56. Animal Motion, Desire, and the Desirable Good

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

The Movers of Animal Motion #

• Animals move from place to place through two unified movers: practical mind/imagination and desire
• These are not separate causes but two aspects unified in the desirable good (the end)
• The desirable good functions as an “unmoved mover”—it moves without being moved, operating through being understood/imagined and desired
• This resolves apparent duality: both mind and appetite are determined by the same object

The Problem of Dividing the Soul #

• Plato’s three-part soul (reason, thymos, epithumia) is inadequate for understanding the soul as a whole
• The soul has many more powers: nutritive, sensitive, imaginative, rational, appetitive
• The concupiscible appetite (ἐπιθυμητικόν): desires what is pleasant/agreeable to senses; gives rise to wanting, avoiding, joy, pain
• The irascible appetite (θυμικόν): concerned with achieving pleasant things or avoiding painful things in face of obstacles
• These do not differ from each other as much as the feeding power differs from the sensing power

The Fundamental Mistake: What Is Simply vs. What Is in Some Way #

• Humans constantly confuse what is simply (without qualification) good with what is in some way good
• Aristotle emphasizes this is a mistake of not distinguishing between these categories
• Examples of choosing bad because it’s good in some way:
  • Fornication appears simply good because it is pleasant (ignoring disease/damnation)
  • Hitting someone in anger appears good because it relieves anger (ignoring injury and consequences)
  • Robbing a bank appears good because it increases money (ignoring moral evil)
• Examples of refusing good because it’s bad in some way:
  • Not going to Mass because it prevents extra sleep
  • Not studying because it prevents going to parties
  • Not exercising because it’s uncomfortable/painful
• The mistake occurs because one fails to see the full context and consequences

Time-Consciousness and Reason vs. Sense Desire #

• Humans uniquely possess a sense of time—the ability to “look before and after”
• This is the first meaning of “before and after” in time (from Aristotle’s Categories)
• Reason commands restraint by considering future consequences
• Sense desire (ἐπιθυμία) operates only on the immediate present—“the ignorant present”
• Contrast: the immediate pleasant thing appears simply good and pleasant because one fails to see what is to come
• This temporal dimension explains all human moral conflict

Sense Desire and Apparent vs. True Goods #

• The appetible/desirable that moves us is either:
  • The true good (what is actually good)
  • The apparent good (what appears good through desire or imagination)
• The apparent good moves us only insofar as it appears good
• Examples:
  • A man with strong sense desire: adultery appears good because of desire
  • An angry man: striking or killing appears good because it fits anger
  • Madmen: imagine false duties (terrorists imagine killing is pathway to paradise)
• The practical good (ἀγαθόν πρακτικόν) that moves us is contingent and apparent

The Role of Imagination #

• Sensitive imagination (αἰσθητική φαντασία): found in all animals; merely sensory
• Deliberative imagination (λογιστική φαντασία): found only in rational beings
• In animals: imagination operates without reason directing it
• In humans: imagination can be directed by reason; allows comparison and rational judgment
• Example: A cat has sensitive imagination of food location but not deliberative imagination

Key Arguments #

Why Sense Desire Cannot Be the Only Mover #

• Sense desire alone leads to pursuing pleasure without considering consequences
• Without temporal consciousness, one remains in “the ignorant present”
• Animals with mere sensation and desire do not move from place to place in the complex ways humans do
• Some animals (sea creatures fixed to ocean floor) have sensation and desire but no locomotion

Why the Desirable Good Is the Ultimate Mover #

• Both reason and desire are determined by the same object: the good
• Reason understands the good; appetite desires it
• The good as desirable is the “unmoved mover”—it moves without being moved
• It moves through being understood/imagined (affecting the mind) and through being desired (affecting appetite)
• This unity of mind and appetite in the desirable good resolves the apparent duality of causes

