Prima Secundae
Pars I-II of the Summa Theologiae. 114 Quaestiones on the human act, passions, habits, virtues in general, law, and grace. Contains the Treatise on Law (Q90-108). English from the Dominican Fathers (1920s); Latin from the Vivès edition (Paris 1871-1880).
Source context· Greco-Christian stream · Greco-Latin cultural age
- Stream
- Greco-Christian
- Cultural age
- Greco-Latin (4th post-Atlantean cultural age)
- Composed
- c. 1271 CE
What this work carries
The Prima Secundae systematizes the moral patrimony of the Latin Church: the Augustinian doctrine of grace, the Aristotelian analysis of the human act, and the patristic-monastic tradition of the virtues. It transmits these older streams in scholastic form, gathering them under the question of beatitude as the human end.
Language frame
The work is a scholastic summa in disputed-question form: thesis, objections, sed contra, respondeo, replies. Its Latin is technical and Aristotelian, structured around 114 quaestiones treating the human act, passions, habits, virtues, law, and grace.
Steiner’s engagement
- GA 108, 1908-03-14Steiner characterizes scholasticism as a peculiar synthesis of Aristotelian thought, defending its conceptual rigor against modern dismissals and noting that its distinctions require a keen and finely trained mind to absorb.
- GA 246, 1908-08-17Steiner describes the scholastic method as the technique of thought suitable for rationally processing what is gained in sensory observation and for pressing a little way upward toward spiritual truth.
- GA 176, 1917-09-11Steiner names Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) as the representative scholastic philosopher within his account of the karmic trajectory of materialism in Western thought.
- GA 213, 1922-07-09Steiner argues that modern scientific thinking is a straightforward continuation of scholastic thinking, however much its practitioners may resist this lineage.
- GA 213, 1922-07-15Steiner wishes that contemporary natural scientists would learn to think as sharply as the scholastics did, and treats the sundering of scholasticism into separated knowledges as the source of the modern spiritual crisis.
Cross-tradition congruence
- Aristotle, Nicomachean EthicsAquinas's treatment of habit, virtue, and the human act in pursuit of an ultimate end takes over the Aristotelian structure of ethics, recast within a Christian doctrine of beatitude and grace.
- Augustine, De GratiaThe Treatise on Grace (Q109–114) carries forward the Augustinian analysis of operative and cooperative grace, integrating it into a scholastic anthropology of nature and supernature.
- Stoic-Patristic teaching on passionsThe Treatise on the Passions translates the older Stoic and patristic analysis of the affective movements of the soul into a systematic Aristotelian psychology, ordered toward the moral life.
- 1Q1. Man's last end
The ultimate end of human existence as the orienting principle of all human action
10,810 words - 2Q2. Things in which man's happiness consists
External and internal candidates for the constitutive object of human happiness — wealth, honour, fame, power, bodily goods, pleasure, and the soul itself — examined and found insufficient
11,484 words - 3Q3. What is happiness
Constitution and proper object of human happiness (beatitudo) as perfect good
9,693 words - 4Q4. Things that are required for happiness
Conditions necessary for the attainment of human happiness, including vision of God, rectitude of will, body, and external goods
10,114 words - 5Q5. The attainment of happiness
Conditions and possibility of humanity's attainment of perfect happiness (beatitudo)
9,928 words - 6Q6. The voluntary and the involuntary
Conditions of voluntariness and involuntariness as foundations of moral imputation
9,689 words - 7Q7. The circumstances of human acts
Circumstantial modifiers of human acts — object, end, manner, place, time, means, and agent — as determinants of moral species and gravity
5,275 words - 8Q8. The will, in regard to what it wills
The object of the will: what the will intends, moves toward, and is ordered to as its proper end
3,000 words - 9Q9. That which moves the will
Causal agency behind volitional movement: intellect, appetite, and external movers as sources of the will's actuation
8,473 words - 10Q10. The manner in which the will is moved
Modes of volitional motion — natural necessity versus rational self-determination in the will
6,047 words - 11Q11. Enjoyment which is an act of the will
Fruition (fruitio) as the will's rest in its ultimate end
4,809 words - 12Q12. Intention
Intention as the directing act of will toward an end, prior to execution
5,627 words - 13Q13. Choice, which is an act of the will with regard to the means
