Whether Fear Is a Passion of the Soul?
Objection 1: It would seem that fear is not a passion of the soul.
For Damascene says (De Fide Orth. iii, 23) that "fear is a power, by
way of _systole_"--i.e. of contraction--"desirous of vindicating
nature." But no virtue is a passion, as is proved in _Ethic._ ii, 5.
Therefore fear is not a passion.
Obj. 2: Further, every passion is an effect due to the presence of an
agent. But fear is not of something present, but of something future,
as Damascene declares (De Fide Orth. ii, 12). Therefore fear is not a
passion.
Obj. 3: Further, every passion of the soul is a movement of the
sensitive appetite, in consequence of an apprehension of the senses.
But sense apprehends, not the future but the present. Since, then,
fear is of future evil, it seems that it is not a passion of the soul.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine (De Civ. Dei xiv, 5, seqq.) reckons fear
among the other passions of the soul.
_I answer that,_ Among the other passions of the soul, after sorrow,
fear chiefly has the character of passion. For as we have stated
above (Q. 22), the notion of passion implies first of all a movement
of a passive power--i.e. of a power whose object is compared to it as
its active principle: since passion is the effect of an agent. In
this way, both _to feel_ and _to understand_ are passions. Secondly,
more properly speaking, passion is a movement of the appetitive
power; and more properly still, it is a movement of an appetitive
power that has a bodily organ, such movement being accompanied by a
bodily transmutation. And, again, most properly those movements are
called passions, which imply some deterioration. Now it is evident
that fear, since it regards evil, belongs to the appetitive power,
which of itself regards good and evil. Moreover, it belongs to the
sensitive appetite: for it is accompanied by a certain
transmutation--i.e. contraction--as Damascene says (Cf. Obj. 1).
Again, it implies relation to evil as overcoming, so to speak, some
particular good. Wherefore it has most properly the character of
passion; less, however, than sorrow, which regards the present evil:
because fear regards future evil, which is not so strong a motive as
present evil.
Reply Obj. 1: Virtue denotes a principle of action: wherefore, in so
far as the interior movements of the appetitive faculty are
principles of external action, they are called virtues. But the
Philosopher denies that passion is a virtue by way of habit.
Reply Obj. 2: Just as the passion of a natural body is due to the
bodily presence of an agent, so is the passion of the soul due to the
agent being present to the soul, although neither corporally nor
really present: that is to say, in so far as the evil which is really
future, is present in the apprehension of the soul.
Reply Obj. 3: The senses do not apprehend the future: but from
apprehending the present, an animal is moved by natural instinct to
hope for a future good, or to fear a future evil.
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