CHAPTER XLVII—That Subsistent Intelligences are Voluntary Agents

GOOD is what all things yearn after, and in all beings there is a craving (appetitus) for good. In beings unendowed with any sort of cognition, this craving is called ‘physical appetite’ (appetitus naturalis).²⁷⁹²⁷⁹Such are the tendencies to maintain themselves observable in chemical compounds, and in organic bodies, as such, apart from conscious action. In beings that have sensitive cognition it is called ‘animal appetite,’ and is divided into ‘concupiscible’ and ‘irascible.’²⁸⁰²⁸⁰See Sum. Theol. I 2, q. 23, art. I (Aquinas Ethicus, I, 85). In intelligent beings it is called the ‘intellectual’ or ‘rational appetite,’ otherwise the ‘will.’