On Evil

Aquinas Thomas, Jean T. Oesterle, John A. Oesterle

Description

Many great thinkers have wrestled with the topic of evil. St. Thomas Aquinas's disputed question On Evil merges as the longest and most comprehensive study on the subject of evil available. This long-awaited translation is based on the critical edition of the Latin text published by the Leonine Commission in 1982. The disputed question De malo (On Evil) was first presented as a series of oral debates at the University of Paris (1263-1272?) and subsequently recorded in the form in which it now appears. The length of the work and the thoroughness of the treatment is eloquent testimony of the importance St. Thomas attached to this topic.

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Éthique et morale
• Christian Theology
• Philosophie et théologie
• Religión
• Philosophy
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 18 juillet 1995
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268074876
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

ON EVIL
ON EVIL

St. Thomas Aquinas

Translated by
JOHN A. OESTERLE
and
JEAN T. OESTERLE
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
www.undpress.nd.edu
Published in the United States of America
Copyright 1995 by University of Notre Dame
Paperback edition published in 2001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?-1274
[De malo. English]
On evil / St. Thomas Aquinas : translated by John A. Oesterle and Jean T. Oesterle.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-268-03700-0 (alk. paper)
ISBN 0-268-03714-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Good and evil-Early works to 1800. 2. Sin-Early works to 1800. I. Oesterle, John A. II. Oesterle, Jean T. III. Title.
BJ1400.T4813 1995
111 .84-dc20
94-44961
CIP
ISBN 9780268074876
This book was printed on acid-free paper .
This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at [e-mail] .
To the memory of John A. Oesterle
Contents
Preface
Question I On Evil
Article 1 Whether Evil is Something?
Article 2 Whether Evil Exists in Good?
Article 3 Whether Good Is the Cause of Evil?
Article 4 Whether Evil Is Properly Divided into Punishment and Fault?
Article 5 Whether Punishment or Fault Has More of the Nature of Evil?
Question II On Sins
Article 1 Whether Every Sin Involves an Act?
Article 2 Whether Sin Consists Solely in the Act of the Will?
Article 3 Whether Sin Consists Principally in the Act of the Will?
Article 4 Whether Every Act Is Indifferent?
Article 5 Whether Some Acts Are Indifferent?
Article 6 Whether a Circumstance Gives Species to a Sin or Changes the Species by Transferring It into Another Genus of Sin?
Article 7 Whether a Circumstance Makes a Sin Worse without Giving Species to the Sin?
Article 8 Whether a Circumstance Aggravates a Sin Infinitely so as to Make a Venial Sin Mortal?
Article 9 Whether All Sins Are Equal?
Article 10 Whether a Sin Is Graver because It Is Contrary to a Greater Good?
Article 11 Whether Sin Diminishes the Good of a Nature?
Article 12 Whether Sin Can Corrupt the Whole Good of the Nature?
Question III On the Cause of Sin
Article 1 Whether God Is the Cause of Sin?
Article 2 Whether the Action of Sin is from God?
Article 3 Whether the Devil Is the Cause of Sin?
Article 4 Whether the Devil Can Induce Man to Sin by Internal Persuasion?
Article 5 Whether All Sins Are Suggested by the Devil?
Article 6 Whether Ignorance Can Be the Cause of Sin?
Article 7 Whether Ignorance Is a Sin?
Article 8 Whether Ignorance Excuses Sin or Diminishes It?
Article 9 Whether It Is Possible for Someone Having Knowledge to Sin from Weakness?
Article 10 Whether Sins Committed from Weakness Are Imputed to Man as a Mortal Fault?
Article 11 Whether Weakness Alleviates or Aggravates Sin?
Article 12 Whether Anyone Can Sin from Malice, i.e., with Malice Aforethought?
Article 13 Whether He Who Sins from Malice Sins More Gravely than He Who Since from Weakness?
Article 14 Whether Every Sin from Malice Is a Sin against the Holy Spirit?
Article 15 Whether a Sin against the Holy Spirit Can Be Forgiven?
Question IV On Original Sin
Article 1 Whether Any Sin Is Contracted by Way of Origin?
Article 2 What Is Original Sin?
Article 3 Whether Original Sin Is in the Flesh or in the Soul as in a Subject?
Article 4 Whether Original Sin First Is in the Powers of the Soul Rather than in the Essence?
Article 5 Whether Original Sin First Is in the Will Rather than in the Other Powers?
Article 6 Whether Original Sin Is Transmitted from Adam to All Who Seminally Derive from Him?
Article 7 Whether Those Who Originate from Adam Only by Way of Matter Contract Original Sin?
Article 8 Whether Sins of Near Ancestors Are Transmitted by Way of Origin to Their Descendants?
Question V On the Punishment of Original Sin
Article 1 Whether Deprival of the Vision of God Is a Fitting Punishment for Original Sin?
Article 2 Whether the Punishment of Sense Is Incurred for Original Sin?
Article 3 Whether Those Who Die with Only Original Sin Suffer the Affliction of Interior Pain?
Article 4 Whether Death and Other Ills in This Life Are a Punishment for Original Sin?
Article 5 Whether Death and Other Such Defects Are Natural to Man?
Question VI On Human Choice
Whether Man Has a Free Choice of His Acts or Chooses of Necessity?
