Whether the Will Desires Something of Necessity?
Objection 1: It would seem that the will desires nothing of
necessity. For Augustine says (De Civ. Dei v, 10) that it anything
is necessary, it is not voluntary. But whatever the will desires is
voluntary. Therefore nothing that the will desires is desired of
necessity.
Obj. 2: Further, the rational powers, according to the Philosopher
(Metaph. viii, 2), extend to opposite things. But the will is a
rational power, because, as he says (De Anima iii, 9), "the will is
in the reason." Therefore the will extends to opposite things, and
therefore it is determined to nothing of necessity.
Obj. 3: Further, by the will we are masters of our own actions. But
we are not masters of that which is of necessity. Therefore the act
of the will cannot be necessitated.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (De Trin. xiii, 4) that "all desire
happiness with one will." Now if this were not necessary, but
contingent, there would at least be a few exceptions. Therefore the
will desires something of necessity.
_I answer that,_ The word "necessity" is employed in many ways. For
that which must be is necessary. Now that a thing must be may belong
to it by an intrinsic principle--either material, as when we say that
everything composed of contraries is of necessity corruptible--or
formal, as when we say that it is necessary for the three angles of a
triangle to be equal to two right angles. And this is "natural" and
"absolute necessity." In another way, that a thing must be, belongs
to it by reason of something extrinsic, which is either the end or
the agent. On the part of the end, as when without it the end is not
to be attained or so well attained: for instance, food is said to be
necessary for life, and a horse is necessary for a journey. This is
called "necessity of end," and sometimes also "utility." On the part
of the agent, a thing must be, when someone is forced by some agent,
so that he is not able to do the contrary. This is called "necessity
of coercion."
Now this necessity of coercion is altogether repugnant to the will.
For we call that violent which is against the inclination of a thing.
But the very movement of the will is an inclination to something.
Therefore, as a thing is called natural because it is according to the
inclination of nature, so a thing is called voluntary because it is
according to the inclination of the will. Therefore, just as it is
impossible for a thing to be at the same time violent and natural, so
it is impossible for a thing to be absolutely coerced or violent, and
voluntary.
But necessity of end is not repugnant to the will, when the end cannot
be attained except in one way: thus from the will to cross the sea,
arises in the will the necessity to wish for a ship.
In like manner neither is natural necessity repugnant to the will.
Indeed, more than this, for as the intellect of necessity adheres to
the first principles, the will must of necessity adhere to the last
end, which is happiness: since the end is in practical matters what
the principle is in speculative matters. For what befits a thing
naturally and immovably must be the root and principle of all else
appertaining thereto, since the nature of a thing is the first in
everything, and every movement arises from something immovable.
Reply Obj. 1: The words of Augustine are to be understood of the
necessity of coercion. But natural necessity "does not take away
the liberty of the will," as he says himself (De Civ. Dei v, 10).
Reply Obj. 2: The will, so far as it desires a thing naturally,
corresponds rather to the intellect as regards natural principles
than to the reason, which extends to opposite things. Wherefore in
this respect it is rather an intellectual than a rational power.
Reply Obj. 3: We are masters of our own actions by reason of our
being able to choose this or that. But choice regards not the end,
but "the means to the end," as the Philosopher says (Ethic. iii, 9).
Wherefore the desire of the ultimate end does not regard those
actions of which we are masters.
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