Art. 2: ACTS AS HUMAN

(_Summa Theologica_, I-II, qq. 6-17.)

22. Human acts are a means to man's Last End, inasmuch as they are
meritorious--i.e., labors that deserve a recompense (I Cor., iii. 8 ),
struggles that deserve a crown (II Tim., ii. 5). But works are not
meritorious unless they are one's own (human) and good (moral); and,
since the reward is supernatural, they must also be the fruit of grace.
Hence, we shall speak of acts in the following order: (a) acts as human
and free (Art. 2); (b) acts as morally good (Art. 3); (c) acts as
supernaturally meritorious (Art. 4).

23. Definition.--Those acts are called human of which a man is the
master, and he is master of his actions in virtue of his reason and his
will, which faculties make him superior to non-human agents that act
without reason and freedom. Hence, the following kinds of acts done by
a human being are not called human: (a) those that are not under the
control of the mind, because one is permanently or temporarily without
the use of reason or without knowledge (e.g., the acts done by the
insane; by those who are unconscious or delirious, under the influence
of hypnotism or drugs, distracted or carried away by vehement fear,
anger, etc.; by infants and uninstructed persons); (b) those that are
not under the control of the will, even though they are known (e.g.,
automatic acts, such as the acts of the vegetative powers, growth,
circulation of the blood; pathological acts, such as convulsions; acts
done under external violence).

24. Knowledge Requisite for a Human Act.--An act is human, or
voluntary, when it is deliberately desired; and, since nothing can be
deliberately desired unless it is known, an act done without knowledge
is not human or voluntary. Thus, a delirious patient does not will the
language he uses, for his mind is confused and he does not understand
what he is saying.

25. The condition of a person without knowledge is ignorance, which is
defined as the absence of knowledge in one who is capable of knowing.
Ignorance is of various kinds. From the viewpoint of that which is not
known (i.e., of the object of the ignorance), there is ignorance of the
substance of an act and ignorance of the quality of an act. For
example, Titus driving rapidly in the dark runs over and kills a pet
animal of his neighbor, but knows nothing of this happening (ignorance
of the substance of the act); Balbus, a child, fires a pistol at his
playmate, not knowing that this causes death (ignorance of the physical
quality of an act), and that it is the sin of murder (ignorance of the
moral quality of an act).

26. With reference to the will of the person who is ignorant, three
kinds of ignorance may be distinguished.

(a) Ignorance is concomitant (simultaneous with the act of the will),
when it is not voluntary, and yet is not therefore the reason of the
act that follows it, since that act would have been done, even had
there been knowledge. This may be illustrated by the example of a
hunter who intended to kill an enemy, and killed him only accidentally
while shooting at an animal.

(b) Ignorance is consequent (after the act of the will), when it is
voluntary, which may happen in different ways: first, when ignorance is
affected, as when a person expressly desires to remain ignorant about
his duties, so that he may have an excuse for his sins, or that he may
not be disturbed in his evil life; secondly, when he neglects to
acquire the knowledge he ought to possess, as when a hunter kills a
man, thinking him an animal, because he took no pains to be sure before
firing.

(c) Ignorance is antecedent (before the act of the will), when it is
not voluntary, and is the cause of the act that follows since the act
would not have been done, if there had been knowledge. For example, a
hunter who has used reasonable diligence to avoid accidents, kills a
man whom he mistook for a deer.

27. With reference to the responsibility of the person who is ignorant,
there are two kinds of ignorance. (a) Ignorance is invincible when it
cannot be removed, even by the use of all the care that ordinarily
prudent and conscientious persons would use in the circuмstances. Thus,
a person who has no suspicions of his ignorance, or who has tried in
vain to acquire instruction about his duties, is invincibly ignorant.
(b) Ignorance is vincible when it can be removed by the exercise of
ordinary care. There are various degrees of this species of ignorance:
first, it is merely vincible, when some diligence has been exercised,
but not enough; secondly, it is crass or supine, when hardly any
diligence has been used; thirdly, it is affected, when a person
deliberately aims to continue in ignorance.

