103. Interior vs. Exterior Pain and Species of Sadness

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

Interior vs. Exterior Pain (Article 7) #

The Question: Is exterior pain greater than interior sorrow?

Berquist’s Position: Interior pain is greater and more preeminent than exterior pain.

Key Distinctions:

• Exterior pain arises from something repugnant to bodily consistency (e.g., a knife wound, fire) and is apprehended through the sense of touch
• Interior sorrow arises from something repugnant to the appetite (e.g., loss of honor, deprivation of a beloved) and is apprehended through imagination or reason

The Per Se vs. Per Accidens Principle #

Thomas argues that interior pain is greater because:

1. Per se causation is more fundamental than per accidens causation: Interior sadness pertains per se to the appetite (the proper subject of sadness), while exterior pain pertains only per accidens through the body
2. Example: Water is more wet than cloth; fire is more hot than surrounding air. What is wet/hot per se is more so than what is wet/hot per accidens
3. Higher knowing power: The apprehension of reason and imagination is a higher knowing power than sensory apprehension (especially touch)

Interior Pain is More Universal #

• Whatever is repugnant to the body can also be repugnant to the interior appetite
• But the reverse is not true: what is apprehended by imagination/reason cannot always be apprehended by exterior sense
• Example: The imagination grasps the evil of amputation (loss of limb), but touch alone does not grasp this existential loss in the same way
• Therefore, interior sadness comprehends all exterior pains plus spiritual/immaterial evils

The Species of Sadness (Article 8) #

Damascene’s Four Species:

1. Ἀχηδία (Acedia): Spiritual weariness; sadness about spiritual things. Not mere bodily laziness but a turning away from good contemplation
2. Ἄγχος (Anxiety/Angst): Sadness that weighs one down
3. Φθόνος (Envy): Sadness at another’s good fortune
4. Μισερικορδία (Misericordia/Pity): Sadness at another’s misfortune; the evil of another taken as one’s own

Objection 3: These species do not seem to have true opposition to each other, so the division is faulty.

Thomas’s Response: The division operates in a secondary way. Just as mathematics can be applied to physical matter (astronomy, music), sadness can be applied to extraneous objects. The division is thus through application of the notion of sadness to something external.

Two Ways Something Can Be Added to a Genus #

First Way (True Species): Addition per se to the genus—determines what the thing is intrinsically

• Example: “Rational” added to “animal” makes true species (human)
• Triangle divided into equilateral, isosceles, scalene—the difference determines how three-sidedness is realized

Second Way (Applied Species): Addition extraneous to the definition; application of a nature to exterior matter

• Example: “White” added to “animal” does not make a true species
• “Flame” and “coal” are species of fire not per se but by application of fire-nature to different matter
• Astronomy and perspective are species of mathematics by applying mathematical principles to natural things

Application to Sadness: The four species are assigned through applying the notion of sadness to extraneous objects on the side of the cause or the effect.

Key Arguments #

Argument 1: The Three Objections Against Interior Pain Being Greater #

Objection 1: Exterior pain is caused by something repugnant to bodily life itself; interior sorrow by mere imagination. Therefore exterior pain is greater.

• Response: Interior sadness can also regard evils contrary to life. The comparison should not be by the diverse evils but by how they relate to the appetite.

Objection 2: Exterior pain comes from real joining of contrary thing; interior pain from likeness only. Therefore exterior is more real and greater.

• Response: Interior sadness does not proceed from likeness merely, but from the thing of which the likeness is. Example: If you dream someone died, you’re not sad about the dream but about the thing (the person’s death) which the dream represents. The more immaterial and abstract the apprehension, the more truly it grasps the thing.

Objection 3: Exterior pain has stronger effects (people die from torture, not from sadness). Therefore exterior pain is greater.

• Response: Exterior pain produces more bodily change because the cause (physical injury) corrupts the body directly, and sensible appetite is more bodily than intellectual appetite. However, Thomas acknowledges that bodily emotions do involve bodily change—but this does not make them greater in the order of passion itself.

Argument 2: Voluntary Endurance of Exterior Pain to Avoid Interior Pain #

Principle: People voluntarily undergo exterior pains to avoid interior ones, which proves interior pain is greater.

