Whether the Goodness of the Will Depends on the Object?
Objection 1: It would seem that the goodness of the will does not
depend on the object. For the will cannot be directed otherwise than
to what is good: since "evil is outside the scope of the will," as
Dionysius says (Div. Nom. iv). If therefore the goodness of the will
depended on the object, it would follow that every act of the will
is good, and none bad.
Obj. 2: Further, good is first of all in the end: wherefore the
goodness of the end, as such, does not depend on any other. But,
according to the Philosopher (Ethic. vi, 5), "goodness of action is
the end, but goodness of making is never the end": because the latter
is always ordained to the thing made, as to its end. Therefore the
goodness of the act of the will does not depend on any object.
Obj. 3: Further, such as a thing is, such does it make a thing to be.
But the object of the will is good, by reason of the goodness of
nature. Therefore it cannot give moral goodness to the will.
Therefore the moral goodness of the will does not depend on the
object.
_On the contrary,_ the Philosopher says (Ethic. v, 1) that justice is
that habit "from which men wish for just things": and accordingly,
virtue is a habit from which men wish for good things. But a good
will is one which is in accordance with virtue. Therefore the
goodness of the will is from the fact that a man wills that which is
good.
_I answer that,_ Good and evil are essential differences of the act
of the will. Because good and evil of themselves regard the will;
just as truth and falsehood regard reason; the act of which is
divided essentially by the difference of truth and falsehood, for as
much as an opinion is said to be true or false. Consequently good and
evil will are acts differing in species. Now the specific difference
in acts is according to objects, as stated above (Q. 18, A. 5).
Therefore good and evil in the acts of the will is derived properly
from the objects.
Reply Obj. 1: The will is not always directed to what is truly good,
but sometimes to the apparent good; which has indeed some measure of
good, but not of a good that is simply suitable to be desired. Hence
it is that the act of the will is not always good, but sometimes evil.
Reply Obj. 2: Although an action can, in a certain way, be man's last
end; nevertheless such action is not an act of the will, as stated
above (Q. 1, A. 1, ad 2).
Reply Obj. 3: Good is presented to the will as its object by the
reason: and in so far as it is in accord with reason, it enters the
moral order, and causes moral goodness in the act of the will:
because the reason is the principle of human and moral acts, as
stated above (Q. 18, A. 5).
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