Whether Any Habit Is in the Will?
Objection 1: It would seem that there is not a habit in the will. For
the habit which is in the intellect is the intelligible species, by
means of which the intellect actually understands. But the will does
not act by means of species. Therefore the will is not the subject of
habit.
Obj. 2: Further, no habit is allotted to the active intellect, as
there is to the "possible" intellect, because the former is an active
power. But the will is above all an active power, because it moves
all the powers to their acts, as stated above (Q. 9, A. 1). Therefore
there is no habit in the will.
Obj. 3: Further, in the natural powers there is no habit, because, by
reason of their nature, they are determinate to one thing. But the
will, by reason of its nature, is ordained to tend to the good which
reason directs. Therefore there is no habit in the will.
_On the contrary,_ Justice is a habit. But justice is in the will;
for it is "a habit whereby men will and do that which is just"
(Ethic. v, 1). Therefore the will is the subject of a habit.
_I answer that,_ Every power which may be variously directed to act,
needs a habit whereby it is well disposed to its act. Now since the
will is a rational power, it may be variously directed to act. And
therefore in the will we must admit the presence of a habit whereby
it is well disposed to its act. Moreover, from the very nature of
habit, it is clear that it is principally related to the will;
inasmuch as habit "is that which one uses when one wills," as stated
above (A. 1).
Reply Obj. 1: Even as in the intellect there is a species which is
the likeness of the object; so in the will, and in every appetitive
power there must be something by which the power is inclined to its
object; for the act of the appetitive power is nothing but a certain
inclination, as we have said above (Q. 6, A. 4; Q. 22, A. 2). And
therefore in respect of those things to which it is inclined
sufficiently by the nature of the power itself, the power needs no
quality to incline it. But since it is necessary, for the end of
human life, that the appetitive power be inclined to something fixed,
to which it is not inclined by the nature of the power, which has a
relation to many and various things, therefore it is necessary that,
in the will and in the other appetitive powers, there be certain
qualities to incline them, and these are called habits.
Reply Obj. 2: The active intellect is active only, and in no way
passive. But the will, and every appetitive power, is both mover and
moved (De Anima iii, text. 54). And therefore the comparison between
them does not hold; for to be susceptible of habit belongs to that
which is somehow in potentiality.
Reply Obj. 3: The will from the very nature of the power is inclined
to the good of the reason. But because this good is varied in many
ways, the will needs to be inclined, by means of a habit, to some
fixed good of the reason, in order that action may follow more
promptly.
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