BASIC MORALS
BASIC MORALS AUSTIN MALONEY WOODBURY SM EDITED BY ANDREW FRANCIS WOOD DONUM DEI PRESS SYDNEY AUSTRALIA
Original Manuscript: Austin Maloney Woodbury. Basic Morals. Sydney: Aquinas Academy, 1955 1, 1962 2. Copyright 2016 All Rights Reserved Woodbury Family Trust Cover art: Inset of Pope Gregory the Great, in Four Doctors of the Church Represented with Attributes of the Four Evangelists by Pier Francesco Sacchi (1485-1520) Paris Musée du Louvre Cover design by Claudia Harb Grafikdesignfx www.grafikdesignfx.com.au Published in 2016 by Donum Dei Press, Sydney Australia 7 Boundary Street Berowra 2081 ISBN-13: 978-0-9942448-1-9 ISBN-10: 0-9942448-1-9 Printed in Australia
CONTENTS Foreword A Short Biography of Austin Maloney Woodbury iii The Publication of Dr Austin Maloney Woodbury s Opera Omnia Error! Bookmark not defined. About this Volume Error! Bookmark not defined. Chapter One: Ultimate End of Man 1 Chapter Two: The Human Act 11 Article One: The Wilful (Voluntary) 13 Article Two: The Free 17 Article Three: Influences Affecting Human-ness of Acts 19 Chapter Three: Morality 29 Article One: Nature of Morality 29 Article Two: Rule of Objective Morality: Law 36 Article Three: Rule of Subjective Morality: Conscience 51 Chapter Four: Moral Obligation 57 Chapter Five: The Passions 62 Chapter Six: Virtues 72 Article One: Operative Habits 72 Article Two: Virtues and Vices 77 Article Three: Natural and Supernatural Virtues 78 Article Four: Natural Intellectual Virtues 82 Article Five: Theological Virtues 85 Article Six: Moral Virtues in General 96 Article Seven: Prudence 103 Article Eight: Justice 109 iii ~ i ~
CONTENTS Article Nine: Fortitude 114 Article Ten: Temperance 118 Chapter Seven: Sin 122 Article One: Notion of Sin 122 Article Two: Distinction of Sins According to Moral Species (Kind) 124 Article Three: Distinction of Sins According to Number 127 Article Four: Effects of Sin 129 Article Five: Mortal Sin 132 Article Six: Venial Sin 135 Chapter Eight: Character 137 Article One: Character and Christian Character 137 Article Two: Character Formation 144 Bibliography 152 General Index 155 ~ ii ~
FOREWORD In 1993 I received a grace which would change my life. I was invited by a friend to attend classes in philosophy and theology at Sydney s Centre for Thomistic Studies. I was nineteen years of age at the time, and although I had been raised in a good Catholic family, I knew relatively little about the teachings and thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). With my attendance at these classes all that would change! On that first night I attended a class on Metaphysics and another in an Introduction to Philosophy course. Both of which intrigued me greatly because of their ability to stimulate my mind, especially Alice Nelson s Metaphysics class. I was immediately drawn by the profound notes Alice distributed to her students. I had never seen anything like them. I later enquired of my friend if Alice had in fact written them herself; if not, who did? My friend was astonished at my question, a question which to me seemed quite logical. With a certain nonchalance he answered that they were written by The Doc. Who was this man they all called, The Doc, I asked? Was he alive or deceased? What was his life story? Dr Austin Maloney Woodbury (1899-1979) was in fact a Marist Catholic priest who had taught Alice and many of her colleagues for over twenty years. These students of Woodbury, whom I met that night, would go on to teach me for the next thirteen years. And, as I later discovered, the notes Alice distributed that night, and in all her classes were, in fact, abridged versions of Woodbury s own writings. A Short Biography of Austin Maloney Woodbury Austin Maloney Woodbury was born on 2 March 1899 in the Woodbury family home of West View, 1 in the small hamlet of Spencer on the banks of the Hawkesbury River just north of Sydney, Australia. 2 He was a descendant of two convicts sent to Australia from England: the famous Matthew James Everingham 1 See Plates 8. and 9. on page xxiv below. 2 See Plate 3. on page xxi below. ~ iii ~
