Chapter XXII
.—
Concerning Passion and
Energy.
Passion is a word with various meanings. It is
used in regard to the body, and refers to diseases and wounds, and
again, it is used in reference to the soul, and means desire and
anger. But to speak broadly and generally, passion is an animal
affection which is succeeded by pleasure and pain. For pain
succeeds passion, but is not the same thing as passion. For
passion is an affection of things without sense, but not so pain.
Pain then is not passion, but the sensation of passion: and it
must be considerable, that is to say,
it must be great enough to come within the
scope of sense.
Again, the definition of passions of the soul is
this: Passion is a sensible activity of the appetitive faculty,
depending on the presentation to the mind of something good or
bad. Or in other words, passion is an irrational activity of the
soul, resulting from the notion of something good or bad. For the
notion of something good results in desire, and the notion of something
bad results in anger. But passion considered as a class, that is,
passion in general, is defined as a movement in one thing caused by
another. Energy, on the other hand, is a drastic movement, and by
“drastic” is meant that which is moved of itself.
Thus, anger is the energy manifested by the part of the soul where
anger resides, whereas passion involves the two divisions of the soul,
and in addition the whole body when it is forcibly impelled to action
by anger. For there has been caused movement in one thing caused
by another, and this is called passion.
But in another sense energy is spoken of as
passion. For energy is a movement in harmony with nature, whereas
passion is a movement at variance with nature. According, then,
to this view, energy may be spoken of as passion when it does not act
in accord with nature, whether its movement is due to itself or to some
other thing. Thus, in connection with the heart, its natural
pulsation is energy, whereas its palpitation, which is an excessive and
unnatural movement, is passion and not energy.
But it is not every activity of the passionate part of
the soul that is called passion, but only the more violent ones, and
such as are capable of causing sensation: for the minor and
unperceived movements are certainly not passions. For to
constitute passion there is necessary a considerable degree of force,
and thus it is on this account that we add to the definition of passion
that it is a sensible activity. For the lesser activities escape
the notice of the senses, and do not cause passion.
Observe also that our soul possesses twofold faculties,
those of knowledge, and those of life. The faculties of knowledge
are mind, thought, notion, presentation, sensation: and the vital
or appetitive faculties are will and choice. Now, to make what
has been said clearer, let us consider these things more closely, and
first let us take the faculties of knowledge.
Presentation and sensation then have already been
sufficiently discussed above. It is sensation that causes a
passion, which is called presentation, to arise in the soul, and from
presentation comes notion. Thereafter thought, weighing the truth
or falseness of the notion, determines what is true: and this
explains the Greek word for thought,
διάνοια
, which is
derived from
διανοεῖν
,
meaning to think and discriminate. That, however, which is
judged
1846
and determined
to be true, is spoken of as mind.
Or to put it otherwise: The primary activity of
the mind, observe, is intelligence, but intelligence applied to any
object is called a thought, and when this persists and makes on the
mind an impression of the object of thought, it is named reflection,
and when reflection dwells on the same object and puts itself to the
test, and closely examines the relation of the thought to the soul, it
gets the name prudence. Further, prudence, when it extends its
area forms the power of reasoning, and is called conception, and this
is defined as the fullest activity of the soul, arising in that part
where reason resides, and being devoid of outward expression: and
from it proceeds the uttered word spoken by the tongue. And now
that we have discussed the faculties of knowledge, let us turn to the
vital or appetitive faculties.
It should be understood that there is implanted in the
soul by nature a faculty of desiring that which is in harmony with its
nature, and of maintaining in close union all that belongs essentially
to its nature: and this power is called will or
θέλησις
.
For the essence both of existence and of living yearns after activity
both as regards mind and sense, and in this it merely longs to realise
its own natural and perfect being. And so this definition also is
given of this natural will: will is an appetite, both rational
and vital, depending only on what is natural. So that
will
1847
is nothing else than the natural and
vital and rational appetite of all things that go to constitute nature,
that is, just the simple faculty. For the appetite of creatures
without reason, since it is irrational, is not called will.
Again
βούλησις
or wish
is a sort of natural will, that is to say, a natural and rational
appetite for some definite thing. For there is seated in the soul
of man a faculty of rational desire. When, then, this rational
desire directs itself naturally to some definite object it is called
wish. For wish is rational desire and longing for some definite
thing.
Wish, however, is used both in connection with what is
within our power, and in connection with what is outside our power,
that is, both with regard to the possible and the impossible. For
we wish often to indulge lust or to be temperate, or to sleep and the
like, and these are within our
power to accomplish, and possible. But we wish also to be kings,
and this is not within our power, or we wish perchance never to die,
and this is an impossibility.
The wish
1848
, then, has
reference to the end alone, and not to the means by which the end is
attained. The end is the object of our wish, for instance, to be
a king or to enjoy good health: but the means by which the end is
attained, that is to say, the manner in which we ought to enjoy good
health, or reach the rank of king, are the objects of
deliberation
1849
. Then
after wish follow inquiry and speculation (
ζήτησις
and
σκέψις
), and after these,
if the object is anything within our power, comes counsel or
deliberation (
βουλή
or
βούλευσις
):
counsel is an appetite for investigating lines of action lying within
our own power. For one deliberates, whether one ought to
prosecute any matter or not, and next, one decides which is the better,
and this is called judgment (
κρίσις
). Thereafter,
one becomes disposed to and forms a liking for that in favour of which
deliberation gave judgment, and this is called inclination (
γνώμη
). For
should one form a judgment and not be disposed to or form a liking for
the object of that judgment, it is not called inclination. Then,
again, after one has become so disposed, choice or selection
(
προαίρεσις
and
ἐπιλογή
) comes into
play. For choice consists in the choosing and selecting of one of
two possibilities in preference to the other. Then one is
impelled to action, and this is called impulse (
ὁρμή
): and thereafter it is brought
into employment, and this is called use (
χρῆσις
). The last
stage after we have enjoyed the use is cessation from desire.
