42. Fruition and the Appetitive Power

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

The Question of Fruition’s Power #

• Whether fruition (frui, enjoyment) is an act of the appetitive power (will) or the apprehensive power (intellect/understanding)
• Initial objections claim fruition pertains to the intellect because the fruit of human life is beatitude, which is an act of the intellect in seeing God face to face
• Counter-objections (from Augustine) argue fruition is fundamentally an act of love, which belongs to the appetitive power

The Sensible Foundation of Terminology #

• The word “fruition” is derived from sensible fruits (apples, blueberries, etc.), which are the most manifest to us
• Sensible fruits are what are last expected from a tree and perceived with sweetness
• This sensible meaning provides the linguistic basis for understanding spiritual fruition
• The principle: naming moves from the more manifest (sensible) to the less manifest (spiritual)

Vision vs. Enjoyment: Two Acts in One Thing #

• Vision of God (seeing God face to face) is an act of the understanding insofar as it is vision
• Enjoyment of that vision is an act of the will insofar as the vision is a good and an end
• One reality (the beatific vision) is the object of two powers: the understanding achieves it as the acting power; the will moves toward it and enjoys it as the moving power
• This resolves the apparent contradiction: fruition is not only of the appetitive power, yet involves the intellect

The Perfection of Other Powers Contained in the Good #

• The perfection and end of any power, insofar as it is a certain good, pertains to the appetitive (desiring) power
• The appetitive power moves the other powers to their ends and enjoys the end when each power attains it
• Example: The will moves the ear to listen to Mozart; when the ear perceives beautiful music, the will obtains its end in that good

Two Elements in Pleasure #

1. Perception of suitability: The apprehension that something is fitting or suitable (pertains to the knowing power)
2. Complacency (being pleased): The satisfaction in what is perceived as fitting (pertains to the appetitive power)

• Pleasure is completed in the appetitive power, though it accompanies the operation of other powers

The Gift of Gratitude #

• Practical reflection on the natural human duty to thank parents and others for goods received
• The principle: one can never thank enough those to whom one is in debt, yet should thank God even more for giving us such benefactors
• Example: Thank Mozart for his music, but thank God more for giving us Mozart
• The distinction between thanking human instruments and thanking God as primary cause

Key Arguments #

Against Fruition Being Only of the Intellect #

• Fruition involves delight and pleasure, which pertain to the sensing and desiring powers, not merely understanding
• Each sensory and intellectual power has its own end and perfection; all such perfections, insofar as they are goods, pertain to the appetitive power
• If fruition belonged only to intellect, brute animals could not experience any fruition (yet they clearly enjoy their ends, however imperfectly)

For Fruition Being an Act of the Appetitive Power #

• Augustine defines fruition: to adhere by love to something on account of itself (propter ipsum)
• Love pertains to the appetitive power
• Therefore fruition, as the act of resting in an end loved for itself, is an act of the appetitive power
• The will is the power that moves toward the end and, when the end is attained, enjoys it

The Resolution: One Thing, Two Acts #

• A single reality (e.g., the beatific vision) can pertain to diverse powers for diverse reasons
• The vision itself, insofar as it is a vision, is an act of understanding
• The same vision, insofar as it is a good and an end, is the object and perfection of the will
• Thus the understanding achieves the end as the acting power; the will moves toward it and enjoys it as the desiring power

Important Definitions #

Fruition (frui) / Enjoyment #

• The act of resting in or possessing an end with delight
• Properly an act of the appetitive (desiring) power, not the intellect
• Involves both knowledge (perceiving suitability) and love (complacency in what is suitable)
• The word is derived from sensible fruits because fruits are the last expected product of a tree, perceived with sweetness

The Good (Bonum) #

• The object of the appetitive power (as stated by Aristotle in Metaphysics II: “if you do away with the end, you do away with the good”)
• Every power, insofar as its perfection is a good, falls under the appetitive power’s domain
• Particular goods can be willed because they appear good; only the universal good necessarily moves the will

Suitability / Convenience (Convenentia) #

• The perception that something is fitting or appropriate
• Pertains to the knowing (apprehensive) power
• Distinguished from complacency (the pleasure taken in what is suitable), which pertains to the appetitive power

Per Se vs. Per Accidens (by itself / by accident) #

• Per se: Belongs to something by its own nature or substance
• Per accidens: Belongs to something incidentally, not by its nature
• All knowledge is per se good (knowledge as such is good), but acquiring knowledge may be per accidens bad (if untimely or harmful for other reasons)
• This distinction prevents confusion: we do not say knowledge is bad per se, even if acquiring certain knowledge at certain times is bad per accidens

Manifest (Manifestum) #

• That which is evident or apparent to the senses
• Example: catching someone with their hand in the cookie jar is manifest theft
• In naming, the more manifest (sensible) provides the term, which is then extended to the less manifest (spiritual)

The Last (Ultimum) / The End (Finis) #

• The fruition pertains to something last expected or ultimate
• A tree’s fruit is the last thing produced; we expect the tree itself first, then flowers, then fruit
• The end is the last thing intended but the first thing willed (in order of intention, not of execution)

Examples & Illustrations #

Sensible Fruits as Foundation #

• Green apples from trees in childhood: crisp and sour, manifest to the senses
• Blueberries and blackberries picked fresh
• Fruit trees planted by his daughter: takes time to develop before producing fruit
• These sensible experiences provide the linguistic foundation for understanding spiritual fruition

