Section 4: The Social Determinants of Free-Will

Man is not merely an individual, he is also a social being, and as such his liberty of choice is influenced by several other factors in addition to those already enumerated. They are: 1. SEX. —Sex is the sum-total of the peculiarities of structure and function that distinguish the male from the female organism. Its influence is not limited to the body, but extends to the intellect and the will, and consequently affects the moral character.¹

¹ See Readings at the end of this Section.

The male sex, generally speaking, possesses greater spontaneity, energy, and strength than the female. These advantages are counterbalanced by certain defects, e. g., lack of delicacy and sentiment. The female sex, on the other hand, enjoys greater receptivity, a more delicate sense of modesty, a more intense religious sentiment² and greater patience, but is less strong in resisting evil,³ and more prone to fall.⁴

² The liturgical phrase, "devotus femineus sexus," be it remarked in passing, is merely a synonym for "virgines Deo devotae," i. e. the members of female religious orders.

³ Cfr. 1 Pet. III, 7, and the hymn for Matins in the Commune Virginum of the Roman Breviary.

⁴ Cfr. R. Stade, Aus der Gefängnisseelsorge, Leipsic 1901, pp. 56 sqq., 105 sqq.; IDEM, Frauentypen aus dem Gefängnisleben (1903), pp. 40 sqq., 57 sqq., 67 sqq.; H. F. Beneke, Gefängnisstudien, Hamburg 1903, pp. 13 sq., 76 sqq.

But though sex is a determinant of morality, it does not neutralize free-will. For in the first place the human soul or spirit is non-sexual ⁵ and the same law binds both male and female. "There is one law for men and women." as the Schoolmen put it. The assumption of a so-called double standard of morals is unchristian.⁶ Secondly, all virtues are attainable by both sexes, and neither enjoys any intellectual or moral privilege that is denied the other.⁷ Third, the sexual relations of men and women, unlike those of irrational brutes, are not governed by physical necessity, but controlled by the will,⁸ which can ennoble and spiritualize them.⁹

⁵ Cfr. St. Ambrose, Expos. Evang. sec. Luc., II, n. 28: "The soul, which has no sex." (Migne, P. L., XV, 1562); St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 1a, qu. 93, art. 6, ad 2: "The image of God is common to both sexes, since it is according to the mind, in which there is no distinction of sexes."

⁶ Cfr. 1 Cor. VII, 3-4: "Let the husband render the debt to his wife, and the wife also in like manner to the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband; and in like manner the husband also hath not power of his own body, but the wife." —Cfr. the Shepherd of Hermas, Mand. IV, 8: "This is the course of action for wife and husband." Ibid., 10: "For this reason it was enjoined on you to live by yourselves, whether husband or wife." (Ed. Funk, Vol. I, 2nd ed., p. 476, 8 and 13; Kirsopp Lake, The Apostolic Fathers, Vol. II, London 1913, p. 81). —The Corpus Iuris Canonici quotes the following from St. Ambrose (C. 4, C. XXXII, qu. 4): "A man is not permitted what a woman is not permitted. The same chastity is required of the husband as of the wife." And this from Innocent I (c. 23, C. XXXII, qu. 5): "The Christian religion condemns adultery on equal grounds in both sexes." St. Jerome in speaking on the same subject centuries before the days of Gratian insists on the striking contrast between the pagan double code of morality for men and women, and the single or equal code of Christian teaching. (Ad Oceanum, Ep. LXXVII). "The laws of the Caesars are one thing," he writes, "those of Christ another: Papinian commands one thing, our Paul another." And after describing the larger licence the Roman laws allowed to men and husbands, he sets against this the Christian code of equality: "Among us, what is not permitted to women is equally not permitted to men; and the same servitude is assessed on equal terms." Such is the contrast presented, in the judgment of St. Jerome, at the close of the fourth century, between the Christian and Pagan ideas on this question. And yet, after the lapse of fifteen hundred years, a candid historian of morals is fain to confess that the pagan idea still predominates in modern Europe.

⁷ Cfr. Gal. III, 28; Matth. XXVIII, 10; Acts XVII, 12, 34; XVIII, 2. —St. Ambrose, Expos. Evang. sec. Lucam, IV, n. 57: "The Lord came to heal both sexes, and he who 'was created first' had to be healed first; nor was she who had sinned more through fickleness of mind than through depravity to be passed over." (Migne, P. L., XV, 1629).—St. Augustine, Serm., 12 (al. 16 de Diversis), n. 12: "Wishing to bring both sexes to the hope of renewal and restoration, He chose the male sex, in which He would be born, and the female, through which He would be born." —IDEM, Serm., 190 (al. 61 de Diversis), n. 2: "Since He Himself assuredly created both sexes, that is, male and female, He therefore also wished by being born to honor both sexes, which He had come to liberate. ... The Lord, coming to seek what had been lost, wished to commend both by honoring them, because both had been lost. Therefore in neither sex ought we to do injury to Christ: the Lord's Nativity commended both to the hope of salvation. The honor of the male sex is in the flesh of Christ; the honor of the female is in the mother of Christ. The grace of Jesus Christ conquered the serpent's cunning." (Migne, P. L., XXXVIII, 106, 1008).—St. Leo the Great, Serm., 74 (al. 72), c. 3: "For this faith throughout the whole world not only men but also women, and not only immature boys but also tender virgins, contended even to the shedding of their blood." (Migne, P. L., LIV, 398).—In the benediction of the baptismal font in the Roman Missal we read: "And may mother grace bring forth into one infancy all those whom either sex distinguishes in body or age distinguishes in time."