The Mistaken Choice Between Apparent and True Goods #

• The incontinent man knows what is truly good but is moved by apparent good
• This is not mere ignorance but a specific error: treating what is so in some way as if it were so simply
• Examples show this happens “all day long in our daily life”
• Aristotle hits “the nail on the head”: most moral mistakes follow this pattern

Important Definitions #

ἐπιθυμία (epithumia) — Sense Desire #

• The desiring power concerned with what is pleasant and agreeable to the senses
• Can move against reason in the incontinent man
• Operates on the immediate present
• Gives rise to wanting/avoiding and joy/pain

θυμός (thumos) — Spirited Appetite #

• Concerned with achieving pleasant things or avoiding painful things in face of obstacles
• Includes emotions like anger, boldness, hope, despair

φαντασία (phantasia) — Imagination #

• Motion/activity caused by sense and its act
• Can be sensitive (in all animals) or rational (in humans directed by reason)
• Intermediate between sensation and reason

λόγος (logos) — Reason/Rational Principle #

• Ability for “a large discourse of looking before and after” (Shakespeare’s phrase)
• The faculty that looks before and after in time
• Capable of distinguishing particulars and measuring them by universal principles

ἀγαθόν πρακτικόν (agathon praktikon) — Practical Good #

• The good here and now that moves us to action
• Contingent and apparent (as opposed to the universal good of theoretical reason)

Concupiscible Appetite (ἐπιθυμητικόν, concupiscibilis in Latin) #

• The appetitive power concerned with pleasant or disagreeable things
• Gives rise to wanting what is pleasing, avoiding what is displeasing
• Results in joy when desired object is obtained, pain/sadness when avoided object cannot be escaped

Irascible Appetite (θυμικόν, irascibilis in Latin) #

• The appetitive power concerned with difficulties and obstacles
• Concerned with achieving pleasant or avoiding painful things in the face of resistance

Examples & Illustrations #

The Candy Bar and Weight Loss #

• Person refuses dessert to avoid future weight gain
• Here and now: candy bar appears simply good (tasty, sweet, agreeable)
• Looking before and after: realizes effect of many refused desserts over time
• Sees oneself in three months slim, trim, attractive
• Shows how temporal perspective changes the apparent good

The Student at the Party vs. Studying #

• Chooses between party/pizza and studying
• Here and now: party more pleasant
• Over time: studying builds knowledge that compounds and lasts
• Partying leaves nothing; studying leaves lasting knowledge
• Shows how student without sense of time acts like animal tied to present moment

Smoking and Emphysema #

• Smoker sees relative suffering from emphysema
• Future consequence becomes visible
• Can now refuse present pleasure because foresight changes calculation
• Realizes cumulative effects of smoking

Eisenhower and Cigarettes #

• During Normandy landing and Battle of the Bulge, smoked four packs daily
• Extreme stress and uncertainty made immediate relief seem necessary
• Shows how present circumstances can override future health concerns

The Drunk Freshman #

• Freshmen get sick drinking more often than seniors
• Pursuing pleasure of drinking here and now
• Not seeing state couple hours later throughout the night
• If looked before and after: could drink moderately, get good sleep, be able to continue

AIDS and Illicit Sex in Africa #

• People pursue momentary pleasure without considering long-term bodily health
• Not thinking of consequences even in bodily sense
• Shows how one remains in “ignorant present” without temporal consciousness

Thanksgiving Overeating #

• People eat so much they become positively uncomfortable
• Time spent enjoying food at table vs. time spent in distress afterwards
• Not maximizing pleasure when accounting for total time
• Shows failure to see cumulative effect

The Dentist Avoidance #

• Avoiding dentist because of immediate pain
• But failure to go creates more problems over time
• Not minimizing total pain by avoiding immediate discomfort

Falstaff in Henry IV, Part I #

• Asked what time it is; replies what does time have to do with him
• Pursues food, drink, sex—sensual pleasure for the moment
• Time has no relevance to him; acts as if no sense of time
• Shakespeare’s introduction shows this as key to his character
• Represents one who lives entirely in “ignorant present”

