Whether Life Is Adequately Divided into Active and Contemplative?
Objection 1: It would seem that life is not adequately divided into
active and contemplative. For the Philosopher says (Ethic. i, 5) that
there are three most prominent kinds of life, the life of "pleasure,"
the "civil" which would seem to be the same as the active, and the
"contemplative" life. Therefore the division of life into active and
contemplative would seem to be inadequate.
Obj. 2: Further, Augustine (De Civ. Dei xix, 1, 2, 3, 19) mentions
three kinds of life, namely the life of "leisure" which pertains to
the contemplative, the "busy" life which pertains to the active, and
a third "composed of both." Therefore it would seem that life is
inadequately divided into active and contemplative.
Obj. 3: Further, man's life is diversified according to the divers
actions in which men are occupied. Now there are more than two
occupations of human actions. Therefore it would seem that life
should be divided into more kinds than the active and the
contemplative.
_On the contrary,_ These two lives are signified by the two wives of
Jacob; the active by Lia, and the contemplative by Rachel: and by the
two hostesses of our Lord; the contemplative life by Mary, and the
active life by Martha, as Gregory declares (Moral. vi, 37 [*Hom. xiv
in Ezech.]). Now this signification would not be fitting if there were
more than two lives. Therefore life is adequately divided into active
and contemplative.
_I answer that,_ As stated above (A. 1, ad 2), this division applies
to the human life as derived from the intellect. Now the intellect is
divided into active and contemplative, since the end of intellective
knowledge is either the knowledge itself of truth, which pertains to
the contemplative intellect, or some external action, which pertains
to the practical or active intellect. Therefore life too is
adequately divided into active and contemplative.
Reply Obj. 1: The life of pleasure places its end in pleasures
of the body, which are common to us and dumb animals; wherefore as the
Philosopher says (Ethic. _Ethic._ i, 5), it is the life "of a beast."
Hence it is not included in this division of the life of a man into
active and contemplative.
Reply Obj. 2: A mean is a combination of extremes, wherefore
it is virtually contained in them, as tepid in hot and cold, and pale
in white and black. In like manner active and contemplative comprise
that which is composed of both. Nevertheless as in every mixture one
of the simples predominates, so too in the mean state of life
sometimes the contemplative, sometimes the active element, abounds.
Reply Obj. 3: All the occupations of human actions, if
directed to the requirements of the present life in accord with right
reason, belong to the active life which provides for the necessities
of the present life by means of well-ordered activity. If, on the
other hand, they minister to any concupiscence whatever, they belong
to the life of pleasure, which is not comprised under the active life.
Those human occupations that are directed to the consideration of
truth belong to the contemplative life.
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