Deliberate choice (electio) as the will's act of selecting means toward an end
7,535 words - 14Q14. Counsel, which precedes choice
Deliberative reason (consilium) as the act preceding and orienting voluntary choice
6,563 words - 15Q15. Consent, which is an act of the will in regard to the means
Consent as the will's deliberate ratification of means elected toward an end
4,673 words - 16Q16. Use, which is an act of the will in regard to the means
The act of will as application of means toward a chosen end (usus)
4,439 words - 17Q17. The acts commanded by the will
Command of the will over other faculties as a distinct act of moral agency
10,235 words - 18Q18. The good and evil of human acts, in general
Moral species of human acts determined by object, end, and circumstance
15,535 words - 19Q19. The goodness and malice of the interior act of the will
Moral quality of the will's interior act as determined by its object, end, and conformity to reason and eternal law
11,297 words - 20Q20. Goodness and malice in external human affairs
Moral quality of external acts as determined by their relation to the will's interior goodness or malice
5,572 words - 21Q21. The consequences of human actions by reason of their goodness and malice
Moral accountability of human acts as constituted by their inherent goodness or malice
5,880 words - 22Q22. The subject of the soul's passions
The soul as subject of passions, with passion located in the composite of body and soul rather than in either alone
4,559 words - 23Q23. How the passions differ from one another
Differentiation of passions by species and genus within the soul's appetitive life
5,472 words - 24Q24. Good and evil in the passions of the soul
Moral valence of the passions — whether soul-affects are good, evil, or neutral by nature
3,939 words - 25Q25. The order of the passions to one another
Hierarchical ordering of the passions relative to one another within the sensitive appetite
4,177 words - 26Q26. The passions of the soul in particular: and first, of love
Love as the first and foundational passion of the soul, its nature, causes, and effects
3,727 words - 27Q27. The cause of love
The ontological cause of love as elicited by the good in the beloved object
3,247 words - 28Q28. The effects of love
Love's transformative effects on the lover, the beloved, and the bond between them
6,653 words - 29Q29. Hatred
Hatred as a passion opposed to love, its causes in perceived evil, and its moral evaluation
3,371 words - 30Q30. Concupiscence
Concupiscence as disordered appetite and its place in the taxonomy of human passions
4,954 words - 31Q31. Pleasure considered in itself
Pleasure as a real quality of the soul's movement toward its proper good
10,254 words - 32Q32. The cause of pleasure
Causal analysis of pleasure: sources in activity, striving, sensation, and the good
10,036 words - 33Q33. The effects of pleasure
Effects of pleasure on the soul and its activities
3,968 words - 34Q34. The goodness and malice of pleasures
Moral evaluation of pleasure as good or evil according to its object, act, and circumstance
5,962 words - 35Q35. Pain or sorrow, in itself
Pain and sorrow as a passion of the soul, considered in its essential nature
11,502 words - 36Q36. The causes of sorrow or pain
Causes and conditions of sorrow or pain as passions of the sensitive appetite
4,882 words - 37Q37. The effects of pain or sorrow
Somatic and psychic effects of pain and sorrow on the human soul
4,897 words - 38Q38. The remedies of sorrow or pain
Remedies available to the soul against sorrow and pain, including pleasure, weeping, compassion, sleep, bathing, and contemplation of truth
4,199 words - 39Q39. The goodness and malice of sorrow or pain
Moral evaluation of sorrow and pain as passions of the soul
3,660 words - 40Q40. The irascible passions, and first, of hope and despair
Irascible passions of hope and despair as movements of appetite toward or away from an arduous future good
6,227 words - 41Q41. Fear, in itself
Fear as a distinct passion of the soul, its nature, species, and causes
5,181 words - 42Q42. The object of fear
Determination of fear's proper object as future evil that is difficult to avoid
7,157 words - 43Q43. The cause of fear
Causes of fear as deficiency of hope and disordered apprehension of future evil
1,333 words - 44Q44. The effects of fear
Somatic and psychological effects of fear as a passion of the soul
1,829 words - 45Q45. Daring
Daring as a passion of the irascible appetite ordered toward difficult goods
4,937 words - 46Q46. Anger, in itself
Anger as a passion of the soul — its nature, causes, and moral valence
7,572 words - 47Q47. The cause that provokes anger, and the remedies of anger
Causes of anger, gradations of irascibility, and the remedies by which the passion of anger is ordered toward virtue