28. Influence of the Various Kinds of Ignorance on the Voluntariness of
Acts.--(a) Ignorance of an act, whether as to its substance or quality,
makes an act involuntary, when the ignorance itself is involuntary, as
will be explained in paragraph 29. Hence, if we refer to ignorance that
is not blameworthy and to the guilt of violating the law of God, we may
say: "Ignorance excuses."

(b) Ignorance does not make an act involuntary before human law, unless
the law itself presumes the ignorance or the ignorance is proved, as
will be explained in the Question on Law (see 489 sqq.). For, when law
is sufficiently promulgated or a fact pertains to one's own self, the
presumption is that ignorance does not exist, or that it is culpable.
Hence, the general rule of law common to all forms of jurisprudence:
"Ignorance does not excuse" (cfr. Canon 16 of the Code of Canon Law).

29. Effects of Concomitant, Consequent, and Antecedent Ignorance.--(a)
Concomitant ignorance does not make an act involuntary, because it does
not cause anything that is contrary to the will; but it does make the
act that is performed non-voluntary, since what is unknown cannot be
actually desired.

(b) Consequent ignorance cannot make an act entirely involuntary, since
such ignorance is itself voluntary; but it does in a certain respect
make an act involuntary, i.e., inasmuch as the act would not have been
done save for the ignorance. (c) Antecedent ignorance makes an act
entirely involuntary.

30. Effects of Invincible and Vincible Ignorance.--(a) Invincible
ignorance, even of what pertains to the natural law, makes an act
involuntary, since nothing is willed except what is understood. Hence,
no matter how wrong an act is in itself, the agent is not guilty of
formal sin (see 249), if he is invincibly ignorant of the malice
involved.

(b) Vincible ignorance does not make an act involuntary, since the
ignorance itself is voluntary; hence, it does not excuse from sin. It
does not even make an act less voluntary and less sinful, if the
ignorance is affected in order that one may have an excuse; for such a
state of mind shows that the person would act the same way, even though
he had knowledge.

31. Vincible ignorance makes an act less voluntary and less sinful: (a)
when the ignorance is not affected, for the voluntariness is measured
by the knowledge, and knowledge here is lacking; (b) when the
ignorance, though affected, was fostered only through fear that
knowledge might compel a stricter way of life; for such a state of mind
seems to show that one would not act the same way if one had knowledge.

32. Like to ignorance are the following: (a) error, which is a judgment
not in agreement with the facts (e.g., Balbus, a young child, thinks
stealing is lawful, because older persons are represented as stealing
in the moving pictures); (b) forgetfulness, which is ignorance of what
was once known (e.g., Titus made a study of his duties as a Catholic
when he was young, but at present what he does not know about those
duties is not inconsiderable); (c) inadvertence, which is a lack of
attention to what is being done (e.g., Caius, who is absent-minded,
sometimes gets his hair cut and goes away without paying, or takes
money that does not belong to him).

33. The principles and conclusions given above with regard to ignorance
will apply also to error, forgetfulness and inadvertence; for in all
these cases the lack of actual knowledge at the moment an act is done,
is either willed or not willed, and accordingly the act itself is
either voluntary or not voluntary. In the examples mentioned above,
Balbus does not will the guilt of theft, since he does not know it; but
his elders do will that guilt, because they should know it. Titus is
responsible for neglecting his duties, if he has forgotten them through
his own neglect of them or other fault; otherwise, he is not
responsible. Caius' inattention is involuntary, if due to mental
concentration or distraction, and if it is not desired by him; it is
voluntary, if he is aware of it and cultivates it, or if he does not
try to be more attentive to his duties.

34. Consent Requisite for a Human Act.--To be human, an act must
proceed not only from knowledge, but also from inclination; that is, it
must be voluntary. Three things are necessary in order that an act be
voluntary: (a) it must be agreeable to an internal principle, i.e., in
most moral matters to the will. Hence, an act that is done against
one's will on account of external violence is not voluntary; (b) it
must be caused by the will. Hence, a shower of rain is said to be
agreeable to the gardener, but not voluntary since his will is not its
cause; (c) it must be performed with a conscious purpose. Hence,
natural acts (such as sleeping) and spontaneous acts (such as stroking
one's beard absent-mindedly) are not voluntary acts.