Gratitude and Benefactors #

• Cicero: “The son is always in debt to his father, and always owes him more thanks than he can give”
• Plato thanked the gods for meeting Socrates
• Though we cannot thank enough those who benefit us, we should thank God even more for giving us such benefactors
• One’s gratitude to Mozart for his music should be exceeded by gratitude to God for giving us Mozart
• The principle applies universally: thank Homer, Sophocles, Shakespeare for their works, but thank God more

The Pet Example #

• Telling the cat that it will have steak tonight
• The cat may perceive the sensible good (the food) but does not understand “end” in the rational sense
• This illustrates that brute animals have a kind of imperfect fruition (they enjoy their ends without understanding what “end” means)

Seeing and Understanding #

• The Greek word for knowledge (adenai) derives from seeing
• The blind man says “I see” to mean “I understand”
• Vision of God face to face (beatific vision) involves both understanding and loving that vision
• Seeing God is the act of understanding; enjoying God is the act of will

Listening to Mozart #

• One can ask: Do my ears enjoy Mozart’s music?
• Do my eyes enjoy Titian’s or da Vinci’s paintings?
• This shows that fruition/enjoyment is not restricted to one power but pertains to the appetitive power as it accompanies the operation of sensory powers

The Feast of Reason #

• Socrates calls intellectual understanding a “feast of reason”
• Just as the senses enjoy sensible goods, the intellect (in its operation) provides material for the will to enjoy intellectual goods

Notable Quotes #

“The son is always in debt to his father.” — Cicero (on the perpetual gratitude owed to benefactors, extended to God)

“Nature loves to hide.” — Heraclitus (quoted regarding why interior acts are not as sensible as external fruits)

“He that has ears to hear, let him hear.” — Scriptural reference (on the necessity of perceiving with understanding, not merely sensation)

“The only way to avoid vainglory and jactantia is to realize anything good in you comes from God.” — Church Father (quoted through Thomas, on proper ordering of gratitude toward God)

Questions Addressed #

Question 11, Article 1: Is Fruition an Act of the Appetitive Power or the Understanding? #

Objections:

1. The fruit of human life is beatitude, which is the act of the intellect seeing God face to face; therefore fruition pertains to intellect, not appetitive power
2. Each power has its own end and perfection; sight’s end is to see the visible; hearing’s end is to perceive sounds; therefore fruition (the achieving of an end) pertains to each power, not only appetitive
3. Fruition implies delight and pleasure; sensible pleasure pertains to sense perception; intellectual delight to understanding; therefore fruition pertains to apprehensive powers

Thomas’s Answer (Berquist’s exposition):

• One reality can pertain to diverse powers for diverse reasons
• The vision itself of God, insofar as it is a vision, is an act of the understanding (the acting power that achieves the end)
• The same vision, insofar as it is a good and an end, is the object of the will (the moving power that directs toward the end)
• Thus: Enjoyment of the beatific vision is an act of the will, even though the vision itself is an act of intellect
• This resolves all three objections by distinguishing the two aspects of a single reality

On the Linguistic Derivation of “Fruition” #

• Why do we call spiritual enjoyment “fruition”? Because sensible fruits are the most manifest to us (most evident through sense)
• Sensible fruits are the last thing a tree produces, perceived with sweetness
• The word “fruit” is extended from the sensible realm (what trees produce) to the spiritual realm (what the will produces/enjoys)
• This illustrates the principle: naming proceeds from the more manifest to the less manifest

On the Two Elements of Pleasure #

• Perception of suitability: Knowing that something is fitting (act of apprehensive power)
• Complacency: Being pleased by what is suitable (act of appetitive power)
• Pleasure is completed in the appetitive power, though it requires both elements
• This shows why fruition cannot be reduced to intellect alone: the element of satisfaction, delight, and rest pertains to the appetitive power

On Per Se vs. Per Accidens Good #

• If all knowledge is per se good, why worry about teaching certain knowledge at certain times?
• Answer: Knowledge is per se good (knowledge as such is good), but acquiring it may be per accidens bad (unsuitable timing, harmful consequences, etc.)
• This distinction prevents the false conclusion that because knowledge is good, all knowledge should be given to all persons at all times
• Example: Teaching sex education facts to a five-year-old may be per accidens bad, not because knowledge is bad per se, but because the context is unsuitable
• Even Aristotle notes in Categories that this distinction (per se vs. per accidens) is so fundamental that it “deceives even the wise”

Connections to Prior Topics #

From Question 10 (Will’s Motion by Objects and God) #

• The distinction between exercise (whether to act) and specification (what to will) of the will’s act
• Only the perfect good (beatitude) necessarily determines the will’s exercise
• Particular goods may be willed but not necessarily

From the Metaphysics of God’s Causality #

• How God’s unchanging will relates to contingent effects in creatures
• The distinction between absolute impossibility and impossibility by supposition
• Example: If God has willed me to exist, it is (by supposition) impossible that I not exist; but it was not (absolutely) impossible before the supposition
• Similar logic applies to fruition: if beatitude is possessed, it is impossible not to enjoy it; but not all fruition requires actual possession

The Role of the Example in Teaching #

• Berquist emphasizes how understanding fruition in creatures (sensible fruits, gratitude to human benefactors) prepares the mind for understanding fruition in God
• This reflects the principle from metaphysics: natural philosophy and creature-focused analysis prepare for theology
• The contemplation of God as the ultimate good and the source of all goods flows naturally from understanding goodness in creatures