THE EMOTIONS OF THE WILL
The movements of the intellectual or reasonable appetite which we call will are not less in number than those of the sense appetite. We usually call the former emotions and the latter passions. The philosophers and followers of various religious traditions loved God, their country, virtue and sciences to some extent. They hated vice and hoped for honours. They despaired of avoiding death or calumny. They longed for knowledge and certainly to be happy after their death. They strengthened themselves to overcome hardships in the pursuit of virtue. They were afraid of being found at fault. They avoided several failures. They avenged public insults. They rebelled against tyrants without any self-interest. Now, all these movements were from the reasonable part [of their will] because neither the senses nor the sense appetite are capable of applying themselves to such objects. Hence all these movements are the emotions of the will, the intellectual and rational appetite and not the passions of the sense appetite.
How many times we experience passions in the sense appetite or concupiscence! Often these are opposed to the emotions we feel at the same time in our rational appetite or will. St. Jerome tells us about a young man who cut off a piece of his tongue with his sharp teeth and spat it out in the face of a wretched woman who was exciting him to sexual pleasure. In fact, is he not showing that he has in his will an extreme emotion of disgust opposed to the passion of pleasure which he was forced to experience in his concupiscence and sense appetite? How often we tremble with fear at the dangers to which our will leads us and in which it makes us live? How many times we hate the pleasures in which our sense appetite delights and love spiritual things which are displeasing to it? In this consists the warfare between the spirit and the flesh which we feel everyday. This struggle is between the outer man who depends on the senses and the inner man who is subject to reason; between the old Adam who follows Eve, that is, his concupiscence, and the New Adam who follows heavenly wisdom and holy reason.
The Stoics, St. Augustine tells us, denied that the wise man can have any passions.[1] Nevertheless it seems that they acknowledged that they have emotions which they termed “eupathies”[2] and good passions or, as Cicero calls them, steadfastness. They say that the wise man does not desire but he wills. He does not indulge in merrymaking but feels joy. He has no fear at all but only foresight and prudence so much so that he is not moved except by reason and according to reason. So they strongly denied that a wise man can ever feel sadness because he sees only the evil that is present. Nothing can happen to a wise man since according to their maxim, no one is hurt except by oneself.
Surely, Theotimus, they were not wrong in affirming that there are eupathies and good emotions in the rational part of a person. But they were wrong in saying that there are no passions at all in the sense appetite and sorrow does not touch the heart of the wise man. Let us leave aside the fact that they were disturbed, as seen earlier. Is it possible that wisdom deprives us of pity which is a virtuous sorrow? It arises in our hearts to lead us to the desire of freeing our neighbour from the evil he suffers. Moreover, the best man of all non-Christian religions, Epictetus, did not follow this error that passions do not arise in a wise man, as St. Augustine bears witness. This shows that the difference of opinion on the part of the Stoics with regard to other philosophers was only a question of pure discussion on words and debate on language.
The emotions which we feel in the rational part of our nature are more or less noble and spiritual depending on the greater or lesser sublimity of their object. They exist on a more eminent, level of the mind. There are emotions which proceed from sense-experience. Other emotions arise from reasoning about human sciences. Still others start from reasoning about the truths of faith. Finally, there are those which have their origin in the simple sentiment and acceptance of truth and divine will made by the human spirit. The first of these emotions are called natural. It is natural for anyone to desire good health, the means necessary for food and clothing, and loving and pleasant companionship. The second type of emotions are entirely based on the spiritual understanding of the reason. Reason urges our will to seek peace of heart, moral virtues, true honour and the philosophical contemplation of eternal realities. The third class of emotions are called Christian. They are born from reasoning drawn from the teaching of Our Lord who makes us cherish voluntary poverty, perfect chastity and the glory of Paradise. The emotions of the highest degree are called divine and supernatural because God himself infuses them in our souls. They are directly related to God and tend to him without any mediation of reason or natural light. Hence it is easy to understand what I am going to explain soon about the consent given and emotions which arise in the sanctuary of the soul.
These supernatural emotions are mainly three: the love of the human soul for the beauty of the mysteries of faith; love of the usefulness of the goods promised in the life to come; and love of the supreme goodness of the most holy and eternal Divinity.
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[1] TLG Bk 1. Ch 3
[2] Eupathy, from the Greek eupatheia, means happy condition of the soul. There are three kinds of good affections of mind called eupathies or constancies; joy, caution, will. The term comes from ancient Stoic philosophy (see The Oxford English Dictionary, vol. Ill, reprinted 1978).