THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA Natural Inclination in Aquinas A DISSERTATION ...

508 Pages·2013·3.68 MB·English

by  Sean Cunningham

THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA

Natural Inclination in Aquinas

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to the Faculty of the

School of Philosophy

Of The Catholic University of America

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

©

Copyright

All Rights Reserved

By

Sean B. Cunningham

Washington, D.C.

2013
Natural Inclination in Aquinas

Sean B. Cunningham, Ph.D.

Director: Kevin White, Ph.D.

In Summa theologiae I-II.94.2, St. Thomas Aquinas says that “the precepts of the
natural law follow upon the order of the natural inclinations.” This statement has
generated much controversy, but little discussion of what the term “natural inclination”
(inclinatio naturalis) means. This dissertation is a study of Aquinas’s use of that term in
94.2 and throughout the corpus.
Chapter I is a study of the terms inclinatio and inclinare. It distinguishes these
terms from their English cognates “inclination” and “incline,” examines Aquinas’s use of
inclinare in the sense of a lawgiver’s “inclining” his subjects towards an end, and
distinguishes natural inclinations from other inclinations.
Chapter II investigates the sources of Aquinas’s natural inclination language and
threefold schema of inclinations in 94.2 and argues that natural inclination provides the
“linchpin” that holds together the divergent, yet authoritative, natural law definitions of
Gratian, Cicero, and Ulpian.
Chapter III contrasts Aquinas’s use of the term natura with prevalent senses of
the English word “nature,” argues that natural inclination in the sense proper to natural
law is the inclination of human nature as a rational-animal composite, and argues that the
“order” of the natural inclinations is within nature, not imposed by reason.
Chapter IV discusses Aquinas’s use of naturalis with regard to human beings, in
contrast to prevalent senses of “natural” in modern English. It discusses man’s natural
inclination to virtue as an example of the “humanly natural.”
Chapter V examines natural inclination in relation to natural evil, fallen nature,
sinful inclination, and reason’s governance of unruly human inclinations.
Chapter VI discusses how natural inclination is related to appetites and their
objects. It shows that the acts of the sensitive and rational appetites are distinct from, but
rooted in, “natural appetite.”
Chapter VII explains how natural inclination is both an intrinsic disposition
following upon form and an extrinsic inclining of the created nature by God. It discusses
natural inclination in terms of Aquinas’s notions of divine direction by “impression,”
divine art, natural intentionality, and divine cognition of the ends of nature.
An appendix provides an “Index of Natural Inclinations According to St. Thomas
Aquinas.”
This dissertation by Sean B. Cunningham fulfills the dissertation requirement for the doctoral
degree in philosophy approved by Kevin White, Ph.D., as Director, and by Richard F.
Hassing, Ph.D., and Tobias Hoffmann, Ph.D., as Readers.

____________________________________
Kevin White, Ph.D., Director

____________________________________
Richard F. Hassing, Ph.D., Reader

____________________________________
Tobias Hoffmann, Ph.D., Reader

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To Joanna

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Et qui exaudit primo audit; ideo dicit, Inclina, nisi Dominus sit in alto loco,
oportet quod inclinet aurem ad audiendum illum qui est in imo. Dominus
sedet in maiestate sua; et si vellet nostra agere secundum altitudinem suae
iustitiae, non salvaremur . . . .

— St. Thomas Aquinas, In Psalmo 16

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CONTENTS

Abbreviations…………………………………………………………………….. xv

Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………. xvii

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………1

A. “Natural Inclination” and the “Dangerous Senses” of Words ……………. 3

B. The Locus classicus of Natural Inclination: ST I-II, q. 94, a. 2 ………....... 9

C. Status quaestionis ……………………………………………………….. 13
1. Inclinatio naturalis, Term and Concept………………………….… 13
2. Three Approaches to Natural Inclination in ST I-II, q. 94, a. 2….… 16
a. “Drives and urges” school: John Finnis….………………….. 18
b. “Psychological” school: Stephen Brock….………………….. 20
c. “Natural teleology” school: Denis Bradley, et al……………. 21

D. A Preliminary Comment on the “Literal” and “Figurative” Senses
of Words…………………………………………………………………….. 22

E. A Preliminary Comment on the Distinction Between “Ontological” and
“Psychological” …………………………………………………………….. 38

F. Prospectus of chapters …………………………………………………… 39

Chapter I: Inclinatio: Lexicographical and Philosophical Investigation…….. 43

A. Lexicological investigation: Inclinatio and Inclinare in
Thomas’s Latin……………………………………………………………… 44
1. Classical Latin………………………………………………….. 45
a. Inclinare………………………………………………… 45
b. Inclinatio………………………………………………... 47
2. Patristic Latin…………………………………………………… 48
3. Medieval Latin…………………………………………………. 50
a. Scholastic philosophical usage…………………………. 50
b. Inclinatio as submission to a ruler……………………… 51
4. Thomas’s Usage of Inclin-Terms………………………………. 53
a. Classical senses: physical or figurative bending……….. 54
b. Regnative senses: inclination as obeying and
being commanded…………………………………………. 58

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c. Philosophical senses: determinate disposition
of a power or nature……………………………………….. 63
5. Combined Expressions: Inclinatio naturalis, Natura inclinat,
and Related Forms…………………………………………………. 64
a. NI-terms: lexicographical findings……………………… 64
b. NI-terms: chronology and development of doctrine……. 67
c. Noun forms: natural inclination, inclination
of nature……………………………………………………. 69
d. Verb forms: nature inclines (natura inclinat)…………… 70