CHAPTER ONE: ULTIMATE END OF MAN 1. WHAT IS AN END? A. An end is: a. That for the sake of which something is or does or is done. 1 b. Thus: b1. The end of a saw is the cutting of wood: for a saw is for the sake of the cutting of wood. b2. The end for the sake of which a man digs a ditch is the dryness of the field, or the money which he expects in return for his work. b3. The end for the sake of which a surgical operation is done, is the health of the patient. B. Therefore: a. An end is: a1. That which for the sake of itself is appetised or loved. a2. Whereas a means is that which for the sake of something else is appetised or loved. b. Accordingly an end is a good as terminating (ending) appetite. 2. WHAT IS AN ULTIMATE OR SUPREME END? A. There can be an order among ends, the nearest or proximate end being for the sake of a further end, and this for the sake of a further end, and so on. B. Which is illustrated: a. By the following example: 1 Sancti Thomæ Aquinatis, Opera Omnia: Ad Fidem Optimarum Editionum: Commentaria in Libros Aristotelis Stagiritae, t.xxi (Parmæ: Typis Petri Fiaccadori, 1866), In Ethicorum, Lib. I, Lect. 9, n.105. Editor s Note: For English translation see: St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Aristotle s Nicomachean Ethics, trans., C.I. Litzinger (Notre Dame, IN: Dumb Ox Books), 36. ~ 1 ~
BASIC MORALS PAUL asks for Graduate as A LAWYER in order to Follow a LAW COURSE in order to Obtain MATRICULATION in order to Acquire KNOWLEDGE OF HISTORY in order to Buy a BOOK in order to MONEY in order to PRACTICE LAW in order to Gain his LIVEIHOOD b. In which example, supposing that his livelihood were not itself desired for the sake of a still further end, b1. The PROXIMATE end of Paul s asking is money; b2. the ULTIMATE end of Paul s asking is his livelihood. b3. All the other ends, the book, the knowledge of history, the matriculation, the law course, the graduation, the legal practice, are INTERMEDIARY ends. C. Hence: ~ 2 ~
AUSTIN MALONEY WOODBURY a. An ULTIMATE END is an end for the sake of which other ends are desired or loved, but which itself is desired or loved not for the sake of a further end, but for the sake of itself. 2 b. Or, in other words, That good which completely terminates and satiates (enoughs) appetite. 3. WHAT IS MEANT BY ULTIMATE END OF MAN? A. Hence the ultimate end of man is: a. That good which completely terminates and satiates the appetite of man: which is nothing else than HAPPINESS for happiness is: The perfectly satiating good of an intellectual nature. 3 b. That for the sake of which ultimately man acts, and which ultimately man desires: which is HAPPINESS. c. That for the sake of which ultimately man is: for the inclination, imprinted in a thing by the author of its nature demonstrates that for the sake of which a thing is; but that whereunto man is ultimately inclined by the inclination imprinted in his nature by its Author is HAPPINESS; for man by necessity issuing from his nature desires happiness, and he desires other things only insofar as he judges that they conduce to his happiness. d. That for the sake of which man is made to be: for man is made to be by God, Who makes things to be for the sake of that for whose sake they are; but man is for the sake of HAPPINESS; therefore he is made to be for the sake of happiness. B. Therefore the last end of man may be DEFINED: a. AS: a1. That good which completely satiates and terminates the appetite of man. 4 2 Editor s Note: See Austin Maloney Woodbury, Ethics (Sydney: Aquinas Academy Unpublished, ca.1954-1955), n.8; idem., Ostensive Metaphysics: Treatise One: Ontology (Sydney: Aquinas Academy Unpublished, ca.1952/3-1961/2], n.1312 A. 3 Editor s Note: See Sancti Thomae de Aquino, Opera omnia: iussu impensaque, Leonis XIII. P.M. edita (Romae: Ex Typographia Polyglotta S. C. de Propaganda Fide, 1882-1948), Summa theologiæ, I-II, q.2, a.4; q.3, aa.3-8. For English translation see: Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiæ, trans., Fathers of the English Dominican Province, Vols. 1-5. Westminster, Merryland: Christian Classics, 1981. In Ethic., Lib. I, Lect. 9, n.112; Woodbury, Ethics, n.9, F. 4 Editor s Note: See Summa theologiæ, I-II, q.1, a.6. ~ 3 ~
BASIC MORALS a2. That for the sake of which man ultimately acts. 5 a3. That for the sake of which ultimately man is. 6 a4. That for the sake of which man is made to be. 7 b. Which is nothing else than HAPPINESS, which, as said above, is the perfectly satiating good of an intellectual nature, or the good which excludes every evil and fulfils every desire. 4. WHAT IS MAN S ABSTRACT HAPPINESS OR ULTIMATE END? A. By this is meant man s happiness or perfectly satiative good considered abstractly from its realisation in this or that particular thing (i.e., considered abstractly from whether it be realised in this thing, which is money or in this thing, which is pleasure or in this thing, which is God or in this thing, which is renown and so on). B. And since a good is not perfectly satiative unless it is good from every point of view (i.e., universal good), a. Man s happiness is man s universal good; b. And man s abstract happiness is MAN S UNIVERSAL GOOD considered abstractly from its realisation in this or that particular thing. C. And since a good is not good from every point of view or perfectly satiative if it leaves some good further to be desired, a. Man s happiness is man s unlimited good; b. And man s abstract happiness is MAN S UNLIMITED GOOD considered abstractly from its realisation in this or that particular thing. 5. WHAT IS MAN S CONCRETE HAPPINESS OR ULTIMATE END? A. By this is meant man s happiness or perfectly satiative good considered as realised in a particular thing. 5 Editor s Note: See Summa theologiæ, I-II, q.1, a.6. 6 Editor s Note: See Summa theologiæ, I-II, q.1, a.4. 7 Editor s Note: See Summa theologiæ, I-II, q.1, a.4. ~ 4 ~
