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Subject Area: Philosophy
Subject Area: Religion

QUESTION XXXVI.: OF THE CAUSES OF PAIN. - 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 XXXVI.

OF THE CAUSES OF PAIN.

Article III.—Is the yearning after unity a cause of pain?

R. In the way that the desire of good is a cause of pain, the yearning after unity must also be set down as a cause of pain. For the good of everything consists in a certain unity, inasmuch as everything has united in itself all the elements of its perfect well-being. Hence naturally everything yearns after unity as after goodness; and therefore, in the same way that the yearning after good is a cause of pain, so also is the yearning after unity.

§ 4. Augustine says: “From the pain that dumb animals feel, it is plain what lovers they are of unity in the guidance and animation of their bodies. For what else is pain but a feeling of impatience of division or corruption?”