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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow QUESTION XII.: OF INTENTION. - Aquinas Ethicus: or, the Moral Teaching of St. Thomas, vol. 1 (Summa Theologica - Prima Secundae, Secunda Secundae Pt.1)

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Subject Area: Philosophy
Subject Area: Religion

QUESTION XII.: OF INTENTION. - St. Thomas Aquinas, Aquinas Ethicus: or, the Moral Teaching of St. Thomas, vol. 1 (Summa Theologica - Prima Secundae, Secunda Secundae Pt.1) [1274]

Edition used:

Aquinas Ethicus: or, the Moral Teaching of St. Thomas. A Translation of the Principal Portions of the Second part of the Summa Theologica, with Notes by Joseph Rickaby, S.J. (London: Burns and Oates, 1892).

Part of: Aquinas Ethicus: or, the Moral Teaching of St. Thomas, 2 vols.

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QUESTION XII.

OF INTENTION.

Article II.—Is intention only of the last end?

R. Intention regards the end as the terminus of the motion of the will. Now a terminus may be either a final terminus and point of rest, the terminus of the whole movement, or it may be some intermediate stage, the beginning of one portion of the movement, and the end or terminus of another. Thus in the movement from A to C via B, C is the final terminus and B is a terminus, but not the final one, and of both the one and the other terminus there may be intention. Hence intention is always of an end, but it need not be always of the last end.1

[1 ]Railway men must excuse the translator here for calling that a terminus which is only a station on the line Terminus is St. Thomas’s own word, and the modern associations that have gathered round it form a convenient illustration of his meaning. What he does mean precisely by intention and election is a nice point to observe, and has important bearings See Ethics and Natural Law, pp. 208—211. (Trl.)