Whether the Goodness and Malice of the External Action Are the Same
As Those of the Interior Act?
Objection 1: It would seem that the goodness and malice of the
interior act of the will are not the same as those of the external
action. For the principle of the interior act is the interior
apprehensive or appetitive power of the soul; whereas the principle
of the external action is the power that accomplishes the movement.
Now where the principles of action are different, the actions
themselves are different. Moreover, it is the action which is the
subject of goodness or malice: and the same accident cannot be in
different subjects. Therefore the goodness of the interior act cannot
be the same as that of the external action.
Obj. 2: Further, "A virtue makes that, which has it, good, and
renders its action good also" (Ethic. ii, 6). But the intellective
virtue in the commanding power is distinct from the moral virtue in
the power commanded, as is declared in _Ethic._ i, 13. Therefore the
goodness of the interior act, which belongs to the commanding power,
is distinct from the goodness of the external action, which belongs
to the power commanded.
Obj. 3: Further, the same thing cannot be cause and effect; since
nothing is its own cause. But the goodness of the interior act is the
cause of the goodness of the external action, or vice versa, as
stated above (AA. 1, 2). Therefore it is not the same goodness in
each.
_On the contrary,_ It was shown above (Q. 18, A. 6) that the act of
the will is the form, as it were, of the external action. Now that
which results from the material and formal element is one thing.
Therefore there is but one goodness of the internal and external act.
_I answer that,_ As stated above (Q. 17, A. 4), the interior act of
the will, and the external action, considered morally, are one act.
Now it happens sometimes that one and the same individual act has
several aspects of goodness or malice, and sometimes that it has but
one. Hence we must say that sometimes the goodness or malice of the
interior act is the same as that of the external action, and
sometimes not. For as we have already said (AA. 1, 2), these two
goodnesses or malices, of the internal and external acts, are
ordained to one another. Now it may happen, in things that are
subordinate to something else, that a thing is good merely from being
subordinate; thus a bitter draught is good merely because it procures
health. Wherefore there are not two goodnesses, one the goodness of
health, and the other the goodness of the draught; but one and the
same. On the other hand it happens sometimes that that which is
subordinate to something else, has some aspect of goodness in itself,
besides the fact of its being subordinate to some other good: thus a
palatable medicine can be considered in the light of a pleasurable
good, besides being conducive to health.
We must therefore say that when the external action derives goodness
or malice from its relation to the end only, then there is but one
and the same goodness of the act of the will which of itself regards
the end, and of the external action, which regards the end through
the medium of the act of the will. But when the external action has
goodness or malice of itself, i.e. in regard to its matter and
circumstances, then the goodness of the external action is distinct
from the goodness of the will in regarding the end; yet so that the
goodness of the end passes into the external action, and the goodness
of the matter and circumstances passes into the act of the will, as
stated above (AA. 1, 2).
Reply Obj. 1: This argument proves that the internal and external
actions are different in the physical order: yet distinct as they are
in that respect, they combine to form one thing in the moral order,
as stated above (Q. 17, A. 4).
Reply Obj. 2: As stated in _Ethic._ vi, 12, a moral virtue is
ordained to the act of that virtue, which act is the end, as it were,
of that virtue; whereas prudence, which is in the reason, is ordained
to things directed to the end. For this reason various virtues are
necessary. But right reason in regard to the very end of a virtue has
no other goodness than the goodness of that virtue, in so far as the
goodness of the reason is participated in each virtue.
Reply Obj. 3: When a thing is derived by one thing from another, as
from a univocal efficient cause, then it is not the same in both:
thus when a hot thing heats, the heat of the heater is distinct from
the heat of the thing heated, although it be the same specifically.
But when a thing is derived from one thing from another, according to
analogy or proportion, then it is one and the same in both: thus the
healthiness which is in medicine or urine is derived from the
healthiness of the animal's body; nor is health as applied to urine
and medicine, distinct from health as applied to the body of an
animal, of which health medicine is the cause, and urine the sign. It
is in this way that the goodness of the external action is derived
from the goodness of the will, and vice versa; viz. according to the
order of one to the other.
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