SUBJECTIVE CLASSIFICATION OF DESIRES IN ST. THOMAS AND IN WARD.

Professor Ward's classification of desires is found exposed in his Dynamic Sociology which was published originally in 1883; in his Pure Sociology which appeared in 1903 and in his many occasional writings, notably in the American Journal of Sociology. Professor Ward thus describes the field of Pure Sociology (Pure Sociology, p. 4):

"By pure sociology, then, is meant a treatment of the phenomena and laws of society as it is, an explanation of the processes by which social phenomena take place, a search for the antecedent conditions by which the observed facts have been brought into existence, and an aetiological diagnosis that shall reach back as far as the state of human knowledge will permit into the psychologic, biologic, and cosmic causes of the existing social state of man. But it must be a pure diagnosis, and all therapeutic treatment is rigidly excluded. All ethical considerations, in however wide a sense that expression may be understood, must be ignored for the time being, and attention concentrated upon the effort to determine what actually is Pure Sociology has no concern with what society ought to be or with any social ideals. It confines itself strictly with the present and the past, allowing the future to take care of itself. It totally ignores the purpose of the science, and aims at truth wholly for its own sake."

Applied sociology is described as follows (Applied Sociology, p. 5ff.): "Just as Pure Sociology aims to answer the questions What, Why, and How, so applied sociology aims to answer the question What For. The former deals with facts, causes, and principles, the latter with the object, end or purpose. The one treats the sub

ject-matter of sociology, the other, its use. However theoretical pure sociology may be in some of its aspects, applied sociology is essentially practical. It appeals directly to interest. It has to do with social ideals, with ethical considerations, with what ought to be. . . . Applied sociology takes account of artificial phenomena consciously and intentionally directed by society to bettering society. . In applied sociology the point of view is subjective. It relates to feeling-the collective wellbeing. In pure sociology the desires and wants of men are considered as the motor agencies of society. In applied sociology they are considered as sources of enjoyment through their satisfaction. . . Applied sociology may be said to deal with social utility as measured by the satisfaction of desire."

Desire, according to Ward, is an inclination to experience agreeable and escape disagreeable sensations (Dynamic Sociology, vol. II, p. 322). Desires are those states of mind that involve a tendency on the part of the individual experiencing them to act in such a manner as will satisfy them and cause them to cease to exist. All of them are physical excitations (Vol. I, p. 603), propelling men to such acting as will best afford a gratification craved. Their basis is the nervous system. They are the springs of action, the social forces. Desires make known the need of the system which aims always to complete itself by securing the objects by which that self-completion is conditioned. Action resulting from desire has built up human civilization. Desires and the activities resulting from efforts to satisfy them furnish the matter of inquiry into the conditions of human progress and social change (ibid. 664).

Ward builds his system upon the philosophy of materialistic evolution. This leads him naturally to determinism in human conduct. The analysis of aggregation as found in the first volume of Dynamic Sociology represents the process by which progress was made from chaos

to social organization. Intellect and will are highly organized forms of matter. All human action is determined by laws of matter, and desire of whatsoever kind is purely a function of matter in sensient beings.

St. Thomas builds his system upon the dualistic philosophy which traces the earth in its origin to the act of a personal God creating. This leads him to a libertarian view of human conduct in which the will is regarded as metaphysically determined to the good but undetermined as to the specific goodness of objects of human desire (1a, Q. 82, a. 2). In other words the will has liberty of choice among relative goods. This liberty as conceived of by St. Thomas is extensively interfered with by the passions and by ignorance. Not all human acts are free. However, freedom is found among human acts. Intellect and will are spiritual, distinctively of the soul, discontinuous with matter. While human action is to an extent determined by laws of matter and the sensient appetite is organically related to matter, nevertheless intellect and will as forms of rational appetency escape the tyranny of matter and enter for the direction of their activity under the dominion of the moral law of God. The touching point is freedom of the will. According to Ward, all desire is physical excitation.

