Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Understanding of Good and Evil as Objects of Emotions

Abstract

The aim of this article is to investigate the taxonomy of emotions formulated by Saint Thomas Aquinas. Thomas’ vision of a human being as a unity of soul andbody results in a conclusion that emotions are states of persons, yet it is possible to name a particular power of a soul responsible for the appearance of emotions – it is a sensitive appetite. Referring back to Aristotle’s theory of motion, St. Thomas calls emotions passive movements of a sensitive appetite into two directions: towards good or away from evil. In this article bonum and malum are considered as objects of emotions what poses a question about the positive or negative value of purely emotional states.