Is Pain Metaphysically Evil (Malum Simpliciter)?
Some Thoughts from a Thomistic Perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/SetF.2024.008Keywords
appetite, Aquinas, emotion, evil, pain, passion, suffering, theodicyAbstract
Contrary to the commonly assumed opinion that Christianity sees pain as intrinsically evil – where evil is defined as the lack of something good – Aquinas defines pain not as a privation but rather a passion of the soul, i.e., an emotion that depends on sensual and/or intellective cognition of something evil, is good in itself, and may serve a purpose. This article offers a formalized version of the Thomistic definition of pain and related negative (unpleasant) emotions experienced by humans. It also compares and contrasts this view with some contemporary scientific and philosophical models of pain.
References
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De malo. Quaestiones disputatae de malo. Vol. 23 of Opera Omnia. Rome: Typographia polyglotta, 1982. [English translation: On Evil. Translated by John A. Oesterle and Jean T. Oesterle. South Bend, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995.]
SCG Summa contra gentiles. 3 vols. Turin and Rome: Marietti, 1961–1967. [English translation: On the Truth of the Catholic Faith: Summa Contra Gentiles. 4 vols. Translated by Anton C. Pegis et al. Garden City, New York: Image Books, 1955–1957.]
ST Summa theologiae. Rome: Editiones Paulinae, 1962. [English translation: Summa Theologica. 3 vols. Translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province. New York: Benzinger Bros., 1946.]
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