69. Passion and Undergoing in the Appetitive Powers

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

• Whether Passion is More in the Appetitive than Apprehensive Power: The central question of the article, examining which power of the soul undergoes or is affected more fundamentally
• The Distinction Between Knowing and Loving: How the apprehensive power receives things as intentions in the mind, while the appetitive power is directed toward things as they are in themselves
• Bodily Change and Spiritual Change: The difference between natural/bodily changes (proper to passion) and spiritual changes (receiving intelligible forms)
• Truth and Falsity vs. Good and Bad: Truth and falsity exist primarily in the mind; good and bad exist in things themselves
• Passion in the Sensitive vs. Intellectual Appetite: Whether passion properly involves bodily change, and therefore belongs more to the sensitive appetite

Key Arguments #

The Case for Passion Being More in the Appetitive Power #

• The Drawing of the Soul: The soul is more drawn to things through the appetitive power because it has an order to things as they are in themselves, not merely as known in the mind
• Objects in Things vs. Objects in Mind: Good and bad (objects of appetite) are in things themselves; truth and falsity (objects of knowledge) are in the mind. Therefore, one is more affected/contaminated by what one loves than by what one knows
• Scriptural Evidence: “They became abominable because of things they loved” (and similar passages) suggest love affects the lover more than knowing affects the knower
• The Contamination Argument: If you love disgusting things, you become disgusting; if you know disgusting things, you do not thereby become disgusting

Objections and Responses #

• Objection 1 (Apprehensive Prior): The apprehensive power seems to come first causally, so passion should be found there first

  • Response: Passion involves being drawn to a thing. In things pertaining to perfection, intensity is noted by approach to a first principle (fire burns more intensely near its source). In things pertaining to defect, intensity comes from departure from the perfect. Passion pertains to defect, so it is found more in the appetitive power

• Objection 2 (Appetite More Active): The appetitive power is more active (moving people to external acts), so it should be less passive

  • Response: The appetitive power is more active regarding external acts because it is more passive in receiving the thing as it is in itself, giving it order to things themselves

• Objection 3 (Both in Bodily Organs): Both powers use bodily organs, so passion shouldn’t be more in one than the other

  • Response: There are two ways a bodily organ can be changed: spiritually (receiving the intention/form of a thing, as the eye receives color without becoming colored) and naturally (being changed in its own disposition, as when fatigued). The apprehensive power properly involves only spiritual change; the appetitive power involves natural change. Therefore passion (involving bodily change) is more properly in the appetitive power

On Passion in the Intellectual vs. Sensitive Appetite #

• Objection from Dionysius: Herotheus is taught not only by learning but by undergoing divine things, yet divine things are beyond the sensible appetite

  • Response: When passion (or affection to divine things) is attributed to the intellectual appetite or even to God and angels, it signifies a simple act of will with the likeness of an effect, without bodily passion. Augustine shows the holy angels punish without anger and help without compassion, though these names are attributed to them by custom of speech

• The Definition of Passion: Passion properly belongs only where there is bodily change. The intellectual appetite (will) has no necessary bodily change, though it may be accompanied by one per accidens

Important Definitions #

Passio (Passion/Undergoing) #

Thomas distinguishes multiple meanings of this equivocal term:

1. General meaning (communiter): Any receiving or undergoing, even perfecting receiving (e.g., the ear receiving Mozart’s music)
2. Proper meaning: Receiving something with change in one’s disposition or state
3. Most proper meaning: Receiving something bad with loss of something good (e.g., becoming sick)

The term drops out parts of meaning in successive uses:

• First: acting upon something, changing it for the worse
• Then: just changing something
• Finally: just receiving and being perfected

Apprehensiva (Apprehensive/Grasping Power) #

• The knowing power
• Called “grasping” because when we know something, it is contained within us as the hand contains something grasped
• Receives things according to the intention or form of the thing in the mind, not as they are in themselves

Appetitiva (Appetitive/Desiring Power) #

• The desiring or willing power
• Has an order to things as they are in themselves
• Objects of appetite (good and bad) are in the things themselves, not merely in the mind

Examples & Illustrations #

• Knowing vs. Loving Evil: If I know evil or disgusting things, that doesn’t make me evil or disgusting. But if I love evil things, I become evil myself. “If you love stupid things, you’re stupid; if I know stupid things, does that make me stupid?”

• The Square Definition: When we say “a square is an equilateral and right-angled quadrilateral,” the thing known is in the knower in some way—but this doesn’t mean the knower becomes square

• Augustine’s Ocean Parable: A child tries to fill a hole with ocean water, thinking to contain the entire ocean. Similarly, we cannot contain the infinite in our finite minds, which is why we cannot fully understand the Trinity

• Truth Not in Things: Where is truth found? Not in the ocean you swim in, not in the ground you dig, not in the air. Truth is found in statements, and statements are signs of the mind. Truth is primarily in the mind

• Heart and Treasure: “Where your treasure is, there your heart shall be.” The will goes to the thing itself; the good desired is in the thing, not merely in knowledge of it

• The Shower Example: When you feel warm water from a shower, you eventually stop feeling the heat because your body has warmed to match it. You receive the warmth of the water as the warmth of your own body, not as the warmth of the water itself. Thus you don’t really sense/know it anymore. This is why the sense apprehensive power must receive forms as other, not as its own

• The Frog in the Pan: If water temperature rises gradually, the frog doesn’t jump out because it receives the heat as its own warmth, not recognizing it as external change

• Eye Becoming Color: The eye is moved by color but doesn’t become colored itself. It receives the intention of the color, not the color in its material being

• Factory Noise: Men who work in factories with loud machinery stop hearing it after a while because the sensory organ becomes fatigued or acclimated. They don’t know/sense the noise anymore

• Bodily Changes in Fear: When a child is afraid of a dog, their body trembles, their heart pumps—these are part of what fear involves as an emotion

Questions Addressed #

Whether Passion is More in the Appetitive than Apprehensive Power #

Resolution: Yes. The appetitive power is more passive because:

1. It relates to things as they are in themselves (in the things)
2. The soul is more drawn to things through appetite than through knowledge
3. Good and bad are in things; truth and falsity are in the mind
4. One is more affected by what one loves than by what one merely knows

Whether Passion is More in the Sensitive Appetite than the Intellectual Appetite #

Resolution: Yes, in the proper sense of passion (involving bodily change):

1. Passion properly requires a natural bodily change (trembling, changes in heartbeat, etc.)
2. The sensitive appetite is a power of a bodily organ and naturally involves such changes
3. The intellectual appetite (will) does not require bodily change, though it may be accompanied by changes per accidens
4. Names like love and joy attributed to God and angels signify simple acts of will without bodily passion