196. The Causes of Sin: Act, Disorder, and Interior Motions

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

• Whether Sin Has a Cause: The foundational question of whether something bad (sin) can have a cause, given that Dionysius says evil has no cause
• The Nature of Sin as Disordered Act: Sin understood as both an act and a disorder—these aspects have different causal structures
• Interior Causes of Sin: How reason, will, and sense appetite operate as causes of sin from within the agent
• Privation vs. Simple Negation: Understanding why sin’s disorder is not merely the absence of something (negation) but the absence of something one ought to have (privation)

Key Arguments #

Objection 1: Sin Has No Cause #

• Argument from Dionysius: Evil/sin has no cause (per Dionysius)
• Argument from Necessity: If sin had a cause, it would follow necessarily; but sin is voluntary; therefore sin has no cause
• Argument from the Nature of Good and Evil: Good produces only good; evil cannot produce evil; therefore sin cannot have a cause

Thomas’s Response: The Distinction of Per Se and Per Accidens Causes #

• On the side of act, sin has a per se cause (just as any other act does)
• On the side of disorder, sin has a per accidens cause (as a negation or privation has a cause)
• Two ways a negation can have a cause:
  1. The defect of the cause itself (e.g., absence of sun causes darkness)
  2. An affirmative cause to which a negation follows (e.g., fire causing heat also causes privation of cold)
• Since sin’s disorder is not a simple negation but a privation (an unbeing of something one should have and is able to have), it requires an agent cause that impedes the proper order

Interior Causes of Sin: Reason and Will #

• The immediate causes of human acts are reason and will, the sources of human freedom (liberum arbitrium)
• Proximate interior cause:
  • The will lacking the direction of the rule of reason and divine law
  • This causes the act of sin per se
  • The disorder of sin follows from this defect per accidens and apart from intention
• Remote interior causes: Sense appetite and imagination
  • Sensible goods proposed to the appetite
  • This inclination can draw reason and will toward sin

On Interior Motions and Always Sinning #

• Objection: If sin has an interior cause, and that cause is always present in man (e.g., the will), then man would always sin
• Thomas’s Response: The will itself is a cause only in potency (ability). It is reduced to act through preceding motions of the sensitive part and reason. These preceding motions are not always in act; therefore sin is not always in act.
• Interior acts vs. interior powers: A power (like the will) is always present, but the acts of reason and desire are not always present; thus the cause is present but not always actualized

Important Definitions #

• Peccatum (Sin): A disordered act opposed to reason and divine law
• Privatio (Privation): The unbeing of something one is able to have and should have (in contrast to simple negation, which is merely the absence of something in something that need not have it)
• Causa per se (Per se cause): A cause that directly produces an effect according to its nature
• Causa per accidens (Per accidens cause): A cause that produces an effect incidentally or by removing an impediment
• Librium Arbitrium (Free judgment/Free will): The freedom of the will to choose between opposites; depends on the judgment of reason but primarily resides in the will itself
• Deficient cause (causa deficiens): A cause that operates through the absence or defect of something that should be present

Examples & Illustrations #

• The Bank Robber: When asked why he robs banks, replies “That’s where the money is.” Illustrates that people act toward apparent goods; the disorder lies in acting without proper consideration of reason and divine law
• The Glass and Blindness: A glass not seeing is a mere negation (something simple lack); a blind man is a privation (lacking something by nature one should have)
• The Wise Grandfather: Wisdom and grandfatherhood are per accidens united in one man—the causes are unrelated, though they happen to come together
• The Brown Dog: Referenced as an example of a soul that is not immortal (unlike the human soul); the dog’s soul passes away

Notable Quotes #

“The will is the cause of sin” — Augustine (Voluntas est causa peccati)

“Sin is a disordered act” — Thomas Aquinas

“That which is naturally apt to be in something and ought to be, never is absent except on account of some cause impeding this” — Thomas Aquinas (explaining why privation requires an agent cause)

“One thing a philosopher doesn’t need is a speed reading course. You’ve got to slow down.” — Berquist (on careful reading of philosophical texts)

Questions Addressed #

1. Does sin have a cause?

   • Yes: On the side of the act, sin has a per se cause. On the side of disorder, it has a per accidens cause (as a privation).
   • Why Dionysius is correct: When Dionysius says evil has no cause, he means no per se cause. No one acts aiming at evil as such.

2. Does the will always being present mean man always sins?

   • No: The will is present as a power (potency), but acts of reason and sense desire are not always in act. Thus the cause is not always actualized.

3. How can something good (the will) be the cause of sin?

   • The will is the cause of the act, but the defect of reason is the cause of the disorder. Sin as an act can have a good cause; the disorder comes from the absence of the proper rule applied.

Pedagogical Notes #

• Berquist emphasizes the importance of distinguishing act from disorder in understanding sin’s causality
• The method of working through objections forces students to think deeply: “Imagine I could torture somebody with these [arguments]—keep them in prison until they could resolve this problem.”
• Understanding the four causes (especially per se vs. per accidens) is essential to understanding sin’s causality
• This question is preparatory to further considerations: the lecture ends by noting that the body of the article addresses the matter further and students should “put that in your pipe and smoke it for a while”