104. Sadness and Its Causes: Loss of Good vs. Presence of Evil

Subscribe in Podcast App | Download Transcript

Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

The Central Question: Loss of Good vs. Presence of Evil #

Thomas Aquinas investigates whether sadness (tristitia) is caused more properly by:

• The loss of a good thing, or
• The presence of an evil thing

Though these appear equivalent in reality (since evil is fundamentally the lack of good), they differ in how the appetitive power apprehends them.

The Distinction Between Reality and Apprehension #

Thomas argues that:

• In reality (in verum natura): Loss of good and presence of evil are the same—privation is merely the lacking of something that could be had
• In apprehension/knowing: The evil joined to one is apprehended per se as something bad, while loss of good is apprehended as bad only per accidens (through being grasped as evil)
• The bad as privation has a “being of reason” (ens rationis)—it is something in the mind, though nothing in reality

Sadness as Flight or Withdrawal #

Sadness operates as per modum fugae (flight/withdrawal), not pursuit. This is the key insight:

• Just as pleasure operates as pursuit toward the good obtained, sadness operates as withdrawal from the evil joined
• The present evil is more properly the object of such flight than an absent good
• Therefore, the evil joined to one is more properly the cause of sadness

The Analogy from Natural Motion #

Thomas examines natural motions to understand appetitive motions:

• A heavy body per se approaches the lower place (natural place)
• It per se withdraws from the higher place
• But approach is more fundamental; withdrawal follows from the tendency toward approach
• Similarly, the appetite per se flees evil; this follows from its tendency toward good
• The cause (heaviness/love) more properly regards the positive inclination, but the motion of sadness itself more properly regards the evil from which it flees

The Role of Love as Universal Cause #

While sadness properly regards evil, love is the universal cause:

• We are saddened about evils that oppose what we love
• If we did not love health, we would not flee sickness
• If we did not love life, we would not flee death
• Love establishes what matters to us; sadness follows from opposition to what is loved

Important Omissions: Melancholy and Loneliness #

Berquist emphasizes that Thomas’s treatment of the four species of sadness (acedia, anxiety, envy, mercy) is not exhaustive. Two crucial forms of sadness are absent:

Melancholy:

• Sadness over one’s own misfortune or the miserable state of the world
• Distinct from pity, which is sadness over another’s misfortune
• Fashionable in Shakespeare’s era; important to understand tragedy and comedy
• Comedy is designed to purge melancholy

Loneliness:

• Sadness arising from the absence or lack of a friend
• Fundamental to human experience
• Different from both pity and melancholy

Key Arguments #

Argument 1: Is Sadness About Loss of Good or Presence of Evil? #

Objection: Loss of good should be the primary cause, since sadness is contrary to pleasure, and pleasure is about good.

Thomas’s Response:

1. In apprehension, evil joined is apprehended per se as bad; loss of good is apprehended as bad only per accidens
2. Sadness operates as flight/withdrawal (per modum fugae), making the present evil more properly its object
3. The analogy of natural motion confirms: approach is more fundamental than withdrawal
4. Therefore, the evil joined to one is more properly the cause of sadness than the loss of good

Argument 2: The Response to Augustine’s Authority #

Objection: Augustine says sadness arises from loss of temporal goods; therefore loss of good is the cause.

Thomas’s Response:

• The loss of good is grasped or apprehended under the ratio of something bad
• Just as loss of something bad (e.g., disappearance of cancer) is apprehended as something good
• So the bad is more properly the object when we analyze how sadness actually operates in apprehension

Argument 3: Sadness and Pleasure as Contraries #

Objection: Sadness is contrary to pleasure; pleasure is about good; therefore sadness is chiefly about loss of good.

