Chapter XXV. Habits and their subjects (q. 50)

ART. 1. HABITS IN THE BODY

Firsr conclusion. The body has entitative habits, such as health and beauty.

Second conclusion. No operative habit exists principally in the body as subject. Operative powers which are not limited to one line of activity belong either to the soul alone (intellect and will) or to the soul principally (in the inferior faculties only as subject to the will). Thus temperance and fortitude exist principally in the soul, and only secondarily in the body.

Here lies an error of materialism, which reduces habits to mere modifications of the organism, particularly of the nerve centers. But the emotion of modesty is not identified with the virtue of chastity, nor sense-commiseration with the virtue of mercy, which belongs in the highest degree to God.

ART. 2. CAN THE ESSENCE OF THE SOUL BE THE SUBJECT OF HABITS?

First conclusion. No natural entitative habit, but only that supernatural entitative habit which we call sanctifying grace, is received into the essence of the soul. The human soul is the complete form of human nature, and cannot receive any better disposition. But sanctifying grace deifies the very essence of the soul, thus preceding the infused virtues, just as the soul’s essence precedes the powers of the soul. As man’s intellective power participates in divine knowledge by the virtue of faith, as man’s will shares in divine love through the virtue of charity, so man’s soul itself participates in the divine nature by the grace of regeneration and re-creation.

Second conclusion. Operative habits are not in the essence of the soul, but in its faculties, because the soul is not immediately operative.

ART. 3. CAN THE SENSE-POWERS BE SUBJECTS OF HABIT?

Conclusion. The sense-powers, though in themselves incapable of supporting habits, can do so as directed by reason, since reason can turn them to various lines of activity. Thus temperance and fortitude exist in the sense-appetite, as ruled by reason and will. The same direction develops memory and artistic imagination. But neither the external senses, nor the vegetative powers, can be subjects of habit, because their activity is one and unvaried.

ART. 4. INTELLECTUAL HABITS

Intellectual habits are five: The habit of first principles, wisdom, science, prudence, and art. Averroes falsified this Aristotelian doctrine by positing one single possible intellect for all men, thus denying personal immortality. Further, since men differ in wisdom, knowledge, prudence, and art, Averroes said that these habits are not in the possible intellect, which is one, but only in the internal senses, imagination and memory, whereas Aristotle holds that these virtues are in that part of the soul which is rational by its essence, namely, in the intellect, not in the internal senses, which are rational only by participation.

Conclusion. Habit belongs to the power which performs the act, and intelligence is the act proper to the intellect. All ideas retained in the intellectual memory are habits. In a secondary, dispositive sense, habit exists in the imagination, which prepares the object for the possible intellect.

First corollary. Profound treatment of the nature of science, the nature of metaphysics, the nature of theology, and the division of sciences is impossible unless we realize the importance of habit. Habit, far from being a mere mechan-

HABITS AND SUBJECTS 347 ical juxtaposition of ideas, is rather a simple, vital, soulquality, essentially related to one formal object, whence it derives its unity. Thus theology, resting on virtual revelation, is one indivisible science. Dogmatic theology, moral theology, hermeneutics, and so on, are but different aspects of one and the same vital habit, namely, the habit of faith, which is an impression of the knowledge possessed by God and the blessed. When the formal motive of faith ceases, virtual revelation also ceases. When the theologian becomes a heretic, he retains, not the habit of theology, but a mere collection of statements which have authority only from his own private judgment.

Second corollary. How many distinct sciences are there? As many as there are scientific habits, specifically distinct. Moderns often treat the integral parts of one science as if they were diverse sciences, as if dogma, let us say, and moral theology, and exegesis, were three distinct sciences. In one and the same science there can, of course, be many parts, like the branches of a tree, and in this sense we distinguish positive theology from speculative theology. But any excessive emphasis on specialization destroys unity and life of the intellectual habit. Synthesis becomes impossible, and many difficulties arise regarding the relations of these partial sciences one to another: difficulties which cannot be met except by the direction of a higher habit, whose integral parts have been separated without justification.

ART. 5. ARE THERE HABITS IN THE WILL?

The answer is, yes. By nature the will is determined only to universal good, not to this or that particular good. Habits enter in to set the will definitely on a particular line of activity, such as justice or charity or hope or religion: and all habits, whatever their subject, depend on the will for their exercise, since habit is a possession which man uses when he pleases.

Were the will a mere agent, like the agent-intellect, it would not need a habit. But the will is not only a moving thing, it is also a moved thing. Even to its first act the will is moved objectively, by the good proposed by the intellect. Secondly, by intention the will moves itself to choose means.

ART. 6. DO THE ANGELS NEED HABITS?

The angels need operative habits, and also the entitative habit of sanctifying grace. While by his nature the angel understands his own essence, he still needs grace if he is to know and love God supernaturally. Thus as long as he is on the way to beatitude, the angel needs the habits of faith, hope, and charity. And when he has been beatified, he still needs the habit of sanctifying grace and charity.

General conclusion. Operative habits are necessary in faculties which need to be determined toward good activity. These faculties are: first, the will; second, the intellect; third, the sense-appetite; and fourth, the internal senses. Entitative habits exists in the body, in the form of health or beauty. But they are unnecessary in the essence of the soul, unless the soul is raised to the supernatural level.