35. Kinds of Voluntary Acts.-(a) A voluntary act is free or necessary,
according as one can or cannot abstain from it. The vision of God in
heaven is voluntary to the blessed, since they look at Him knowingly
and gladly; but it is not free, since they cannot avert their gaze from
that which makes them blessed. The love of God on earth is voluntary,
since chosen; but it is also free, since man is able to turn away from
God.

(b) An act is perfectly or imperfectly voluntary, according as the
deliberation and consent that precede it are full or only partial.

(c) An act is said to be simply--that is, absolutely--voluntary, when
it is wished under circuмstances that exist here and now, although in
itself, apart from those circuмstances, it is not wished. It is said to
be voluntary under a certain aspect, when it is desired for itself, but
not under existing conditions. Thus, if an arm needs to be amputated to
save life, the amputation is absolutely voluntary, while the
preservation of the arm is voluntary only in a certain respect. Hence,
an act is voluntary simply or absolutely when one chooses it, all
things considered; it remains involuntary under a certain respect,
inasmuch as the choice is made with reluctance.

(d) An act is voluntary in itself or directly, when it is desired in
itself for its own sake (i.e., as an end), or for the sake of something
else (i.e., as a means). It is voluntary in its cause or indirectly,
when it is not desired in itself, either as a means or an end, but is
foreseen as the result of something else that is intended. Examples:
Titus quarrels with his neighbors, at times because he likes to
quarrel, and at other times because he wishes to make them fear him;
hence, his quarrels are directly voluntary. Caius is a peaceful man who
dislikes quarreling; but he likes to drink too much occasionally,
although he knows that he always quarrels when he is under the
influence of liquor. Thus, his quarrels are indirectly voluntary.

36. An act is voluntary in its cause in two ways: (a) approvingly
(physically and morally voluntary in cause), when one is able and
obliged not to perform the act that is its cause (e.g., the quarrels of
Caius mentioned above are approved implicitly by him, since he could
and should prevent the intoxication which is their cause); (b)
permissively (physically voluntary in cause), when one is not able or
not obliged to omit the act that is its cause (see 94 sqq.). Examples:
Balbus, in order to make a living, has to associate with persons of
quarrelsome character, and as a result often hears shocking disputes.
Titus, a military commander, orders an enemy fortification to be
bombarded, although he knows that this will involve the destruction of
other property and the unavoidable killing of some non-combatants or
neutrals. Caius writes a book whose purpose and natural result is
edification, but he foresees that evil-minded persons will
misunderstand it and take scandal.

37. Omissions, as well as acts, may be voluntary. (a) Thus, they are
directly voluntary, when they are willed as an end or as a means to an
end. Example: Titus fails to reprove the disorders of those in his
charge because he likes disorder, or because it illustrates his theory
that everyone should go through  an evolution from roughness to
refinement. (b) They are indirectly voluntary, when their cause is
willed with approval or permitted with disapproval. Example: Balbus
does not like to miss Mass, but he fails to rise from bed when he hears
the church bell ringing, and as a result does not get to church. If his
failure to get up was due to laziness, the omission of Mass was
approved by Balbus; if it was due to illness, the omission was only
permitted.

38. The effect that follows upon an omission may also be voluntary. (a)
Thus, it is directly voluntary, if the omission is chosen as a means to
the effect. Example: Caius hears Titus say that he is going to make a
certain business deal, and he knows that Titus will suffer a great loss
thereby; but he wishes Titus to lose his money, and therefore says
nothing about the danger. (b) It is indirectly voluntary, if one
foresees the effect, and approves or permits it. Examples: Balbus sees
Titus attacked by a hoodlum and realizes that, unless assisted, Titus
will be badly beaten up; but he is such an admirer of pugilism that, in
spite of his sorrow for Titus, he decides not to stop the fight. Caius
sees his friend Sempronius drowning, and fails to go to his assistance,
because to his regret he is not an expert swimmer.