AUSTIN MALONEY WOODBURY B. And since a good satiates (enoughs) only as possessed, man s concrete happiness or ultimate end is thus distinguished: a. Into: a1. The POSSESSION of that thing which is the perfectly satiative good: which possession is called man s SUBJECTIVE happiness or SUBJECTIVE ultimate end. a2. The VERY THING ITSELF which is the perfectly satiative good: which thing is called man s OBJECTIVE happiness or OBJECTIVE ultimate end. b. Which may be thus shown schematically: Man s concrete happiness or ultimate end taken: SUBJECTIVELY: is the POSSESSION of that thing which is man s perfectly satiative good. OBJECTIVELY: is that THING which is man s perfectly satiative good. 6. WHICH IS MAN S OBJECTIVE HAPPINESS OR ULTIMATE END? A. The question here is this: Which is the PARTICULAR THING which, when possessed by man, perfectly satiates him, or renders him perfectly happy? Is it wealth, or pleasure, or God, or renown, or some other particular thing? B. IT IS NOT ANY CREATED GOOD OR ANY SUM OF CREATED GOODS: Which is proved by the following: a. ARGUMENT: a1. Man s appetite is towards unlimited good. (Since his intellective appetite or will is towards good as known by his intellect; but by his intellect he knows or has the idea of unlimited and pure good, of good that is good from every point of view and leaves no further good to be desired; therefore, man s appetite is such that it is perfectly satiated only by pure and unlimited good). a2. But every created good is finite or limited, and every sum of created goods in finite or limited. a3. Therefore no created good nor any sum of created goods perfectly satiates man s appetite. ~ 5 ~
BASIC MORALS b. THEREFORE: Man s objective happiness or ultimate end does not consist: b1. in EXTERNAL CORPOREAL GOODS, such as riches or wealth; b2. in EXTERNAL INCORPOREAL GOODS, such as honour and renown; b3. in INTERNAL CORPOREAL GOODS, such as bodily strength, bodily beauty, bodily health; b4. in INTERNAL INCORPOREAL GOODS, such as pleasure, selfesteem, self-respect, science, virtue. b5. in any sum of these. C. IT IS GOD ALONE; Which is proved by the following: a. ARGUMENT: a1. Man s appetite is towards infinite good. a2. But God, and he alone, is infinite good. a3. Therefore, God, and he alone, is the perfectly satiative good of man. b. THEREFORE: Well does St. Austin say: Thou hast made us for thyself, O God, and our heart is not at rest until it rest in thee. 8 7. WHICH IS MAN S PERFECT SUBJECTIVE HAPPINESS OR ULTIMATE END? This, given man s elevation to the supernatural order, is POSSESSION OF GOD; which is manifest thus: A. Man s perfect subjective happiness or ultimate end is nothing else than his possession of his objective happiness or objective ultimate end. B. But man s objective happiness or objective ultimate end is God. C. Therefore, man s perfect subjective happiness or ultimate end is possession of God. 8 Augustini, Confessionum, Lib. 1, c.1, n. 1 (PL 32:661). ~ 6 ~
AUSTIN MALONEY WOODBURY 8. NATURAL AND SUPERNATURAL ULTIMATE END OF MAN: A. If man had been created and left by God in his purely natural state; with his natural endowments alone, that is, without being raised to the supernatural order, man s ultimate end would have been GOD AS NATURALLY KNOWN (and loved), i.e., grasped in the way in which man by his natural powers can grasp God which is by an analogous knowledge of God such as a good philosopher achieves (and which in fact is had by those who are in Limbo). B. But man at his creation was raised by God to the supernatural order, and ordered accordingly to a supernatural end, which is GOD AS POSSESSED BY FACIAL VISION: which facial vision is called BEATIFIC because it renders perfectly happy those who enjoy it. C. Consequently: a. In our present order of elevation to the supernatural plane, the only subjective ultimate end of man is the Beatific Vision, which is the supernatural possession of God. b. When we speak of man s natural subjective ultimate end, we are speaking only of what might have been, but never has been. 9. SUMMARY: Hence the following summary recapitulates the foregoing teaching: The ultimate end of man, taken ABSTRACTLY: is HAPPINESS or UNIVERSAL GOOD TAKEN ABSTRACTLY. CONCRETELY: and objectively: is GOD. And subjectively: is the BEATIFIC VISION. ~ 7 ~