Monday, April 20, 2015

A distinction lost on the contemporary mind

"when the exterior act  is good or bad [1] solely because of its order to the end, then the goodness or badness of the act of the will which looks to the end, and of the exterior act, which looks to the end through the mediation of the act of the will, are in every way the same.  But when the exterior act has a goodness or badness [2] in itself, because of matter or circumstances, then the goodness of the exterior act differs from the goodness of the will which is from the end. . . ."

"quando actus exterior est bonus vel malus [1] solum ex ordine ad finem, tunc est omnino eadem bonitas vel malitia actus voluntatis, qui per se respicit finem, et actus exterioris, qui respicit finem mediante actu voluntatis. Quando autem actus exterior habet bonitatem vel malitiam [2] secundum se, scilicet secundum materiam vel circumstantias, tunc bonitas exterioris actus est una, et bonitas voluntatis quae est ex fine, est alia. . . ."

     Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I-II.20.3.Resp., trans. Ralph McInerny (Thomas Aquinas:  selected writings, 605).  Latin from Corpus Thomisticum.

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