Professor Ward sees in the variety of human desires nothing other than manifestations of physical force acting under immutable natural laws which eliminate totally the thought of a freedom of action in the will. St. Thomas finds that human actions result from intrinsic principles, the powers of the soul and habits; and extrinsic principles, laws and divine grace.

Professor Ward, like St. Thomas, draws a distinction between the ends of nature and the ends of the individual. For the former, the fundamental ends of nature in the organic world, are the preservation of the individual and of the race. These ends are procured by means of desires inherent in the individual and leading him to perform with sufficient regularity the actions through which these two

purposes are secured. Hence nutrition and reproduction give rise to two kinds of fundamental desire. They awaken two appetites, the gustatory and the sexual. The end of nature is the preservation and perpetuation of life; that of the individual man is the satisfaction of desire. The former is objective, constituting a biologic process; the latter is subjective, causing a moral or sociological process. Properly understood, these processes have no natural or necessary relation to each other (Dynamic Sociology, I. 469). These two fundamental desires explain the greater part of man's life. They are the original and essential forces back of social organization (Dynamic Sociology, I. 666).

Beside these essential human desires, there are others which Professor Ward calls non-essential since they have no direct and necessary relation with the functions of nutrition and reproduction. They have, however, taken on in the development of civilization, extremely important rôles. "These are: First, the aesthetic sentiments, resting physiologically upon the remaining four senses, as the nutritive function rests upon that of taste: secondly, the emotional or moral forces, in so far as they can be distinguished from those presiding over reproduction; and, thirdly, the intellectual forces, or the sociologic result of those yearnings after normal exercise which the mind soon begins to manifest when lifted above the necessity of concentrating its energies upon the mere supply of bodily wants. . . . The emotional forces may perhaps be most conveniently grouped around the dominant sentiments of love (with its opposite, hate) and fear (with its opposite, hope) " (Dynamic Sociology, I. 471). The following tables represent these social forces: Preservative. (Positive, gustatory (seeking pleasure) Forces....Negative, protective (avoiding pain)

Essential
Forces....

Reproductive Direct. The sexual and amative desires
Forces....Indirect. Parental and consanguineal affections

Non-essential (Esthetic Forces

Forces.... Emotional (moral) Forces

Intellectual Forces

Dynamic Sociology, I. 472.

In Pure Sociology (p. 261), the terms are slightly different.

Physical Forces.

(Function bodily)

Spiritual Forces.
(Function psychic)

Ontogenetic Positive, attractive (seeking pleasure)
Forces....Negative, protective (avoiding pain)

Phylogenetic (Direct, sexual

Forces....Indirect, consanguineal

Moral (seeking the safe and good)

[Sociogenetic Esthetic (seeking the beautiful)
Forces....Intellectual (seeking the useful and true)

Ward's classification is based upon the relation of human powers to human progress. This progress assumes the continuity of the race. The essential social forces or desires are, therefore, those which lead the individual to strive to live and those which lead individuals to strive to make the race live. Aside from these essential forces, the esthetic, emotional and intellectual are looked upon as non-essential in their relation to the race purpose which is conceived to be ultimate. This division finds its principle, therefore, in a relation to progress and continuity. St. Thomas does not draw into his classification of faculties, a principle derived from their bearing upon progress. His conception of progress relates to the finding of the summum bonum or the perfection of the individual in God. His ultimate view is, therefore, spiritually individualistic and not racial as is the case with Ward. Since St. Thomas relates all of the processes of desire to the moral spiritual purposes of life, he descends into the individual, into the constitution of his nature to find his principle of classification. At certain points the two forms of classification overlap but the principle of discrimination is different in each case. Thus we find Ward distinguishing desires into essential and non-essential because they are essential to race continuation and progress. We find St. Thomas classifying desires according to the types of power or activity exercised in the individual. Vegetative appetency, sensitive appetency and rational appetency are three forms of nature found in man. The distinctions among them furnish St.