39. The effect of an omission is indirectly voluntary and approved by
the will when one is able and bound to do what one omits. Example:
Balbus receives some confidential docuмents with the understanding that
he will guard them sacredly; but fearing to lose the good graces of
Titus, who is curious and loquacious, he omits to put the papers away
as promised, with the result that Titus finds them and reads them.

40. Obstacles to Consent.--The obstacles to consent are all those
factors that take away or lessen the voluntariness of an act. (a) Thus,
the actual obstacles that affect the intellect are reduced to
ignorance, spoken of above; those that affect the will are passion and
fear, and that which affects the external powers is coercion. (b) The
habitual obstacles are habits and abnormal mental states.

41. Fear is a disturbance of mind caused by the thought that a future
danger is impending. It is an obstacle to consent in various ways: (a)
it lessens or takes away freedom of judgment, inasmuch as it hinders or
suspends the reasoning processes; (b) it lessens the voluntariness of
choice, inasmuch as it makes one decide for what is not of itself
agreeable.

42. An act done under fear that impeded the use of judgment is: (a)
involuntary, if the fear was so great that one was temporarily out of
one's mind. Example: Titus is so panic-stricken at the thought that a
wild animal is pursuing him that he fires a revolver in every
direction; (b) less voluntary, if the fear prevents one from thinking
with calmness and deliberation. Example: Caius is being questioned by a
stern examiner who demands an immediate reply. Fearing to hesitate,
Caius gives what he knows is a "bluffing" answer.

43. The acts of one who is under fear are of various kinds.

(a) Acts are done with fear, when the fear is concomitant--i.e., when
it is not willed and does not cause the act, but is merely its occasion
or would rather prevent it. Examples: Julius is ordered under pain of
death to drink a glass of wine, a thing he was intending to do and
which he would have done even without any threats. Balbus walks along a
lonely road, because he must get home, but he trembles at the thought
of robbers. Caius, a highwayman, at the point of the revolver, forces
Balbus to hand over his purse, but he fears that the police may arrive
before he has secured the money. Titus, a business man, makes a trip by
air, because he must reach another city without delay, but he has some
apprehensions about his safety. All these men act, not because of, but
apart from or in spite of their fears.

(b) Acts are done through fear, when fear causes an act that would not
otherwise be performed. The fear may be antecedent (i.e., unwilled) or
consequent (i.e., willed). Examples: Balbus, in the case mentioned
above, surrendered his purse because of involuntary fear which was
caused by the revolver of the robber. Claudius makes an act of sorrow
for sin because of voluntary fear which he produces by thinking of the
punishment of hell.

44. The effects of fear, which do not take away the use of reason, on
the voluntariness of acts are as follows.

(a) Acts done with fear are not made really involuntary on account of
the fear that accompanies them, for they are done for their own sake,
not out of fear or as a consequence of fear. They may be called
relatively involuntary in the sense that, by reason of fear, they are
comparatively unpleasant, unless one enjoys the thrill of danger.
Examples: Balbus, Caius and Titus, in the cases mentioned above, acted
with perfect willingness. Whether they enjoyed their experiences or
not, depends on their attitudes towards adventure and excitement.

(b) Acts done through fear are voluntary simply and absolutely, for the
act done under the impulse of fear is what the agent considers here and
now as most desirable. Examples: Balbus' surrender of his purse and
Claudius' act of contrition are just what these two men wish to do as
best suited to the circuмstances.

(c) Acts done through fear are involuntary in a certain respect, if the
agent can retain his inclination towards the opposite of the act and
still avoid what he fears; otherwise, they are in no way involuntary.
Examples: Balbus retains his liking for the money taken from him by
force, and hence the surrender of it to the highwayman, although
voluntary, if all things are considered, is not voluntary, if only the
money itself is considered. Claudius, on the contrary, retains no
liking for his sins, for he knows that, if he does, he will defeat the
purpose of his act of sorrow, which is to escape the pains of hell;
hence, his contrition, although the result of fear, is in no respect
involuntary.

