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Revisiting Aquinas on the Passion of Despair

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Christopher Bobier Open the ORCID record for Christopher Bobier [Opens in a new window]
Christopher Bobier*
Affiliation:
Saint Mary's University of Minnesota, 700 Terrace Heights Winona, MN, USA
*
cbobier@smumn.edu
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Abstract

The passion of despair, according to Thomas Aquinas, is an appetitive movement away from a future arduous good that is impossible to attain. Criticism of his account of despair abounds. Nicholas Lombardo argues that despair cannot be proper passion because the appetite cannot move away from a good. Eric D'Arcy and Susan James argue that Aquinas's description of passions as movements casts doubt on his understanding of some passions, including despair. Michael Miller and John Patrick Reid deny that despair can be morally praiseworthy and conducive to action. In this paper, I defend Aquinas's account of the passion of despair from these criticisms.

Keywords

Thomas Aquinasdespairpassion
Type
Original Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 102 , Issue 1097 , January 2021 , pp. 123 - 138
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

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References

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