Natural Necessitation of the Human Will

NATURAL NECESSITATION OF THE. HUMAN WILL I. THE EXISTENCE OF NATURAL NECESSITATION OF THE HUMAN WILL 1. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS X examination of the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas on the natural appetite or natural necessitation of the human will will be valuable for several reasons.· First of all, it should result in a collection and coordination of the scattered teachings of St. Thomas on this point. Although St. Thomas does teach formally and explicitly about the natural necessitation of the human will in his Summa Theologica and De Veritate,1 nevertheless much of his teaching on this subject is to be garnered only from incidental remarks he makes while discussing other topics. The student engaged in studying these other topics, which are often more important, is sometimes left with a confused notion of the natural necessitation of the will. These pages will help to dispel the confusion. Secondly, a knowledge of the Angelic Doctor's views on the natural appetite ~f the human will is not only worthwhile for its own sake, but is invaluable for an understanding of related problems. For instance, in refuting the attacks of the determinists upon the free will of man, it is essential to know to what precise extent the human will is determined, and in what way. Then again, there is the important related problem of man's natural desire for the vision of God, and the question whether any proof for the existence of God can be drawn from this desire. A general review of the teaching of St. Thomas regarding the natural appe.tite of the human will provides the requisite background for the study of these more specialized problems. 1 Cf. St. Thomas, Summa Theologica, I, q. 82, aa. l, 2 and De Veritate, q. 22, aa.5, 6, 7. 351 35~ ROBERT P. SULLIVAN With these purposes in mind, therefore, an ,attempt will be made in the following pages to assemble the relevant texts of St. Thomas and to group them so as to bring out the fact, extent, and nature of the necessitation of the human will. Such an examination will be timely, too, inasmuch as the whole question of the proper interpretation of the doctrine of St. Thomas about this necessitation has been raised recently in an inquiry 2 which reaches conclusions quite contrary to those of the traditional commentators on the writings of the Angelic Doctor. In the course of this study, the opinions of the most famous commentators will be presented. In any question of interpretation of St. Thomas, the presumption stands in their favor. We shall strive to discover whether, in the present case, this presumption is sufficiently justified so that we may still abide by their interpretation , or whether, on the contrary, the traditional interpretation must be discarded in fa'tl'or of the new one. 2. GENERAL PROOFS FOR NATURAL NECESSITATION OF THE HUMAN WILL In proving that the human will is naturally necessitated, St. Thomas makes no appeal to our introspective experience of the fact; just as neither does he do so to prove that man has free will, beyond making a vague general statement, which may include introspective evidence, that " manifest evidences indicate this, whereby it is apparent that man freely chooses one thing, and .refuses another." 3 Cajetan, indeed, alludes briefly to our experience of natural necessitation: ". . . happiness in general, which we experience ourselves to desire naturally." 4 But St. Thomas passes over this because, just as in the case of free will, he is more interested in giving an objective proof that will present not only the existence of the fact, but also •William R. O'Connor, "The Natural Desire for Happiness," The Modem Schoolman, XXVI (January, 1949), pp. 91-120. •St. Thomas, De Ver., q. ~4, a. I. All future references will be to works of St. Thomas, unless otherwise indicated. • Cajetan, Commentaria in Summam Theologicam, I, q. s~. a. 1, n. 7. (Leonine edition.) NATURAL NECESSITATION OF THE HUMAN WILL 858 the reason why it must exist. In doing so, he employs three arguments.5 The first argument is a proof from analogy. It is drawn from the parallel or proportion between the intellect and the...