45. Passion is a movement of the sensitive appetite towards its object
through love, desire, hope, or its repose therein through delight. It
tends towards good, as fear tends away from evil (see 117 sqq.).
Passion is an obstacle to consent in the following ways: (a) it takes
away voluntariness (i.e., the quality of proceeding from an internal
principle with knowledge of the end of the act), whenever it is so
intense as to prevent knowledge; (b) it diminishes liberty (i.e., the
quality of being perfectly voluntary, or indifferent as between many
acts), even when it does not prevent knowledge.

46. Spiritual appetites fortify the reason, but the opposite is true of
sensible appetites; for these latter draw all the attention to things
that are lower and away from those that are higher, and impede the
exercise of imagination and other senses that serve the reason. In
extreme and rare cases passion may be so intense as to distract from or
prevent altogether the exercise of reason, or to produce insanity.
Thus, we sometimes hear of persons losing their minds through affection
for money, or of performing irrational deeds under the excitement of
joy.

47. With reference to the will, passion is twofold. (a) It is
antecedent, when it precedes the act of the will and causes it. In this
case the passion arises not from the will, but from some other cause
(e.g., the bodily state, as when a sick man longs for food that is
forbidden). (b) Passion is consequent when it follows the act of the
will and results from it. This may happen either without the will
choosing the passion (as when the very vehemence with which the will
desires some object causes a corresponding sensitive emotion to
awaken), or because the will has deliberately aroused the emotion in
order to be able the better to act through its cooperation.

48. Antecedent passion makes an act more voluntary, since it makes the
will tend with greater inclination to its object; but it likewise makes
an act less free, since it impedes deliberation and disturbs the power
of choice. Example: A man who takes extreme delight in sports, plays
voluntarily, but is less free than if he were not so immoderately
inclined that way.

49. Consequent passion which results naturally from an intense act of
the will does not increase the voluntariness of the act, since it is
not its cause; but it does show that the act of the will is intense,
for it is only that which is willed vehemently that overflows from the
will and affects the emotions.

50. Consequent passion which results from the deliberate choice of the
will increases the voluntariness of the act that follows, since the act
is performed with greater intensity on account of the passion that has
been deliberately excited.

51. What has been said about the passions that tend to sensible good
can be applied also to the passions that are concerned with sensible
evils, such as hatred, sadness, aversion, boldness, anger. If they are
antecedent, they increase the voluntariness of an act, but diminish its
freedom; and, if they cause a passing frenzy or insanity, they take
away all responsibility. If they are consequent, they either increase
the willingness of the act, or indicate that it is willed with great
intensity.

52. Violence, or coercion, is the use of force by an external agent to
compel one to do what one does not want to do. Its effects on
voluntariness are: (a) it cannot affect the internal act of the will,
else we should have the contradiction that the act of the will was both
voluntary, as proceeding from the will, and involuntary, as proceeding
from external coercion; (b) it can affect external acts, such as
walking, and so make them involuntary. If a boy is driven to school,
the violence makes his going involuntary, but it does not make his will
not to go to school involuntary.

53. Habits.--Characteristic of habits is a constant inclination,
resulting from repeated acts, to perform similar acts (see 133 for
definition of habit). Its effect(s) on the voluntariness of acts are:

(a) if the habit is in a sense involuntary, i.e., caused by free acts
but retracted by a sincere act of contrition, it diminishes or even
takes away voluntariness. If the actual advertence to the act is
imperfect, the voluntariety is diminished; if advertence is totally
absent, all voluntariety is taken away. Thus a drunkard who retracts
his habit and makes an act of true contrition may again fall into sin
because of the acquired dispositions to drink. Then the sins are less
voluntary or at times, owing to total lack of advertence, may be
regarded solely as material sins.

(b) if the habit is voluntary, i.e., acquired by free acts and not
retracted, it increases the voluntariness in respect to the inclination
to act. Should all advertence and deliberation be taken away, a rare
occurrence, it diminishes the liberty of the act and consequently its
morality as good or bad. Voluntariety, however, is not taken away
entirely, since the habit itself was freely willed and hence acts
flowing from it are voluntary in cause (see 35.). If sufficient
advertence remains, the habit diminishes the freedom of the act owing
to the impeding of reason; but this diminution of liberty is in accord
with the will of the individual who freely contracted and conserves the
habit to have facility in acting. Accordingly, absolutely speaking, a
voluntary habit increases the voluntariety of acts caused by that habit
and consequently increases their goodness or evil. Thus St. Thomas
asserts that one who sins from habit sins from certain malice, i.e.,
not from ignorance or passion, but from the will's own choice.