Question VII On Venial Sin
Article 1 Whether Venial Sin Is Properly Divided against Mortal Sin?
Article 2 Whether Venial Sin Diminishes Charity?
Article 3 Whether Venial Sin Can Become Mortal?
Article 4 Whether a Circumstance Makes a Venial Sin Mortal?
Article 5 Whether There Can Be Venial Sin in the Higher Reason?
Article 6 Whether in Sensuality There Can Be Venial Sin?
Article 7 Whether Man in the State of Innocence Could Sin Venially?
Article 8 Whether the First Movements of Sensuality in Unbelievers Are Venial Sins?
Article 9 Whether a Good or a Bad Angel Can Sin Venially?
Article 10 Whether Venial Sin in a Person Not Having Charity Is Punished by Eternal Punishment?
Article 11 Whether Any Venial Sins Are Remitted in Purgatory after This Life?
Article 12 Whether Venial Sins Are Remitted in This Life by the Aspersion of Holy Water, Anointing of the Body, and the Like?
Question VIII On the Capital Vices
Article 1 How Many Capital Vices Are There, and What Are They?
Article 2 Whether Pride Is a Special Sin?
Article 3 Whether Pride Is in the Irascible Power?
Article 4 On the Species of Pride .
Question IX On Vainglory
Article 1 Whether Vainglory Is a Sin?
Article 2 Whether Vainglory Is a Mortal Sin?
Article 3 On the Daughters of Vainglory, Which Are Disobedience, Boasting, Hypocrisy, Contention, Obstinacy, Discord, Presumption of Novelties .
Question X On Envy
Article 1 Whether Envy Is a Sin?
Article 2 Whether Envy Is a Mortal Sin?
Article 3 Whether Envy is a Capital Vice?
Question XI On Acedia
Article 1 Whether Acedia Is a Sin?
Article 2 Whether Acedia Is a Special Sin?
Article 3 Whether Acedia Is a Mortal Sin?
Article 4 Whether Acedia Is a Capital Vice?
Question XII On Anger
Article 1 Whether All Anger Is Evil, or Is Some Anger Good?
Article 2 Whether Anger Can Be a Sin or Not?
Article 3 Whether Anger Is a Mortal Sin?
Article 4 Whether Anger Is a Less Grievous Sin than Hatred and Envy and Other Sins of This Kind?
Article 5 Whether Anger Is a Capital Vice?
Question XIII On Avarice
Article 1 Whether Avarice Is a Special Vice?
Article 2 Whether Avarice Is a Mortal Sin?
Article 3 Whether Avarice Is a Capital Vice?
Article 4 Whether Lending at Usury Is a Mortal Sin?
Question XIV On Gluttony
Article 1 Whether Gluttony Is Always a Sin?
Article 2 Whether Gluttony Is a Mortal Sin?
Article 3 On the Species of Gluttony .
Article 4 Whether Gluttony Is a Capital Vice?
Question XV On Lust
Article 1 Whether Every Act of Lust Is a Sin?
Article 2 Whether Every Act of Lust Is a Mortal Sin?
Article 3 On the Species of Lust, Which Are Fornication, Adultery, Incest, Seduction, Rape, and the Unnatural Vice .
Article 4 Whether Lust Is a Capital Vice?
Question XVI On the Demons
Article 1 Whether the Demons Have Bodies Naturally United to Them?
Article 2 Whether Demons are Evil by Nature or by Will?
Article 3 Whether the Devil Sinned by Desiring Equality with God?
Article 4 Whether the Devil Sinned or Could Sin in the First Instant of His Creation?
Article 5 Whether the Free Will of the Demons Can Return to Good after Sin?
Article 6 Whether the Devil s Intellect Is So Darkened after Sin That He Can Fall into Error or Deception?
Article 7 Whether the Demons Know Future Events?
Article 8 Whether the Demons Know the Cogitations of Our Hearts?
Article 9 Whether Demons Can Transform Bodies by Changing Their Form?
Article 10 Whether the Demons Can Move Bodies Locally?
Article 11 Whether the Demons Can Change the Cognitive Part of the Soul by Changing the Internal and External Sense Powers?
Article 12 Whether the Demons Can Change Man s Intellect?
Appendix
Preface
W HEN ONE CONSIDERS HOW TO PUT the topic of evil into some sort of focus, a number of questions immediately arise. It seems, first of all, that the topic should not be just evil, or evil alone, but good and evil inasmuch as however one treats the latter he is bound to consider the former, for in some basic and initially unspecified sense, evil appears to derive from good both in understanding and reality. True though this is, there is still some legitimate sense in which one can consider evil itself, and Thomas Aquinas must have had some such approach in mind when he entitled one of his major disputed questions simply De Malo ( On Evil ). Another initial question concerns what sort of evil one has in mind when discussing it. The most basic sense would seem to be moral evil, as indeed it is for Aquinas, but perhaps a more obvious sense is physical evils. We also speak readily of economic evils, social evils, political evils, and a host of other evils which may or may not be reducible to more generic kinds. A further, though allied, question is in what domain of knowledge is moral evil most fully and comprehensively treated: in theology or in philosophy; and if in philosophy, in metaphysics or in moral philosophy; or in some branch of knowledge other than theology or philosophy. No doubt a universal, thoroughgoing, comprehensive treatment would have to include all the relevant approaches and distinctive kinds of evil, but it would seem desirable to concentrate on moral evil, for it is in terms of such evil that the persistent problem of evil arises; and this seems to be dealt with most fully in theology and philosophy.
Apart from this initial cluster of questio