprehension." We must therefore conclude that, absolutely speaking, every will at variance with aspectual apprehension, whether correct or erring, is always evil.