The Rape of Lucrece (Shakespeare) #

• Temptation: man pursues something he will regret
• Pursues momentary pleasure but ignores future regret
• Shows incontinent action against reason

David Copperfield and Dora (Dickens) #

• Dickens borrows phrase “ignorant present” from Shakespeare
• Shows use of Shakespearean insight in English novel tradition

The Cat and the Food #

• Cat in shed hears back door latch, runs to kitchen for food
• Has image of where food is located
• Doesn’t reason about whether to go; follows sensitive imagination and desire
• This is ἀιθητική φαντασία (sensitive imagination), not rational deliberation
• Contrasts with human ability to deliberate and apply universal principles

The Woman at the Door #

• Don’t know who’s knocking (lack of sensory evidence)
• But know your mother or Father Driscoll (universal knowledge of what they are)
• Shows mixing of simply knowing vs. knowing in some way
• Know them universally but not as the one at the door

Finding a Number (Counting Students) #

• Teacher asks how many students in class, says “I don’t know”
• Students might think: can’t direct yourself to what you don’t know
• But easily direct yourself by counting
• End with 28 students
• How did you direct yourself to 28 when you didn’t know you were looking for 28?
• Answer: in some way you did know 28 (as the count of students)
• Just didn’t know it in the perfected way that comes through counting
• Shows distinction between knowing in some way vs. knowing simply

The Slave Boy and the Square (Plato’s Meno) #

• Socrates asks slave boy to double a square
• Boy initially answers wrongly (double the side)
• Through questions, boy comes to see the answer (take the diagonal)
• Socrates claims boy already knew it and was recalling
• Mistake: boy knew how to find it (in some way, in ability)
• But didn’t know it simply (without qualification) until he worked it out
• Similar error to confusing what is so in some way with what is so simply

Rectangle Area Problem #

• If you know length and width and know how to multiply, do you know the area?
• You know it in some way (in ability/potency)
• But don’t simply know it until you actually multiply
• Illustrates the distinction between potential and actual knowledge

Notable Quotes #

“The ignorant present” — Shakespeare, describing how sense desire operates only on immediate experience

“What does that got to do with you, to know what time it is?” — Falstaff in Henry IV, Part I, showing indifference to time and focus only on immediate pleasure

“For the immediate pleasant thing appears to be both simply pleasant and simply good because of not seeing what is to come” — Aristotle, stating the fundamental error in human action

“For the mind, he says, because of what is to come, commands restraint, right? While desire, because of what is immediate…” — Berquist paraphrasing Aristotle on reason vs. sense desire

“We’re making this same kind of mistake right? Sarah Stow says in the ethics, the man who sins, right, is mistaken” — Berquist on the universal nature of this error

Questions Addressed #

What causes animal motion from place to place? #

Answer: A unified cause comprising practical mind/imagination AND desire, both determined by the desirable good. The desirable good is the unmoved mover that sets both mind and appetite in motion.

Why do humans constantly choose apparent goods over true goods? #

Answer: They fail to distinguish between what is good simply (without qualification, considering all consequences) and what is good in some way (pleasant, agreeable, immediately attractive). Without looking before and after in time, the immediate pleasant thing appears to be simply good.

How does temporal consciousness differentiate humans from other animals? #

Answer: Humans possess the ability to “look before and after,” which is the first meaning of before and after in time. This temporal consciousness allows reason to command restraint by considering future consequences, whereas sense desire operates only on the immediate present (“the ignorant present”).

Why can’t we simply say people are ignorant when they sin? #

Answer: They are mistaken in a specific way—not lacking knowledge entirely, but confusing categories. The sinner often knows what is right (knows the universal) but applies it wrongly, treating what is so in some way as if it were so simply.

How are imagination in humans and animals different? #

Answer: Animals have sensitive imagination (αἰσθητική φαντασία) that merely responds to sensory input. Humans have deliberative imagination (λογιστική φαντασία) that can compare multiple things and apply universal rational principles to particular cases.