2,815 words - 48Q48. The effects of anger
Effects of anger on soul, ego, and moral development
4,206 words - 49Q49. Habits in general, as to their substance
Ontological status and substance of habit (habitus) as a stable quality inhering in a subject's potency
4,692 words - 50Q50. The subject of habits
Ontological substrate of habitual dispositions in the human composite of soul and body
9,905 words - 51Q51. The cause of habits, as to their formation
Causal conditions for the formation of habits in the soul and body
5,812 words - 52Q52. The increase of habits
Intensification and growth of habitual dispositions through repeated acts
6,140 words - 53Q53. How habits are corrupted or diminished
Corruption and diminishment of acquired habits through contrary acts, disuse, or opposing influences
4,885 words - 54Q54. The distinction of habits
Ontological differentiation of habits as distinct stable qualities of soul and body
5,270 words - 55Q55. The virtues, as to their essence
Essence of virtue as a stable disposition (habitus) perfecting human powers toward their proper acts
6,228 words - 56Q56. The subject of virtue
Location of virtue in the soul's powers as the proper subject of habituated excellence
7,417 words - 57Q57. The intellectual virtues
Intellectual virtues as stable dispositions of mind ordered toward truth
9,490 words - 58Q58. The difference between moral and intellectual virtues
Distinction between moral virtues (habits of appetite) and intellectual virtues (habits of reason) in Aquinas's ethical architecture
5,423 words - 59Q59. Moral virtue in relation to the passions
Moral virtue as ordering principle over the passions of the soul
6,442 words - 60Q60. How the moral virtues differ from one another
Differentiation of moral virtues by their proper objects and acts
6,906 words - 61Q61. The cardinal virtues
Prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance as the four cardinal virtues structuring moral life
4,707 words - 62Q62. The theological virtues
Infused virtues of faith, hope, and charity as supernaturally ordered capacities directing the rational soul toward beatitude
3,885 words - 63Q63. The cause of virtues
Origin and causal structure of virtues — whether from nature, habituation, or infused grace
2,473 words - 64Q64. The mean of virtue
The mean of virtue as the rational ordering principle between excess and deficiency in moral action
4,543 words - 65Q65. The connection of virtues
Mutual interdependence and organic unity of the cardinal and theological virtues
5,659 words - 66Q66. Equality among the virtues
Hierarchical ordering of the virtues and the question of their relative primacy
8,025 words - 67Q67. The duration of virtues after this life
Persistence or cessation of moral virtues in the soul after bodily death
5,436 words - 68Q68. The gifts
The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit as infused habits perfecting the soul's receptivity to divine motion
15,018 words - 69Q69. The beatitudes
The beatitudes as stages of spiritual transformation and conditions of blessedness
4,864 words - 70Q70. The fruits of the Holy Ghost
Enumerated fruits of the Holy Ghost as habitual effects of charity in the soul's affective life
3,018 words - 71Q71. Vice and sin considered in themselves
Ontological status of vice and sin as privation of due order in human acts
10,231 words - 72Q72. The distinction of sins
Taxonomic differentiation of sins by species, gravity, and formal object
16,084 words - 73Q73. The comparison of one sin with another
Graduated severity of sins according to their objects, circumstances, and effects on the soul
15,159 words - 74Q74. The subject of sin
Location of sin in the powers of the soul — will, reason, and sensuality as subjects of moral disorder
12,060 words - 75Q75. The causes of sin, in general
Causal analysis of sin: interior and exterior sources of disordered human action
5,357 words - 76Q76. The causes of sin, in particular
Particular causes of sin: ignorance, passion, and malice as proximate causes of voluntary moral failure
6,372 words - 77Q77. The cause of sin, on the part of the sensitive appetite
Disordered sensitive appetite as proximate cause of sin in the human soul
10,727 words - 78Q78. That cause of sin which is malice
Sin committed through deliberate malice — the will's direct election of evil as end
4,757 words - 79Q79. The external causes of sin
External causes of sin — the Devil as seducer, the world as occasion, and the flesh as inclination
4,656 words - 80Q80. The cause of sin, as regards the devil
The devil as external efficient cause of human sin
3,835 words - 81Q81. The cause of sin, on the part of man
Inherited sinfulness in human nature: the transmission of original sin through sensual appetite (concupiscence) as a habitual disorder of the soul
