PROPOSITION CXI.

Evil, as such, does not require a final cause; which, however, may be added to it by the intention of the efficient cause.

I. THE FIRST MEMBER, wherein it is asserted that Evil, as such, does not require a final cause, is thus proved. The final cause is the intended end of an action or operation; and constitutes the intention of the efficient cause. But privation and defect are not themselves intended; therefore, they do not require any end for the sake of which they may be intended. Since, then, Evil is a privation; it does not require any final cause.

II. THE SECOND MEMBER, which affirms that Evil may receive a final cause, or end, from the intention of the efficient cause, is thus declared. A free agent may inflict an Evil for the purpose of attaining some end; such as, the securing of some positive Good, or the hindering of a greater Evil. But, for the sake of clearness, it will be well to recall to mind the division into the Evil of sin, and the Evil of punishment. The former not only does not require a final cause but, in a rightly ordered will, it does not, cannot, admit of one. The reason is, that we are not allowed to do Evil that Good may come; consequently, Evil can never become the direct object of intention. It may be indirectly intended, that is, permitted, (as God does in fact permit it), for the sake of the varied Good which flows from the permission; but no reason or excuse can for one moment justify the intention of sinning. It is true that a disordered will may intend to commit sin and, in certain extreme cases of depravity, may intend the very malice of the sin; even here, however, the moral Evil presents itself under the false appearance of some Good. But it is not so with punishment. For punishment, which is a natural Evil, may become a useful Good; and may be in this way directly intended by a well-ordered will, as the means for securing a moral Good. Thus, punishment may be inflicted for the purpose of vindicating outraged justice, or medicinally, i.e. for the purpose of reforming the sinner. Something precisely similar to this last intention is to be found in merely natural Evil. For, when a surgeon amputates a limb, he directly intends the Evil as the most efficacious means of securing a natural Good, -- to wit, the restoration of health or the preservation of life. But, in these and similar cases, the Evil is intended as a means and, therefore, receives a final cause from the intention of the agent.