Whether to Enjoy Belongs to the Rational Creature Alone, or Also to
Irrational Animals?
Objection 1: It would seem that to enjoy belongs to men alone. For
Augustine says (De Doctr. Christ. i, 22) that "it is given to us men
to enjoy and to use." Therefore other animals cannot enjoy.
Obj. 2: Further, to enjoy relates to the last end. But irrational
animals cannot obtain the last end. Therefore it is not for them to
enjoy.
Obj. 3: Further, just as the sensitive appetite is beneath the
intellectual appetite, so is the natural appetite beneath the
sensitive. If, therefore, to enjoy belongs to the sensitive appetite,
it seems that for the same reason it can belong to the natural
appetite. But this is evidently false, since the latter cannot
delight in anything. Therefore the sensitive appetite cannot enjoy:
and accordingly enjoyment is not possible for irrational animals.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (QQ. 83, qu. 30): "It is not so
absurd to suppose that even beasts enjoy their food and any bodily
pleasure."
_I answer that,_ As was stated above (A. 1) to enjoy is not the act
of the power that achieves the end as executor, but of the power that
commands the achievement; for it has been said to belong to the
appetitive power. Now things void of reason have indeed a power of
achieving an end by way of execution, as that by which a heavy body
has a downward tendency, whereas a light body has an upward tendency.
Yet the power of command in respect of the end is not in them, but in
some higher nature, which moves all nature by its command, just as in
things endowed with knowledge, the appetite moves the other powers to
their acts. Wherefore it is clear that things void of knowledge,
although they attain an end, have no enjoyment of the end: this is
only for those that are endowed with knowledge.
Now knowledge of the end is twofold: perfect and imperfect. Perfect
knowledge of the end, is that whereby not only is that known which is
the end and the good, but also the universal formality of the end and
the good; and such knowledge belongs to the rational nature alone. On
the other hand, imperfect knowledge is that by which the end and the
good are known in the particular. Such knowledge is in irrational
animals: whose appetitive powers do not command with freedom, but are
moved according to a natural instinct to whatever they apprehend.
Consequently, enjoyment belongs to the rational nature, in a perfect
degree; to irrational animals, imperfectly; to other creatures, not
at all.
Reply Obj. 1: Augustine is speaking there of perfect enjoyment.
Reply Obj. 2: Enjoyment need not be of the last end simply; but of
that which each one chooses for his last end.
Reply Obj. 3: The sensitive appetite follows some knowledge; not so
the natural appetite, especially in things void of knowledge.
Reply Obj. 4: Augustine is speaking there of imperfect enjoyment.
This is clear from his way of speaking: for he says that "it is not
so absurd to suppose that even beasts enjoy," that is, as it would
be, if one were to say that they "use."
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