137. The Causation and Growth of Habits

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

The Apparent Contradiction: Can Habits Be Caused from Acts? #

The Objection: A habit is a quality, and every quality must be received in a subject. An agent, insofar as it acts, gives forth rather than receives. Therefore, a habit cannot be caused from an agent’s own acts.

The Problem of Self-Motion: If reason causes a habit in itself through thinking, then reason would be simultaneously both the mover and the moved—something Aristotle declares impossible in Physics VII.

Thomas Aquinas’s Resolution #

The key distinction is between:

• Purely active agents (like fire, which only heats): cannot generate habits from their own acts
• Agents both active and passive (like human powers): can generate habits when their passive aspect is moved by their active aspect

Human acts differ from natural processes because reason can move the appetitive power while itself being moved by principles. The appetitive power undergoes a real change when moved by reason, and through repeated acts, this change becomes a stable disposition—a habit.

One Act vs. Multiple Acts #

Can One Act Generate a Habit?

Thomas distinguishes between different powers:

1. The Possible Intellect (Intellectus Possibilis): Can be perfected by a single powerful act

   • One demonstration in Euclid can cause science regarding one conclusion
   • The intellect has no contrary dispositions to overcome
   • One proposition that is per se known can convince the understanding

2. The Appetitive Powers (Desiring and Emotional): Require multiple acts

   • The appetitive power is “inclined in many ways and to many things”
   • Reason cannot wholly overcome it in a single act
   • Multiple acts are needed to determine the appetite “by way of nature” (per modum naturae)
   • Like training a horse: the animal first resists and must be gradually broken down

3. The Inferior Apprehensive Powers (imagination, memory, vis cogitativa):

   • Require repeated acts to firmly impress knowledge
   • Meditation (repeated consideration) confirms memory
   • These bodily-dependent powers need reiteration

Exception - Bodily Habits: A strong medicine can induce health at once because the active principle wholly conquers the passive.

Growth and Increase of Habits #

The Translation of Terms: The word “growth” (augmentum) is carried over from bodily quantity to spiritual/immaterial realities (translatio nominis). This is justified because:

• Our understanding is naturally affined to bodily things that fall under imagination
• All our words seem to originate from the imagination of continuous quantities

How Habits Grow: Not by addition (like a city growing with more houses), but through:

1. Extension to more things: Knowing more theorems in geometry = having greater science
2. Deeper participation: Having the same habit more fully received by the subject

The Connection to Augustine: “Things which are great, but not in quantity, to be greater is the same as to be better.” In spiritual realities, increase in magnitude is equivalent to increase in excellence.

Species, Forms, and “More and Less” #

Principle: Species are like numbers—addition or subtraction changes the species itself. Therefore, forms that constitute the species cannot receive more or less.

What CAN Receive More/Less:

• The participation of the subject in a form
• Qualities and habits ordered toward something else (like health as a disposition)
• Powers and dispositions that admit of variation while remaining the same in species

What CANNOT Receive More/Less:

• Substance (constitutes what a thing is)
• Quantity (near to substance in its determination of being)
• Figure (termination of quantity)
• Forms that constitute species

Example: One circle cannot be “more circular” than another; the circular form is indivisible. What varies is the material participation in circularity, not the form itself.

Infused Habits and Divine Grace #

Key Question: Can God infuse habits that nature cannot produce?

Answer: Yes. God can infuse virtues (especially theological virtues) that exceed natural human capacity.

Why This Doesn’t Violate Nature:

• Acts proceeding from infused habits do not generate new habits but confirm existing ones
• Analogy: Medicinal remedies given to a healthy person corroborate existing health rather than creating new health
• God acts according to the mode of creatures and does not contradict their nature but perfects it
• This fulfills natural desires (e.g., the natural desire to understand causes)

Divine Equality and Distribution: God acts equally toward all creatures according to His wisdom, but according to His wisdom’s order, He gives some gifts to some creatures that He does not give to all. This is not unequal treatment.

Key Arguments #

Against Habit Causation (The Objections) #

1. Argument from Reception: Quality requires reception in a subject; agents give forth, don’t receive; therefore agents cannot generate habits in themselves.

2. Argument from Self-Motion: If X generates a habit in X, then X is both mover and moved—impossible per Aristotle.

3. Argument from Noble Effects: The habit is more noble than the single act; an effect cannot be more noble than its cause; therefore habit cannot arise from preceding acts.

4. Against Single Act Generation: Neither one swallow makes spring nor one day makes one blessed (Aristotle); therefore one act cannot generate virtue-habit.

In Favor of Habit Causation (Philosophical Authority) #

• Aristotle teaches in Ethics II that moral virtues are caused from acts
• Theological fact: The disciples ask Christ to “increase our faith” (Luke 17:5), showing habits can grow

Important Definitions #

Habit (Habitus) #

A quality that disposes a power to its act. The power of using something when one wishes (Averroes). Can be generated through repeated acts when the subject is both active and passive.

