126. Sensuality as Desiring Power: Knowledge vs. Desire

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

• The Nature of Sensuality (sensualitas): A desiring power of the soul that follows upon sense knowledge, named from sensible motion (motus sensibilis) rather than from sense powers themselves. The senses are “preambles” (preambula) to desire, not components of sensuality.

• Etymology and Translation Issues: The Latin sensualitas does not carry the negative connotation of English “sensuality,” which suggests disorder or excess. The term simply names the power to desire following upon sense. Similarly, emotions and passions name operations of this power, not vices themselves (e.g., anger names an emotion, not necessarily a vice).

• Contrast Between Knowing and Desiring Powers: Knowing is perfected by having the thing known within the knower (like grasping in one’s hand); desire is perfected by the lover moving toward and going out to the thing desired. This explains why knowing is more like rest (from the word “understanding” = standing), while desire is more like motion (from the word “emotion”).

• The Distinction Applied to Love: Love is paradoxically described both as a giving and as an undergoing/suffering. This resolves when we recognize that in giving one’s heart (desire), the heart goes out to the thing, whereas in the initial undergoing, one’s emotions are moved by the good perceived through the senses or reason.

Key Arguments #

Why Sensuality is a Desiring Power, Not a Knowing Power #

Objection 1: Augustine speaks of “sensible motion of the soul” directed toward the senses of the body, suggesting sensuality is a knowing power.

• Response: The senses are not comprehended under sensuality; rather, sensuality is an inclination toward what the senses have grasped. Sensuality follows upon knowledge but is not itself knowledge.

Objection 2: Sensuality is divided against higher and lower reason, which pertain to knowledge, so it should also be a knowing power.

• Response: Both knowing and desiring powers are motive powers (movers) that come together in action toward an end. They are distinguished not because they are the same kind of thing, but because they are ordered to one end. Example: I pursue food both by knowing it (through sight or smell) and by desiring it; both are involved in my motion toward the dining room.

Objection 3: The serpent in the temptation announces and proposes sin, which seems to belong to knowing power, so sensuality is a knowing power.

• Response: The serpent not only proposes the sin but also inclines them to the effect of it. In this latter respect, sensuality is signified.

The Role of Sensible Motion #

• Thomas distinguishes between the act (actus) and the power (potentia). The name “sensualitas” is taken from sensible motion, which is fundamentally a desiring motion following upon apprehension (grasping by a knowing power).

• The operation of the knowing power is perfected in having the thing known in it; the operation of the desiring power is perfected in being inclined toward the desirable thing.

• This explains why motion applies more properly to the desiring power than to the knowing power.

The Knowledge of Opposites vs. the Love of Opposites #

• In knowing: There is the same knowledge of both opposites. If I know what abnormal blood pressure is, I must know what normal blood pressure is. One opposite helps you know the other.

• In loving: There is NOT the same love of opposites. If I love health, I cannot love sickness. If I love virtue, I hate vice. The heart goes out to things as they are in themselves, and opposites exclude each other in reality (though not in the mind).

• Implications: Knowing the bad does not make you bad (in fact, it is good to understand human nature and ethics). But loving the bad makes you bad. As Goethe says: “We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.”

Important Definitions #

• sensualitas (Sensuality): A desiring power of the soul that follows upon sense knowledge; named from the sensible motion of the soul directed toward sensible objects, not from the senses themselves.

• motus sensibilis (Sensible motion): The movement of the soul toward sensible objects; applies more properly to desire than to knowledge because desire involves going out toward the object, while knowing involves having the object within the knower.

• apprehensiva (Grasping/Apprehensive power): The knowing power, so named because it grasps or contains the thing known within itself, like grasping something in one’s hand.

• preambula (Preambles): Things that come before and lead toward something else. The senses are preambles to sensuality because sensuality’s desire follows upon what the senses have grasped.

• Magister (The Master): Peter Lombard, author of the Sentences, whom Thomas repeatedly cites and comments upon. In medieval universities, commentaries on the Sentences were standard texts for theological study for centuries before the Summa Theologiae became the standard.

Examples & Illustrations #

• The Cat and the Wine Glass: A cat will sniff wine but walk away with no desire for it. But when presented with meat and she smells it, she desires it. This illustrates that both sensation (smelling) and desire must be present for pursuit of an object.

• The Cat’s Pouncing: One cat, when you dangle your hand, will extend claws to grasp it, recognizing it as something to capture. Another cat will catch food mid-air. These show the coordination of sense and desire in motion.

• Bacon in Bed: When you smell bacon from bed, you smell it (sense) and feel hungry for bacon (desire), which together move you to get out of bed. If you had smelled salmon (which you dislike), you might open the windows instead. Both sensations and desires are involved in bodily motion.

• Being Bumped: Whether you should become angry when bumped in the hall depends on circumstances—was it accidental or intentional? But if someone uses your children for target practice, anger seems reasonable. Reason determines what response is appropriate to the circumstances.

Questions Addressed #

Is Sensuality a Knowing Power or a Desiring Power? #

Resolution: Sensuality is fundamentally a desiring power. Although it follows upon sense knowledge, the senses themselves are not part of sensuality; they are its preambles. The operation of sensuality is motion toward the object (characteristic of desire), not the reception of the object into the soul (characteristic of knowing).

Why Is Motion More Appropriate to Desire Than to Knowledge? #

Resolution: The knowing power is perfected by having the thing known within it (like grasping in one’s hand), which is more like rest. The desiring power is perfected by being inclined toward the thing desired, which is motion going out toward it. Understanding (from “standing”) exemplifies the rest-like character of knowing; emotion (from “motion”) exemplifies the motion-like character of desire.

How Can Love Be Both a Giving and an Undergoing? #

Resolution: Love involves both. As an undergoing or passion, one’s heart is moved by perceiving the good in another (the impressiveness of their qualities). As a giving, one’s heart goes out to the thing loved (going to be where one’s treasure is). Both aspects are real but reflect different perspectives on the same phenomenon.

Why the Same Knowledge of Opposites But Not the Same Love? #

Resolution: Knowledge brings things into the mind in the way of the mind; both opposites can exist together in the intellect. Love respects the condition of things in themselves; in reality, opposites exclude each other. Thus loving one opposite impedes loving the other, while knowing one opposite actually helps one know the other.