Whether There Are Different Moral Virtues About Different Passions?
Objection 1: It would seem that there are not different moral virtues
about different passions. For there is but one habit about things
that concur in their source and end: as is evident especially in the
case of sciences. But the passions all concur in one source, viz.
love; and they all terminate in the same end, viz. joy or sorrow, as
we stated above (Q. 25, AA. 1, 2, 4; Q. 27, A. 4). Therefore there is
but one moral virtue about all the passions.
Obj. 2: Further, if there were different moral virtues about
different passions, it would follow that there are as many moral
virtues as passions. But this clearly is not the case: since there is
one moral virtue about contrary passions; namely, fortitude, about
fear and daring; temperance, about pleasure and sorrow. Therefore
there is no need for different moral virtues about different passions.
Obj. 3: Further, love, desire, and pleasure are passions of different
species, as stated above (Q. 23, A. 4). Now there is but one virtue
about all these three, viz. temperance. Therefore there are not
different moral virtues about different passions.
_On the contrary,_ Fortitude is about fear and daring; temperance
about desire; meekness about anger; as stated in _Ethic._ iii, 6, 10;
iv, 5.
_I answer that,_ It cannot be said that there is only one moral
virtue about all the passions: since some passions are not in the
same power as other passions; for some belong to the irascible,
others to the concupiscible faculty, as stated above (Q. 23, A. 1).
On the other hand, neither does every diversity of passions
necessarily suffice for a diversity of moral virtues. First, because
some passions are in contrary opposition to one another, such as joy
and sorrow, fear and daring, and so on. About such passions as are
thus in opposition to one another there must needs be one same
virtue. Because, since moral virtue consists in a kind of mean, the
mean in contrary passions stands in the same ratio to both, even as
in the natural order there is but one mean between contraries, e.g.
between black and white. Secondly, because there are different
passions contradicting reason in the same manner, e.g. by impelling
to that which is contrary to reason, or by withdrawing from that
which is in accord with reason. Wherefore the different passions of
the concupiscible faculty do not require different moral virtues,
because their movements follow one another in a certain order, as
being directed to the one same thing, viz. the attainment of some
good or the avoidance of some evil: thus from love proceeds desire,
and from desire we arrive at pleasure; and it is the same with the
opposite passions, for hatred leads to avoidance or dislike, and this
leads to sorrow. On the other hand, the irascible passions are not
all of one order, but are directed to different things: for daring
and fear are about some great danger; hope and despair are about some
difficult good; while anger seeks to overcome something contrary
which has wrought harm. Consequently there are different virtues
about such like passions: e.g. temperance, about the concupiscible
passions; fortitude, about fear and daring; magnanimity, about hope
and despair; meekness, about anger.
Reply Obj. 1: All the passions concur in one common principle and
end; but not in one proper principle or end: and so this does not
suffice for the unity of moral virtue.
Reply Obj. 2: Just as in the natural order the same principle causes
movement from one extreme and movement towards the other; and as in
the intellectual order contraries have one common ratio; so too
between contrary passions there is but one moral virtue, which, like
a second nature, consents to reason's dictates.
Reply Obj. 3: Those three passions are directed to the same object in
a certain order, as stated above: and so they belong to the same
virtue.
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