Possible Intellect (Intellectus Possibilis) #

The intellect’s receptive capacity for forms and knowledge. Has no contrary dispositions; can be perfected by a single powerful act such as understanding a demonstrated conclusion.

Appetitive Power (Vis Appetitiva) #

The power of desiring and willing. Inclined “in many ways and to many things.” Requires multiple acts to be determined to virtue “by way of nature.”

Per Modum Naturae #

After the manner of nature; having the fixedness and consistency that natural inclinations have. A virtue is said to determine the appetitive power per modum naturae when habit has made the choice of good appear as natural as breathing.

Passive Intellect (Intellectus Passivus) #

The particular reason operating through bodily organs (vis cogitativa). Differs from possible intellect and requires repeated acts to impress knowledge firmly on memory.

Translatio Nominis #

The carrying over of a word from its primary (bodily) meaning to secondary (spiritual) meanings. Example: “growth” transferred from bodily quantity to spiritual increase in virtue.

Examples & Illustrations #

Geometry and Science #

• One demonstration of Euclid’s first theorem causes science regarding that theorem
• The possible intellect is wholly overcome by the force of the demonstrated conclusion
• Knowing one theorem = having “little” geometry
• Knowing many theorems = having “more” geometry (habit extended to more things)

Training a Horse vs. Training the Intellect #

• Plato compares virtue formation to taming a wild horse
• The horse first resists; must be gradually broken down by repeated mounting
• The appetitive power similarly resists reason and requires many acts to be determined to good
• Unlike the intellect, which can be convinced by one proof

Memory and Meditation #

• Meditation (repeated consideration) confirms memory
• Must repeat things to firmly impress knowledge on the inferior apprehensive powers
• Example: One cannot learn to hear colors by repeatedly putting one’s ear to paintings
• Natural sensory powers lack the flexibility of reason

Health and Strong Medicine #

• A strong medicine can induce health in a body at once
• This is possible because the active principle of the medicine wholly conquers the passive (diseased) body
• Contrast: Moral virtues cannot be acquired this way because reason cannot wholly overcome appetitive resistance in one act

Shrewsbury’s Growth #

• When Berquist moved to Shrewsbury in 1969, there were still farms with horses
• Now it is crowded with additions of new houses
• This illustrates growth by addition—NOT how habits grow
• Habits grow not by addition but by extension to more things and deeper participation

Cooking and Error #

• Making a dish from scratch offers many ways to fail: too much salt, not enough pepper, too dry, etc.
• Most inexperienced cooks will make some mistake
• Only one way to do it right; many ways to go wrong
• This illustrates why without virtue (proper habit), humans tend toward vice

Notable Quotes #

“Such as a man is by his habits, so does the end appear to him.” — Aristotle, Ethics I (cited to explain why virtue is essential to right action)

“One swallow does not make spring, nor one day make one blessed.” — Aristotle, Ethics I (objection against single acts generating virtue-habits)

“Things which are great, but not in quantity, to be greater is the same as to be better.” — Augustine (explaining how spiritual growth is growth in excellence)

“It’s the business of the teacher to encourage the student.” — Monsignor Dion (cited on pedagogical principle, contrasting with Gassiric’s discouragement)

“There’s never a first time.” — Anonymous victim of abuse (illustrating psychological fact about vicious habits)

Questions Addressed #

Q1: Can a habit be caused from acts? #

Resolution: Yes, in agents that are both active and passive. Human powers differ from purely natural agents: the appetitive power undergoes real change when moved by reason. Through repeated acts, this passive reception generates a stable habit.

Q2: Can one act cause a habit? #

Resolution:

• In the possible intellect: Yes, one powerful act (e.g., understanding a demonstrated conclusion) can generate science regarding that conclusion
• In the appetitive powers: No, multiple acts are required because reason cannot wholly overcome appetite’s inclinatedness in one act
• In the inferior apprehensive powers: No, repetition is necessary to impress knowledge on memory
• In bodily habits: Sometimes yes, if the active principle is powerful enough

Q3: Do habits grow or increase? #

Resolution: Yes, habits grow in two ways:

1. The habit extends to more things (knowing more theorems = greater science)
2. The subject participates more fully and intensely in the habit

Growth is possible because “growth” is transferred from bodily quantity to spiritual realities due to our natural affinity with bodily things.

Q4: Why does God infuse habits that nature cannot produce? #

Resolution: To perfect human nature toward a supernatural end. God acts according to the mode of creatures and gives gifts according to His wisdom’s order, which does not violate nature but fulfills natural desires and elevates them.

Pedagogical Emphasis #

Berquist stresses the duty of the teacher to give hope to students, illustrated through the Phaedo: when Socrates’s arguments appear to collapse, he leads his students out of despair. He contrasts three teachers:

• Gassiric: Most encouraging
• Dekonic: More cautious
• Dion: First reaction is rejection out of fear of being mistaken, but this caution is valuable

The principle applies to habit formation: despair destroys the will to practice virtue; hope sustains repeated acts necessary for habituation.