Every Agent Acts For An End

From Summa Contra Gentiles Book III, Chapter 2.

When St. Thomas Aquinas says, "Agent", he refers to the "efficient cause" of Aristotle's four causes. This does not only refer to intellectual beings, but may encompass things of nature. For he writes in Summa Theologiae later on, everything action is reducible to either nature or will. Saturn moves. And it acts for an end. Else, it will move towards diverse ends. His example was the arrow's flight. The end of the arrow - though unknown to the arrow inasmuch as it is devoid of intellectual powers - will always be determinate. This may be known to the archer shooting the arrow in that he purposively shoots the arrow to a certain target.

Even considering the major advancement in science and technology, I think that this statement still applies. For one, for science to be correct in its theory-making, it must do so on the assumption of regularity and order. Since there is a presumed regularity and order in the universe, there must be a determinate end for every action. Every movement moves to a determinate position. Every action "moves" towards a determinate and willed purpose on the mind of the person willing.

For some, it applies because it is merely a tautology. The agent is one who acts for an end. Therefore, it acts for an end. The only excuse I can raise for St. Thomas is the syllogism of mathematics in moving from postulates and axioms towards further lemmas, theorems and corollaries. If A = B and B = C, then A = C by transitivity. And sometimes, when this is reduced to logic, B = C is unnecessary because it is evident. But, logic proceeds that way.

What is more important, this proposition of St. Thomas is powerful for the next syllogisms on the "end" of man. If there is a determinate end for every action, there must be a planner of this. There goes the subtle turn-around. Whether it is a leap of faith or part of a wish-list of the immortal whim of mankind, it is not yet clear here.

As for now, I think this will suffice. We move on to the next.

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