Whether Command Is an Act of the Reason or of the Will?
Objection 1: It would seem that command is not an act of the reason
but of the will. For command is a kind of motion; because Avicenna
says that there are four ways of moving, "by perfecting, by
disposing, by commanding, and by counselling." But it belongs to the
will to move all the other powers of the soul, as stated above (Q. 9,
A. 1). Therefore command is an act of the will.
Obj. 2: Further, just as to be commanded belongs to that which is
subject, so, seemingly, to command belongs to that which is most
free. But the root of liberty is especially in the will. Therefore
to command belongs to the will.
Obj. 3: Further, command is followed at once by act. But the act of
the reason is not followed at once by act: for he who judges that a
thing should be done, does not do it at once. Therefore command is
not an act of the reason, but of the will.
_On the contrary,_ Gregory of Nyssa [*Nemesius, De Nat. Hom. xvi.]
and the Philosopher (Ethic. i, 13) say that "the appetite obeys
reason." Therefore command is an act of the reason.
_I answer that,_ Command is an act of the reason presupposing,
however, an act of the will. In proof of this, we must take note
that, since the acts of the reason and of the will can be brought to
bear on one another, in so far as the reason reasons about willing,
and the will wills to reason, the result is that the act of the
reason precedes the act of the will, and conversely. And since the
power of the preceding act continues in the act that follows, it
happens sometimes that there is an act of the will in so far as it
retains in itself something of an act of the reason, as we have
stated in reference to use and choice; and conversely, that there is
an act of the reason in so far as it retains in itself something of
an act of the will.
Now, command is essentially indeed an act of the reason: for the
commander orders the one commanded to do something, by way of
intimation or declaration; and to order thus by intimating or
declaring is an act of the reason. Now the reason can intimate or
declare something in two ways. First, absolutely: and this intimation
is expressed by a verb in the indicative mood, as when one person
says to another: "This is what you should do." Sometimes, however,
the reason intimates something to a man by moving him thereto; and
this intimation is expressed by a verb in the imperative mood; as
when it is said to someone: "Do this." Now the first mover, among the
powers of the soul, to the doing of an act is the will, as stated
above (Q. 9, A. 1). Since therefore the second mover does not move,
save in virtue of the first mover, it follows that the very fact that
the reason moves by commanding, is due to the power of the will.
Consequently it follows that command is an act of the reason,
presupposing an act of the will, in virtue of which the reason, by
its command, moves (the power) to the execution of the act.
Reply Obj. 1: To command is to move, not anyhow, but by intimating
and declaring to another; and this is an act of the reason.
Reply Obj. 2: The root of liberty is the will as the subject thereof;
but it is the reason as its cause. For the will can tend freely
towards various objects, precisely because the reason can have
various perceptions of good. Hence philosophers define the free-will
as being "a free judgment arising from reason," implying that reason
is the root of liberty.
Reply Obj. 3: This argument proves that command is an act of reason
not absolutely, but with a kind of motion as stated above.
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