Philosophy FINAL REVIEW

• The Will

  Appetite, moving out to good or to bad

  Appetite of the will: intellectual knowledge

  Appetite of the emotions: Irascible and Concupiscible
• The Will Example 1

  I want to be a good person, following the good things in my life. ( Something that you desire in the will through the emotion)
• The Will desiring a particular good example

  The object of the Sense Appetite is a particular good.

  Ex: I want to eat food, so when I buy a particular food item, my desires are satisfied.
• Object of the Will

  The Good ( could be an actual complete good or a lesser good ( but you still view it as some good)

  • Contradictory to the above, you could see the evil and move away from it
  • You can perceive the "good" as good for you, or bad for you. But you could choose the bad thing and view it as a good thing for you
• Negative emotions in desiring a good

  Includes sorrow, envy of another person's good
• It is with our will that we choose

  Impulse, Movement, and Rest also apply to the Will.

  (Love, Desire, Enjoyment)
• Appetite

  Appetite gives rise to behavior

  • More diversity between humans than animals ( more predictable with animals ) which suggest there's something more going on with humans than compared to animals
• End and Means

  End: A Goal

  Means: How you get to the goal
• 6 acts of the Will

  End: (Impulse) Willing, (Movement) Intention, ( Rest ) Enjoyment/Joy

  Means: (Impulse) Consent, letting yourself choose options, (Movement ) Choice, can be multiple or just one, (Rest) Use, carrying it out
• 6 Acts of the Will Example: Health

  End: Wanting Health ( willing ), Intending to get it ( intention ), enjoying your health ( rest )

  Means: Surgery or medicine ( Consent ), Choosing medicine or surgery, which is the better option? ( Movement ), Actually getting the medicine and using it ( Use )
• You must love/want something not only with your emotions, but also with your will.
• Emotions --> ( connected with ) Body --> ( connected with) Feeling --> (directed to ) Sensible Awareness
• Emotions

  • We feel the emotions within us and there are bodily changes that can arise ( ex: hands sweating, heart beating faster, etc ); with that, we are sensibly aware of how we are feeling
  • The Will is NOT the body
  • The emotions partially have a bodily organ, but the Will or Intellect is not a part of our bodily organs
  • The act of the will would involve choices, but you can't "feel" the will, the act of the will, or "sense" the soul
• Will --> Intellectual Awareness
• Conflict Situations

  Love: twofold (dual), because the good itself has two aspects to it:

  Good thing (ex: love of concupiscence ) and Subject (ex: friendship, which can also apply to strangers )

  
  

  Example of a Subject and Good thing (applied to material things):

  Knife (subject) and Being Sharp ( a quality )
• Love of Friendship

  • You want the good for the person's own sake ( in the will )
  • Example: You see a person who is hurt, so you feel love or care for them because they are hurt
  • Useful friendship: only friends because you want something from them
• Conflict Situations

  Sometimes, you may have a repugnant ( negative ) feeling, but from a person's will, you may try to stay away from the feeling and keep a positive focus.
• The Freedom of the Will: the Four Causes

  • External Causes: Efficient (agent) and Final Cause ( is the end that is sought in an action or thing)
  • Interior Causes: Material ( what something is made of ) and Formal (makes something to be what it is, like how the soul is the form of the body )
• The Four Causes Example: A Clay Vase

  Efficient: Potter/ Vase Maker

  Material: The Clay

  Final: The Vase itself, displays flowers

  Formal: The Vase Shape
• Freedom of the Will (Goodness)

  (1) The Will is determined to love goodness itself, but anything less than complete goodness may be loved or not

  ex: As something that is partly colored and partly transparent may be seen or not by focusing on different aspects.

  So, everything that is partly good and partly not good

  (a) May be loved or not by the Will

  (b) Only God is goodness itself, but He is the one thing that could completely satisfy our infinite desire ( if only we could see Him face to face )
• Determining the Will

  The will is determined ( 4 parts )

  (1) Not by agent (Efficient) cause:

  • Aquinas calls the necessity of coercion because the will is an inclination from within, but an agent cause is external
  • Example: A dog is moved inside the house by a human ( external ), which is against their will
• Determining the Will

  The will is determined ( 4 parts )

  (2) But by end ( final )

  • Hypothetical necessity as when there is only one way to attain some end that we desire
• Determining the Will

  The will is determined ( 4 parts )

  (3) Material cause does not apply

  • It would not be material, but the power of the will (which is within)
• Determining the Will

  The will is determined ( 4 parts )

  (4) And by formal cause

  • The will desires the goodness itself
• What causes the will to act?

