Every Agent Acts to Some Good.

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from Chapter III of Book III of Summa Contra Gentiles

A definite end has been proven in the previous chapter, and St. Thomas continued...

"THAT to which an agent definitely tends must be suited to it: for it would not tend to the thing except for some suitability to itself. But what is suitable to a thing is good for it. Therefore every agent acts to some good".

7. It is part of the same plan of action to shun evil and to seek good. But all things are found to shun evil. Intellectual agents shun a thing for this reason, that they apprehend its evil: while all physical agents, to the full extent of the power that is in them, resist destruction, because that is the evil of everything. All things therefore act to some good.

After this Chapter, the plan is clear. Proving that every person acts for an end in mind, he said that this end is some good. Now, there are questions on the notion of good. What about a person who is committing suicide? What about a person who steals money from the bank? Either the conclusion is incorrect, or we have a relative good for each person, destroying Morality and the notion of Good and Evil.

These objections will be answered by St. Thomas in the next two chapters. Let us see if his answers are acceptable.