6,804 words - 82Q82. Original sin, as to its essence
Habitual disorder of the will transmitted through generation as the formal essence of original sin
5,185 words - 83Q83. The subject of original sin
The human will as the seat and subject of inherited original sin
5,602 words - 84Q84. The cause of sin, in respect of one sin being the cause of another
Causal chain among sins: one sin as generative source of subsequent sins
4,955 words - 85Q85. The effects of sin, and, first, of the corruption of the good of nature
Corruption of natural goods by sin, and the graduated diminution of the soul's orientating principles
6,488 words - 86Q86. The stain of sin
Ontological residue of sin upon the soul after the act
2,535 words - 87Q87. The debt of punishment
Debt of punishment incurred by sin and its persistence through satisfaction or remission
7,376 words - 88Q88. Venial and mortal sin
Gradation of sin by its relationship to the ultimate end: venial sin as partial disorder, mortal sin as complete rupture of the soul's orientation toward God
8,704 words - 89Q89. Venial sin in itself
Venial sin as partial moral disorder not severing the soul's fundamental orientation to the good
6,016 words - 90Q90. The essence of law
Definition and fourfold structural analysis of law as rational ordinance directed to the common good
4,972 words - 91Q91. The various kinds of law
Hierarchical taxonomy of law: eternal, natural, human positive, and divine revealed law as distinct species of normative order
8,801 words - 92Q92. The effects of law
Law as formative cause of human moral and civic ordering
3,275 words - 93Q93. The eternal law
The eternal law as the rational ordering of all things in the divine intellect, foundational to all derived law
7,570 words - 94Q94. The natural law
The natural law as rational participation of creatures in eternal law, its precepts, and their immutability
7,166 words - 95Q95. Human law
Origin, force, and justice of positive human law as derived from natural law
4,832 words - 96Q96. The power of human law
Scope, limits, and binding force of positive human law over persons, acts, and vices
8,998 words - 97Q97. Change in laws
Legitimacy and conditions for change in positive law over time
4,418 words - 98Q98. The old law
The Old Law (Mosaic Torah) as preparatory divine legislation fitted to a particular stage of human spiritual development
10,077 words - 99Q99. The precepts of the old law
Classification and division of the precepts of the Mosaic law into moral, ceremonial, and judicial ordinances
7,127 words - 100Q100. The moral precepts of the old law
The moral precepts of the Mosaic Law and their rational grounding in natural law and divine ordering
21,859 words - 101Q101. The ceremonial precepts in themselves
Rational classification and theological grounding of Old Law ceremonial precepts
5,318 words - 102Q102. The causes of the ceremonial precepts
Teleological and typological causes underlying the Mosaic ceremonial law
21,105 words - 103Q103. The duration of the ceremonial precepts
Cessation of Mosaic ceremonial law after the Mystery of Golgotha
8,142 words - 104Q104. The judicial precepts
Divine ordering of social and civil life through Israel's judicial precepts as historically bounded moral legislation
5,446 words - 105Q105. The reason for the judicial precepts
Rational grounds for the judicial precepts of the Mosaic law governing social, political, and civic order
20,982 words - 106Q106. The law of the Gospel, called the New Law, considered in itself
The New Law as inner law of the Holy Spirit written on the heart, superseding external precept
7,483 words - 107Q107. The new law as compared with the old
Relation of the New Law (Gospel law of grace) to the Old Law (Mosaic law): continuity, fulfillment, and supersession
8,556 words - 108Q108. Things that are contained in the New Law
Content and structure of the New Law: precepts, counsels, and their relation to the Old Law
10,527 words - 109Q109. The necessity of grace
The necessity of divine grace for human acts ordered toward supernatural ends
15,598 words - 110Q110. The grace of God as regards its essence
The essence of divine grace as a supernatural quality of the soul, distinct from and elevating natural being
5,146 words - 111Q111. The division of grace
Taxonomic division of grace into its principal species and operational modes
7,997 words - 112Q112. The cause of grace
God as sole efficient cause of grace in the soul
7,238 words - 113Q113. The effects of grace
Justification as the transformative effect of sanctifying grace on the human soul
14,376 words - 114Q114. Merit
Condignity, congruity, and the ontological conditions for meritorious acts before God
10,613 words
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