Whether the Will Is Moved by a Heavenly Body?
Objection 1: It would seem that the human will is moved by a heavenly
body. For all various and multiform movements are reduced, as to
their cause, to a uniform movement which is that of the heavens, as
is proved in _Phys._ viii, 9. But human movements are various and
multiform, since they begin to be, whereas previously they were not.
Therefore they are reduced, as to their cause, to the movement of the
heavens, which is uniform according to its nature.
Obj. 2: Further, according to Augustine (De Trin. iii, 4) "the lower
bodies are moved by the higher." But the movements of the human body,
which are caused by the will, could not be reduced to the movement of
the heavens, as to their cause, unless the will too were moved by the
heavens. Therefore the heavens move the human will.
Obj. 3: Further, by observing the heavenly bodies astrologers
foretell the truth about future human acts, which are caused by the
will. But this would not be so, if the heavenly bodies could not move
man's will. Therefore the human will is moved by a heavenly body.
_On the contrary,_ Damascene says (De Fide Orth. ii, 7) that "the
heavenly bodies are not the causes of our acts." But they would be,
if the will, which is the principle of human acts, were moved by the
heavenly bodies. Therefore the will is not moved by the heavenly
bodies.
_I answer that,_ It is evident that the will can be moved by the
heavenly bodies in the same way as it is moved by its object; that is
to say, in so far as exterior bodies, which move the will, through
being offered to the senses, and also the organs themselves of the
sensitive powers, are subject to the movements of the heavenly bodies.
But some have maintained that heavenly bodies have an influence on the
human will, in the same way as some exterior agent moves the will, as
to the exercise of its act. But this is impossible. For the "will," as
stated in _De Anima_ iii, 9, "is in the reason." Now the reason is a
power of the soul, not bound to a bodily organ: wherefore it follows
that the will is a power absolutely incorporeal and immaterial. But it
is evident that no body can act on what is incorporeal, but rather the
reverse: because things incorporeal and immaterial have a power more
formal and more universal than any corporeal things whatever.
Therefore it is impossible for a heavenly body to act directly on the
intellect or will. For this reason Aristotle (De Anima iii, 3)
ascribed to those who held that intellect differs not from sense, the
theory that "such is the will of men, as is the day which the father
of men and of gods bring on" [*Odyssey xviii. 135] (referring to
Jupiter, by whom they understand the entire heavens). For all the
sensitive powers, since they are acts of bodily organs, can be moved
accidentally, by the heavenly bodies, i.e. through those bodies being
moved, whose acts they are.
But since it has been stated (A. 2) that the intellectual appetite is
moved, in a fashion, by the sensitive appetite, the movements of the
heavenly bodies have an indirect bearing on the will; in so far as
the will happens to be moved by the passions of the sensitive
appetite.
Reply Obj. 1: The multiform movements of the human will are reduced
to some uniform cause, which, however, is above the intellect and
will. This can be said, not of any body, but of some superior
immaterial substance. Therefore there is no need for the movement of
the will to be referred to the movement of the heavens, as to its
cause.
Reply Obj. 2: The movements of the human body are reduced, as to
their cause, to the movement of a heavenly body, in so far as the
disposition suitable to a particular movement, is somewhat due to the
influence of heavenly bodies; also, in so far as the sensitive
appetite is stirred by the influence of heavenly bodies; and again,
in so far as exterior bodies are moved in accordance with the
movement of heavenly bodies, at whose presence, the will begins to
will or not to will something; for instance, when the body is
chilled, we begin to wish to make the fire. But this movement of the
will is on the part of the object offered from without: not on the
part of an inward instigation.
Reply Obj. 3: As stated above (Cf. I, Q. 84, AA. 6, 7), the sensitive
appetite is the act of a bodily organ. Wherefore there is no reason
why man should not be prone to anger or concupiscence, or some like
passion, by reason of the influence of heavenly bodies, just as by
reason of his natural complexion. But the majority of men are led by
the passions, which the wise alone resist. Consequently, in the
majority of cases predictions about human acts, gathered from the
observation of heavenly bodies, are fulfilled. Nevertheless, as
Ptolemy says (Centiloquium v), "the wise man governs the stars";
which is a though to say that by resisting his passions, he opposes
his will, which is free and nowise subject to the movement of the
heavens, to such like effects of the heavenly bodies.
Or, as Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. ii, 15): "We must confess that
when the truth is foretold by astrologers, this is due to some most
hidden inspiration, to which the human mind is subject without
knowing it. And since this is done in order to deceive man, it must
be the work of the lying spirits."
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