One of the reasons why many theologians have been attracted to the theory of a "fundamental option" is that it seems in certain respects to correspond better to real-life experience. If we consider visible human relationships, between two married persons for example,we don't find persons who go frequently back and forth from being totally committed [...]
Archive for the ‘virtue and vice’ Category
Only excerpts or summaries of the posts are shown on this page. Click on the title of a post to see the whole post.Mortal Sin and Fundamental Option
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010Why We Need Habits
Friday, March 12th, 2010Why do we need habits? We need habits in order to react appropriately to things that happen, to make the right decisions quickly and readily, within a reasonable time frame, and to act upon those decisions. In short, we need habits in order to act virtuously.
In English we mostly reserve the name "habit" for more or less instinctive, or even unconscious but repeated behavior. This hides the analogy between the conditioning involved in this kind of repeated behavior, and the conditioning needed in order to have the emotional reactions appropriate to various situations, in order to make the right decisions, and in order to act upon them.
More Notes on the Goodness of the Passions
Monday, March 1st, 2010When a man is affected by a passion, things seem to him greater or smaller than they really are, as to a lover, what he loves seems better, and to him who fears, what he fears seems more dreadful. Consequently owing to the defect of right judgment, every passion, considered in itself, hinders the ability [...]
Aquinas on Pleasure as the Measure of Morality
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010In his treatise on the passions in the Summa Theologiae, Thomas Aquinas, discussing the goodness of pleasure, asks whether pleasure is the measure or rule for judging moral goodness or badness. He argues that it is, on the basis of the three principles that (1) moral goodness depends upon the will, that (2) the goodness [...]
Holy Envy
Sunday, February 21st, 2010You might have thought occasionally, with holy envy, about the adolescent Apostle John, quem diligebat Iesus – whom Jesus loved. Wouldn’t you like to deserve to be called ‘the one who loves the Will of God’? Then take the necessary steps, day after day. (St. Josemarie Escriva, The Forge) St. Thomas Aquinas defines envy as [...]
The Moral Goodness of the Passions
Saturday, February 20th, 2010Can passion or emotion increase the moral goodness of human action, or does it always decrease it? It might seem at first that it always decreases it, since human or moral action is an action that is chosen deliberately, which implies a rational judgment. But passion tends to win reason's judgment over to itself: whenever [...]
The Moral Value of the Passions
Saturday, February 20th, 2010Passions can be good or bad in the sense that they are (1) pleasant or unpleasant, (2) useful or harmful. But they can also be morally good or bad, when they are voluntary, either because they are directly sought, or because one fails to do something to feel or to decrease a passion.
The Good of the Irascible Appetite
Friday, February 19th, 2010Why does human nature have "irascible" appetites? St. Thomas Aquinas, in explaining why we have an irascible faculty–which though named from "anger", ira, includes all appetite aimed at attaining goals which are difficult, and which require overcoming obstacles (not necessarily enemies)–makes a comparison with all natural and corruptible things, and says that things which are [...]
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