B. Philosophical Investigation: Teleological, Extrinsic,
and Formal Senses of NI-terms……………………………………………. 71
1. Inclin- Terms are Teleological………………………………….. 72
a. The ratio communis of inclinatio naturalis……………... 73
b. Inclinatio in an “achieved-literal” sense?.......................... 74
c. What is the problem with saying that inclinatio is
predicated of natura “only metaphorically”.......................... 78
2. Extrinsic Inclining and Natural Inclination……………………… 85
3. NI-Terms and Natural Law: Primary (Formal) and
Secondary (Material) Senses………………………………………. 89

C. Dangerous Senses of “Inclination” and “Incline” in English…………… 90
1. “Inclination” as Subjective Disposition…………………………. 91
2. “Natural Inclination” Denatured………………………………… 92
3. Predominantly Intrinsic Senses of “Inclination”
and “Incline”………………………………………………………. 93
4. Distorted Senses of “Natural Inclination” in
Modern Philosophy………………………………………………… 94

D. Synonyms and Overlapping Terms…………………………………….. 95
1. Partial Synonyms Distinguished: Intrinsic and
Extrinsic Senses……………………………………………………. 98
a. Instinctus…………………………………………………. 99
b. Dispositio………………………………………………... 100
2. “Natural” Indicates Ontological Relation, Not
Psychological Act………………………………………………….. 102

E. Inclinations Other Than “Natural Inclinations” in Thomas’s Lexicon…. 104
1. Inclinations from extrinsic principles…………………………… 105
3. Psychological inclinations………………………………………. 107

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………. 108

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Chapter II: Inclinatio Naturalis and the Natural Law Tradition……………... 110

A. Possible Sources of St. Thomas’s NI-Language and
Threefold Table of Inclinations……………………………………………. 111
1. Aristotle…………………………………………………………. 115
a. Threefold schema of inclinations?..……………………... 117
b. NI-language in the Aristoteles Latinus? ………………… 118
i. Texts cited by Bradley and Gustafson…………… 120
ii. Texts in which St. Thomas seems to attribute
an NI-term to Aristotle…………………………….. 122
iii. NI-language in discussion of ethics and
natural law…………………………………………. 123
iv. De caelo texts on heavy and light bodies………. 124
2. Pseudo-Dionysius……………………………………………….. 126
3. Avicenna………………………………………………………… 128
4. Cicero……………………………………………………………. 128
a. Innate force (innata vis)………………………………… 129
b. Three-fold natural impulse in man…………………….... 130
5. Roman Jurists Through Justinian……………………………….. 132
6. St. Isidore……………………………………………………….. 135
7. Medieval Civilians………………………………………………. 137
8. Medieval Canonists ……………………………………………... 138
a. Gratian…………………………………………………… 139
b. Decretists: Twelfth century……………………………… 142
i. Huguccio and Rufinus…………………………… 143
ii. Summa inter cetera (anonymous) and
natural inclination………………………………….. 145
iii. Odo of Dover and the three-tiered natural law…. 146
c. Decretists: thirteenth century (chiefly
Johann the Teuton)………………………………………… 146
9. Sacred Scripture…………………………………………………. 148
10. Theologians……………………………………………………. 149
a. Augustine………………………………………………... 149
b. Theologians: twelfth and thirteenth centuries…………... 151
i. Secular masters: Williams of Auvergne and
William of Auxerre………………………………… 151
ii. De lege naturali (anonymous)………………….. 152
iii. Dominican masters at Paris…………………….. 153
iv. Franciscan school………………………………. 154
v. St. Albert the Great: font of NI-language?............ 156

B. Inclinatio naturalis: Linchpin of Discordant Tradition?.......................... 159
1. Status quaestionis……………………………………………….. 159
2. But Why inclinatio?...................................................................... 166
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3. The Linchpin: inclinatio naturalis……………………………… 169
a. Divine inclining: Gratian and the decretists…………….. 170
b. Being inclined and inclining toward: Cicero’s
innate power clarified……………………………………… 172
c. Natura inclinat: Ulpianic animal nature subsumed……... 173

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………. 174

Chapter III: Natura: Human Nature and Natural Inclination………………… 176

A. Natura in St. Thomas’s Latin: nomen naturae multipliciter dicitur …… 177
1. Proper and Improper Senses of natura………………………….. 178
2. Natura in the Proper Sense is Analogical, Ontological,
and Teleological…………………………………………………… 181

B. Dangerous Senses of “Nature” in English……………………………… 183
1. Brutal Nature……………………………………………………. 184
2. Natura vs. Two Especially Dangerous Senses of “Nature”…….. 186
a. Nature as the “physical world”………………………….. 187
b. Nature as primitive, unconstrained, untutored state…….. 192
3. Natura: Neither Physicalist nor Primitive………………………. 195

C. Natura hominis: Natures in Conflict?....................................................... 196
1. Natura in Common With All Substances……………………….. 198
2. Generic Nature………………………………………………….. 202
3. Generic and Specific Nature Compared………………………… 205
4. Man’s Proper Nature: natura specialis…………………………. 206
5. Powers as Natures………………………………………………. 207
6. Natura unius: the Nature of the Whole Man……………………. 208
7. Substantial Nature and Natural Inclination……………………… 211

D. The Order of the Natural Inclinations Within and
Beyond Human Nature…………………………………………………….. 214
1. Whence Order?.............................................................................. 215
2. Parts and Wholes………………………………………………... 219
3. Body and Soul…………………………………………………… 221
4. Humanly Natural Body………………………………………….. 222
5. Human Self-Preservation………………………………………... 223
6. Human Sensitive Powers………………………………………... 225
7. Humanly Rational Rationality……………………………………226

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………. 232

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