Examples:

• A man seeking honor undergoes bodily travail, injury, and loss of sleep rather than lose his honor
• Soldiers endure wounds in battle rather than endure the interior pain of loss of honor or failure to defend a woman
• The exterior pain is not repugnant to the interior appetite, and may even bring interior joy

Important Definitions #

Ἀχηδία (Acedia)

• Spiritual weariness or disgust with spiritual things; a turning away from contemplation
• Often mistranslated as “laziness” (which is bodily), but properly means spiritual torpor
• Example: “I’m tired of praying, I’m tired of going to Mass every morning”
• Contrasted with mere physical laziness

Νέμεσις (Nemesis/Indignation)

• Sadness at the undeserved good fortune of another
• Distinguished from envy: envy is sadness at another’s good simply; indignation is sadness because they are unworthy of it
• Example: “I’m indignant that Obama was re-elected because he is dishonorable”

Φθόνος (Envy)

• Sadness at another’s good fortune simply (whether deserved or not)
• Corrupts friendship by making one unable to rejoice in the good of a friend
• If you are a true friend, you should rejoice in the good that happens to your friend
• Example: Your roommate gets a good job or boyfriend while you’re struggling; temptation to envy

Μισερικορδία (Misericordia/Pity/Mercy)

• Sadness at the evils of another, taken as if they were one’s own
• The object is alien (another’s) evil, but estimated as one’s own
• Properly directed at alien evil, not one’s own evil

Examples & Illustrations #

Election and Interior Sadness #

• People depressed about election outcome imagine their situation in negative ways
• One person jokes about needing “13 pills” for depression from the election
• Illustrates how interior apprehension (imagination/reason) causes sadness independent of bodily harm

The Condemned and Sadness #

• In the damned, all exterior plagues are comprehended under interior sadness of heart
• Emphasizes universality of interior sadness

Bodily Changes from Emotion #

• Fear and anger cause trembling, shaking hands
• People can die from excessive joy or fear; body undergoes significant changes
• Yet these bodily changes do not make the emotion greater than interior ones

The Lottery Winner Study #

• Research shows lottery winners become less happy after winning than before
• Experience divorces and various misfortunes
• Berquist advises: wait 6 months to a year before spending lottery winnings, allowing emotional disturbances to subside
• Shows that obtaining a great external good does not guarantee lasting happiness

Sense of Touch and Pain #

• Touch is the primary sense for exterior pain (knife wounds, fire, objects in the eye)
• Even pain in the eye is felt through touch, not vision
• Demonstrates that exterior pain depends on physical sensation

Spiritual Weariness (Acedia) #

• Priest saying “we’ll be all churched out” when asked to do Benediction
• Wife annoyed: this is precisely fighting against acedia in the spiritual life
• Illustrates common experience of spiritual torpor in religious practice

The Dance and Loneliness #

• Girl not asked to dance at a mixer while others are dancing experiences melancholy and loneliness
• Loneliness arises from absence of companion/friend
• Shows sadness can arise from relational goods, not just material or bodily ones

Coriolanus and Honor #

• Shakespeare: Coriolanus praised for courage in battle
• Illustrates how men endure bodily pain (wounds, danger) rather than lose interior goods (honor)
• Shows preeminence of interior disposition over exterior suffering

Natural Motion Analogy #

• Heavy bodies naturally approach the lower place and withdraw from higher place
• Heaviness is the cause that moves them downward; withdrawal from above follows from this primary motion
• Similarly, sadness as flight from evil is more fundamental than sadness as loss of good

Notable Quotes #

“Every plague is the sadness of the heart” (Ecclesiasticus 25:13)

• Cited by Thomas to show interior sadness is more universal and comprehensive than exterior pain
• All exterior plagues are comprehended under interior sadness

“There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so” (Shakespeare, Hamlet)

• Berquist uses this to illustrate how interior apprehension (imagination) shapes emotional response
• “Thinking” here means imagining or representing one’s situation to oneself

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder”

• Referenced regarding love: one can love and grieve even when the beloved is absent
• Shows interior sadness does not require physical presence of the cause

“Success is hard on a man, but it’s even harder on his friends” (English novelist)

• Illustrates how envy can corrupt friendship when one friend prospers
• Shows temptation of sadness at another’s good fortune

“No man wants to live without a friend, or friends” (cited in class)

• Emphasizes importance of friendship and shows loneliness as a significant form of sadness

Questions Addressed #

Article 7: Is Exterior Pain Greater Than Interior Sorrow? #

Answer: No. Interior pain is greater because:

1. It pertains per se to the appetite (the proper subject of sadness), while exterior pain pertains only per accidens through the body
2. Reason and imagination are higher knowing powers than sensory touch
3. Interior sadness is more universal—it comprehends all exterior pains plus spiritual evils
4. People voluntarily endure exterior pains to avoid interior ones

Article 8: Are the Four Species of Sadness (Acedia, Anxiety, Envy, Misericordia) Suitably Assigned? #

Answer: Yes, though the division operates in a secondary way. These species are assigned by applying the notion of sadness to extraneous objects (like mathematics applied to physical nature, or specific types of matter applying fire-nature). The division is defensible even though these species do not have direct opposition to each other like true species do.