In the case, however, of creatures without reason, as
soon as appetite is roused for anything, straightway arises impulse to
action. For the appetite of creatures without reason is
irrational, and they are ruled by their natural appetite. Hence,
neither the names of will or wish are applicable to the appetite of
creatures without reason. For will is rational, free and natural
desire, and in the case of man, endowed with reason as he is, the
natural appetite is ruled rather than rules. For his actions are
free, and depend upon reason, since the faculties of knowledge and life
are bound up together in man. He is free in desire, free in wish,
free in examination and investigation, free in deliberation, free in
judgment, free in inclination, free in choice, free in impulse, and
free in action where that is in accordance with nature.
But in the case of God
1850
,
it is to be remembered, we speak of wish, but it is not correct to
speak of choice. For God does not deliberate, since that is a
mark of ignorance, and no one deliberates about what he knows.
But if counsel is a mark of ignorance, surely choice
1851
must also be so. God, then, since
He has absolute knowledge of everything, does not deliberate
1852
.
Nor in the case of the soul of the Lord do we
speak of counsel or choice, seeing that He had no part in
ignorance. For, although He was of a nature that is not cognisant
of the future, yet because of His oneness in subsistence with God the
Word, He had knowledge of all things, and that not by grace, but, as we
have said, because He was one in subsistence
1853
. For He Himself was both God and
Man, and hence He did not possess the will that acts by
opinion
1854
or
disposition. While He did possess the natural and simple will
which is to be observed equally in all the personalities of men, His
holy soul had not opinion
1855
(or,
disposition) that is to say, no inclination opposed to His divine will,
nor aught else contrary to His divine will. For opinion (or,
disposition) differs as persons differ, except in the case of the holy
and simple and uncompound and indivisible Godhead
1856
. There, indeed, since the
subsistences are in nowise divided or separated, neither is the object
of will divided. And there, since there is but one nature, there
is also but one natural will. And again, since the subsistences
are unseparated, the three subsistences have also one object of will,
and one activity. In the case of men, however, seeing that their
nature is one, their natural will is also one, but since their
subsistences
1857
are separated
and divided from each other, alike in place and time, and disposition
to things, and in many other respects, for this reason their acts of
will and their opinions are different. But in the case of our
Lord Jesus Christ, since He possesses different natures, His natural
wills, that is, His volitional faculties belonging to Him as God and as
Man are also different. But since the subsistence is one, and He
Who exercises
the will
is one, the object of the will,
1858
that is,
the gnomic will
1859
, is also one,
His human will evidently following His divine will, and willing that
which the divine will willed it to will.
Further note, that will (
θέλησις
) and wish
(
βούλησις
) are two
different things: also the object of will (
τὸ θελητόν
)
and the capacity for will (
θελητικόν
),
and the subject that exercises will (
ὁ θέλων
), are all different.
For will is just the simple faculty of willing, whereas wish is will
directed to some definite object. Again, the object of will is
the matter underlying the will, that is to say, the thing that we
will: for instance, when appetite is roused for food. The
appetite pure and simple, however, is a rational will. The
capacity for will, moreover, means that which possesses the volitional
faculty, for example, man. Further, the subject that exercises
will is the actual person who makes use of will.
The word
τὸ
θελήμα
, it is well to note,
sometimes denotes the will, that is, the volitional faculty, and in
this sense we speak of natural will: and sometimes it denotes the
object of will, and we speak of will (
θέλημα
γνωμικόν
)
depending on inclination
1860
.
1846
Cf.
1 Cor. i. 10
.
1847
Max. ad
Marin. et ad Incert.
p. 98.
1848
τὸ
βουλητόν
.
1849
Max. Dial. cum
Pyrrh. et Epist.
1
ad Marin
.
1850
Thomas Aquinas
(1—2,
Quæst
. 4,
a
. 1 and 2) lays down the
position in accordance with John of Damascus, that there is no
“counsel” in God
quatenus est appetitus
inquisitivus
, but that there is
quantum ad certitudinem
judicii
. Basil (
Hexaëm. Hom.
1), arguing
against the ancient philosophers who taught that the world was
made
ἀπροαιρέτως
,
affirms “counsel” in God in the latter sense.
1851
Max., Epist.
1
ad Marin
.
1852
Text,
ὁ δὲ Θεὸς
πάντα εἰδὼς
ἁπλῶς, οὐ
βουλεύεται
.
Various reading is,
ὁ
δὲ Θεὸς
πάντα αἰδὼς
ἁπλῶς
βούλεται
.
1853
Max., Dial.
cum Pyrrh
.
1854
διὸ οὐδὲ
γνωμικὸν
εἶχε
θέλημα
.
1855
γνωμήν
.
1856
v. infr
.,
lib. iii. ch. 14.
1857
Or,
personalities
.
1858
Text,
θελητόν
, as given by
Faber. Variant,
θελητικόν
.
1859
τὸ
γνωμικὸν
θέλημα
,
the will of
individual opinion,
or,
the dispositional will
.
1860
Or,
acting
by opinion
, or
disposition
.