  Reason and the Emotions
• What causes the will to act? ( 5 factors )Reason


  (1) Reason

  • Moves by presenting the object of the will, which is movement by final cause
  • Two kinds of determinations
  • (i) What they are
  • (a) To act or not to act
  • (b) To do one thing or another thing (choosing)
  • (ii) The intellect moves the will
  • (a) By moving to do one thing or another thing ( taking action )
• What causes the will to act? ( 5 factors ) The Emotions


  (2) The Emotions

  Move according to final cause as well

  (i) By will of reason, in which we seek the good either an actual good thing or a lesser good that we see as good

  (ii) The emotions always move by way of reason
• What causes the will to act? ( 4 factors ) Genes or Heredity


  Genes or Heredity

  Our genes are giving us certain dispositions. Our genetic makeup can influence the acts of the will, but our will is not bodily, so it would change our emotional disposition.

  • This is the material and formal cause of the emotions, which acts as the final cause upon the will
  • Genes do not affect the will directly because the will is not bodily
• What causes the will to act? ( 5 factors ) Environment 


  Environment - includes many things

  Often acts as a final cause
• What causes the will to act? ( 5 factors ) The Will itself

  • Moves itself to act or not to act
  • (i) The will first loves some end but then it presents ways of attaining the end, and in this way, the will moves itself to desire the means to the end
• Human Knowledge begins with the external senses.

  
  

  • Internal senses (ex: Imagination and instinctive, estimative power)
  • Reason, taking what is known by the senses, abstracts ( or drags out ) similarities and recognizing things around us
  • Human desire responds to the world
• Sense Knowledge --> Emotions

  Reason --> Desire of the Will
• The Will: Ability to move ourselves to act or not to act

  • The Self-Conscious agent is also the self-determining agent ( Your self-conscious is the one who makes the choice )
• (Reality) Substance -> Powers -> Activities -> Objects

  (Knowing) Objects -> Activities -> Powers -> Substance
• Substance - Substantial Form

  Power- Organ

  Act - Doing the action or not

  Object - way it is known, abstraction ( similarities )

  
  

  Under the powers themselves are the human person.
• Understanding both our emotional desires as well as our desire in the will, we can take control of our desires.
• The Meaning of Human Life, Human Purpose ( 3 primary visions )

  1st Vision: Some say there is no meaning to human life. ( Nihilism- there is no meaning)

  2nd Vision: Some say that we can give meaning to our own lives.

  ( Existent realism - we can give our lives meaning )

  3rd Vision: Some say that our lives have a meaning that we choose to fulfill or to reject.

  -> Our lives have purpose insofar as they have some end or some goal.
• 1st Vision: Denying purpose to life, viewpoint

  • They claim that the world is full of blind forces that interact with one another
  • Argument: Everything is the consequence of blind forces bumping into one another. None of these forces act for an end. They simply produce results.
  • Humans are accidents who have desires ( beyond their control ). Life may turn out good or bad but will not be purposeful
• 2nd Vision: Some have suggested that we give meaning to our own lives.We can set goals, thereby defining who we are. We give meaning to life, which can go positively, or negatively:

  • Making the world a better place
  • Adolf Hitler chooses to acquire power and dominion for himself.
  • Fanatic or Mediocre, Fanatic can be extremely good or extremely bad
• • 3rd Vision: Our purpose is received from something beyond ourselves, in which we decide by our will whether we choose to pursue it or not.“What is the purpose of his or her purpose?”
  • An end gives meaning to those things that are ordered to the end. It does not give meaning to itself.
  • Ex: Dan is a doctor. Dan’s purpose of healing gives meaning to his acts of studying and starting a practice. It cannot give meaning to itself.