Whether in the Angels the Will Differs from the Intellect?
Objection 1: It would seem that in the angel the will does not differ
from the intellect and from the nature. For an angel is more simple
than a natural body. But a natural body is inclined through its form
towards its end, which is its good. Therefore much more so is the
angel. Now the angel's form is either the nature in which he subsists,
or else it is some species within his intellect. Therefore the angel
inclines towards the good through his own nature, or through an
intelligible species. But such inclination towards the good belongs to
the will. Therefore the will of the angel does not differ from his
nature or his intellect.
Obj. 2: Further, the object of the intellect is the true, while the
object of the will is the good. Now the good and the true differ,
not really but only logically [*Cf. Q. 16, A. 4]. Therefore will
and intellect are not really different.
Obj. 3: Further, the distinction of common and proper does not
differentiate the faculties; for the same power of sight perceives
color and whiteness. But the good and the true seem to be mutually
related as common to particular; for the true is a particular good, to
wit, of the intellect. Therefore the will, whose object is the good,
does not differ from the intellect, whose object is the true.
_On the contrary,_ The will in the angels regards good things only,
while their intellect regards both good and bad things, for they know
both. Therefore the will of the angels is distinct from their
intellect.
_I answer that,_ In the angels the will is a special faculty or power,
which is neither their nature nor their intellect. That it is not
their nature is manifest from this, that the nature or essence of a
thing is completely comprised within it: whatever, then, extends to
anything beyond it, is not its essence. Hence we see in natural bodies
that the inclination to being does not come from anything superadded
to the essence, but from the matter which desires being before
possessing it, and from the form which keeps it in such being when
once it exists. But the inclination towards something extrinsic comes
from something superadded to the essence; as tendency to a place comes
from gravity or lightness, while the inclination to make something
like itself comes from the active qualities.
Now the will has a natural tendency towards good. Consequently there
alone are essence and will identified where all good is contained
within the essence of him who wills; that is to say, in God, Who wills
nothing beyond Himself except on account of His goodness. This cannot
be said of any creature, because infinite goodness is quite foreign to
the nature of any created thing. Accordingly, neither the will of the
angel, nor that of any creature, can be the same thing as its essence.
In like manner neither can the will be the same thing as the intellect
of angel or man. Because knowledge comes about in so far as the object
known is within the knower; consequently the intellect extends itself
to what is outside it, according as what, in its essence, is outside
it is disposed to be somehow within it. On the other hand, the will
goes out to what is beyond it, according as by a kind of inclination
it tends, in a manner, to what is outside it. Now it belongs to one
faculty to have within itself something which is outside it, and to
another faculty to tend to what is outside it. Consequently intellect
and will must necessarily be different powers in every creature. It is
not so with God, for He has within Himself universal being, and the
universal good. Therefore both intellect and will are His nature.
Reply Obj. 1: A natural body is moved to its own being by its
substantial form: while it is inclined to something outside by
something additional, as has been said.
Reply Obj. 2: Faculties are not differentiated by any material
difference of their objects, but according to their formal
distinction, which is taken from the nature of the object as such.
Consequently the diversity derived from the notion of good and true
suffices for the difference of intellect from will.
Reply Obj. 3: Because the good and the true are really convertible,
it follows that the good is apprehended by the intellect as something
true; while the true is desired by the will as something good.
Nevertheless, the diversity of their aspects is sufficient for
diversifying the faculties, as was said above (ad 2).
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