54. Natural propensities are inclinations that arise from bodily
constitution or physical condition (e.g., a strong native attraction to
temperance or to intemperance not acquired by frequent acts). Natural
propensities have the same kind of influence on the willingness of an
act as involuntary habits (see 53.).

55. Pathological states are diseases of the brain or nerves that react
upon the intellect and the will, such as various kinds of neuroses and
psychoses, hysteria and epilepsy. The influence of pathological states
on the voluntariness of acts seems similar in kind to that ascribed to
antecedent passion (see 48.). Caution must be observed in applying
these principles to particular kinds of mental diseases.[1]

[1] In doubt whether an act associated with a pathological state is
free or not, the rule of moralists is lenient. When the act is sinful,
it is not imputed as gravely sinful, for man is innocent until proven
guilty. If the act is good, it is presumed voluntary and free and,
consequently, meritorious. See Prummer, D.M., O.P., _Manuale Theologiae
Moralis_ (Barcelona: Herder, 1946), I. n.93.

56. Two Kinds of Voluntary Acts.--Having discussed human or voluntary
acts in general, we shall now indicate in particular the acts that are
of this kind. There are two classes of voluntary acts: (a) those
elicited by the will; (b) those commanded by the will.

57. Acts Elicited by the Will.--The first class of acts under the
control of the will are those that are performed by the will
itself--i.e., that are begun and completed in that power of the soul.

58. There are three acts of the will that are directed to the end the
will has in view, viz., wish, intention and fruition. Wish is the love
or inclination of the will towards the end without any reference to the
means by which it is to be obtained: this is the first act of the will.
Intention is the direction of the will to the gaining of the end
through certain means. Fruition is the enjoyment of the end after it
has been gained: this is the last act of the will.

59. There are three acts of the will that are directed to the means and
that follow after intention, viz., consent, election, and use. Consent
follows upon the counsel of the intellect, and is an act of the will
agreeing to several means as suitable for the intended end. Election
follows after a practical judgment of the intellect about the means
consented to, and is an act of the will which chooses one of the means
in preference to the others, as being most suitable for gaining the
intended end. Use is the act by which the will directs and moves the
other powers to employ the particular means that has been chosen.

60. Acts Commanded by the Will.--The second class of acts that are
under the control of the will are those that proceed, not from the will
itself, but from the other powers under the direction of the will.

61. Acts commanded by the will are of various kinds: (a) intellectual
acts, such as judgment, reasoning, etc., performed under the direction
of the will, (b) sensible acts such as sight, hearing, imagination, the
passions of love, hate, etc.; (c) external corporal acts, such as
walking, writing, etc. None of the foregoing acts need be commanded by
the will, as they may be indeliberate (see 23).

62. The following kinds of acts are not subject to the control of the
will: (a) intellectual acts, such as the assent of the reason to
self-evident truths, as regards the specification of the act; (b)
sensible acts, such as the passions considered as arising from bodily
dispositions before they are adverted to; (c) acts of the vegetative
life, such as digestion and growth; (d) bodily movements, such as the
circulation of the blood and the beating of the heart.

i would like to remind the Forum that there is a cabal present here that basically follows the theory of Mrs Martinez in her Undermining Of The Catholic Church. You know who you are.  This says that Pope Pius XII is a collaborator w/ communist, marrano joos as well as being complicit in the v2 anti-church.

This is a mucho bigger scam than is being done to Trump by the Demrats now.

How dare you to attack a Valid Pope His Holiness Pope PiusXII. No one can judge a Holy Father except Christ Himself. Where is the truth to what you accuse Him of other than you think. Once the Church has spoken there is no discussion.  Just because you think something is true doesn't mean it. Even John XXIII said " think of what Pius would do I will do the opposite.