Thomas’s Response:

• Pleasure and sadness regard the same object under contrary definitions
• If pleasure is about presence of something, sadness is about absence of the same thing
• But the way sadness regards what is absent is by apprehending it as an evil (present or impeding)
• Each motion regards what is proper to it according to its own definition

Important Definitions #

Sadness (Tristitia) #

• A motion of the concupiscible appetite (the sensing, desiring power)
• Properly regards a present evil or the absence of a present good (when that good is apprehended as something bad to lack)
• Operates as flight or withdrawal (per modum fugae) from what is repugnant to the appetite
• Distinguished from desire, which is about a future good not yet possessed

Evil (Malum) #

• Fundamentally a privation (privatio)—the lack of good that could be had
• In reality: nothing other than the lacking of something opposite that could be had
• In apprehension: has the character of a “being of reason” (ens rationis)—something in the mind, though nothing in the nature of things

Privation (Privatio) #

• The lack of a quality that could be had in a thing
• In apprehension, privation has the notion (ratio) of a certain being
• Apprehension grasps what is absent as if it were something present in the mind

Per Se vs. Per Accidens #

• Per se (through itself): The evil joined is per se repugnant to the appetite
• Per accidens (through another): The loss of good is repugnant to the appetite only through being grasped as evil
• What is per se is more properly the cause than what is per accidens

Being of Reason (Ens Rationis) #

• Something that exists only in the mind, not in the nature of things
• Examples: nothing, absence, privation
• When we talk about “nothing,” we are talking about something (in reason), though it is nothing in reality
• Aristotle acknowledges this in his treatment of being and non-being

Examples & Illustrations #

Loss of Goods and Market Crashes #

• Stock market crash of 1929: People jumping from windows due to loss of temporal goods
• Illustrates how loss of good appears as the cause, but Thomas shows it is because loss is apprehended as an evil

Health and Disease #

• Good health seems to happen in one way; disease has many species (cancer, heart trouble, etc.)
• There are named diseases but no named species of good health
• This reflects that evil can be approached from many angles, while good is unified

Cancer Disappearance #

• Loss of cancer (loss of something bad) is apprehended as something good
• Causes pleasure, not sadness
• Demonstrates that what is apprehended as good causes joy; what is apprehended as evil causes sadness

Natural Motion: Heavy Bodies #

• A heavy body withdraws from the higher place and approaches the lower place
• The approach to the lower place is per se; the withdrawal from the higher place is per se but consequent
• The cause (heaviness) more properly inclines toward the lower place; the withdrawal follows from this inclination

Seeking Knowledge and Fleeing Ignorance #

• When someone seeks knowledge, he withdraws from ignorance
• But seeking knowledge is more per se than fleeing ignorance
• The tendency toward knowledge is fundamental; withdrawal from ignorance follows
• Aristotle notes in the Metaphysics that first philosophers fled ignorance, and thus sought knowledge

Dance Floor Loneliness #

• A girl at a mixer/dance to whom no one asks to dance
• Illustrates melancholy from one’s own miserable situation (inability to dance)
• Distinct from the friend’s pity for her misfortune

Reading the Newspaper #

• People become melancholic reading daily news of bad events
• Melancholy arises from apprehending the miserable state of the world of which one is a part
• Distinct from pity, which is sadness at another’s misfortune

Punch Magazine Cartoon #

• Two scientists before a computer that prints “I think, therefore I am” (Cogito, ergo sum)
• The joke purges melancholy: it shows computers cannot truly think
• Illustrates how comedy/humor can relieve melancholy about technological displacement

Computer vs. Human Mind #

• Expert on Charlie Rose claimed computers would eventually surpass human minds (in ~20 years)
• Berquist’s concern: people confuse computational ability with genuine understanding
• Reflects melancholic concern about the state of human understanding in the modern world

Questions Addressed #

Question 36: What is the Cause of Sadness? #

Article 1: Is sadness caused more by the loss of good or the presence of evil?

• Answer: The evil joined to one is more properly the cause, because sadness operates as flight/withdrawal, and the present evil is more properly the object of such flight than the absent good.
• Clarification: While these are the same in reality, they differ in apprehension. The evil is apprehended per se as repugnant; loss of good is apprehended as bad per accidens.

Foundational Question: Why is the Division into Four Species Not Exhaustive? #

Thomas and Damascene present four species (acedia, anxiety, envy, mercy), but:

• This enumeration does not claim to be exhaustive
• Melancholy and loneliness are important forms of sadness not listed
• Different forms of sadness arise from sadness regarding different objects or circumstances
• The lectio/text says Damascene “assigns” four species, not that these are the only ones

Connections to Earlier Material #

Berquist references class handouts on:

• The definition and distinction of sadness from other emotions
• The relationship between concupiscence (desire) and sadness
• The four species of sadness as presented by Damascene

The lecture continues the investigation into sadness that appears to be Question 36 of the Summa Theologiae II-II.