⁸ Cfr. Matth. XIX, 11-12: "All men take not this word, but they to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs, who were born so from their mother's womb: and there are eunuchs, who were made so by men: and there are eunuchs, who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. He that can take, let him take it." —Rom. VIII, 12-14: "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you shall die: but if by the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live." —Cfr. 1 Cor. VII, 25 sqq.

⁹ Matth. XXII, 30: "For in the resurrection they shall neither marry nor be married; but shall be as the angels of God in heaven." — Cfr. Tertullian, Ad Uxorem, I, c. 1 (ed. P. Leopold, II, 62 sq.) —St. Augustine, De Civitate Dei, XXII, c. 17 (Migne, P. L., XLI, 778 sq.); IDEM, Serm., 243 (al. 6 de Divers.), n. 6 (Migne, P. L., XXXVIII, 1146). —St. Jerome, Adv. Iovin., I, c. 36 (P. L., XXIII, 261).

2. EDUCATION. —Education signifies the process of imparting and drawing out (e-ducere) knowledge, skill or discipline of character. As society is at present constituted, education is imparted partly in the home and partly at school. The early training a child receives at home is of supreme importance for his future welfare because it leaves upon the mind deep traces of good or evil.¹⁰ Whether a man will be virtuous or vicious, whether his life will redound to the advantage or detriment of his fellowmen, depends largely upon the character of the domestic circle in which he spends his youth. No other factor, agency, or institution can fully supplant a good Christian home.

¹⁰ Cfr. Plato, Politia, II, 17: For it is then especially that a character is molded and takes on the impression which anyone may wish to stamp upon each one. —Cfr. Horace, Carm., IV, 4, 29, 32 sqq.: "The brave are born of the brave and good; ... but instruction advances the inborn power, and right cultivation strengthens the heart: whenever either is lacking, faults disgrace what was well-born."

In spite of all this, however, home-life does not give a necessary predetermination for either good or evil. The will remains free, and even the most excellent training sometimes fails to bend it in the right direction. It happens that good parents have bad children,¹¹ whereas, on the other hand, a naturally good child will often preserve its innocence in spite of a bad example.

¹¹ " Filii heroum nequam."

The school supplements and completes the training received at home, and its influence on the formation of character is second only to that of the family.¹² Its chief defect is that it cannot give to each child the individual care required, and hence the influence of the school upon the moral character is less pronounced than that of the home.

¹² Cfr. the Greek proverb: Πολλοὶ μαθηταὶ κρείσσονες τῶν διδασκάλων. —Many pupils are better than their masters.

3. SOCIETY. —Human society is the sum-total of living men, considered as an aggregate, of which each individual is a member. Every man is more or less a child of his time, nation, and country, —not merely in a physical sense, i. e., by the external characteristics due to soil, climate and national type; but also intellectually and ethically, in regard to his views of right and wrong, his likes and dislikes, etc.¹³

¹³ Cfr. Ps. XVII, 26-27: "Withthe holy, thou wilt be holy; and with the innocent man thou wilt be innocent; and with the elect thou wilt be elect: and with the perverse thou wilt be perverted." —Pope Hadrian VI composed this epitaph for his tombstone: "Alas, how much it matters into what times the virtue of even the best man may fall!"

The relation existing between man's free acts and the social environment in which he lives (milieu) has been carefully investigated in recent times. It was found that certain crimes and misdemeanors recur more or less regularly under certain conditions. This observation led Lombroso and others to conclude that the law of physical causation applies to ethics and that human conduct is governed by necessity.¹⁴ With this conclusion we cannot agree, for three reasons:

¹⁴ Cesare Lombroso's writings in particular, some of which have been translated into English, have exercised a malign influence on contemporary thought. Cfr. Krauss, Der Kampf gegen die Verbrechensursachen, pp. 17 sqq.; R. Frank, Die Lehre Lombrosos, Tübingen 1908. — Enrico Ferri, another popular author, contends that crime is "a biologico-social abnormality," which has "its origin in an anti-social biological constitution, cosmic or physical," and is "the resultant of anthropological, cosmic, and social factors." (Cfr. Criminal Sociology by Enrico Ferri, tr. by J. I. Kelly, Boston 1917)- Ferri too often makes words serve in place of ideas. Put to the logical test, his system fails completely. Cfr. Charles Goring, The English Convict: A Statistical Study, London 1920.

a) That men think, feel, calculate, and act alike under similar conditions is no proof that they lack liberty of choice. b) At all times there have been many who, under identically the same circumstances, have attained a degree of moral perfection that raised them far above their fellows. c) Statistics are limited to external acts, whereas the individual inclinations and dispositions as well as the intentions and motives from which individual actions spring, and which therefore constitute the true essence of morality, elude observation and inquiry. All that science can demonstrate is to what extent men observe the law or, rather, in what degree they are given to immoral practices. Even those acts which are common to a large number of men and can therefore be statistically tabulated, remain rational and ethically free—actus humani—regardless of social and economic environment. ¹⁵ The science of what is called moral (or, more correctly, criminal) statistics devotes its attention entirely to vice and crime. Virtue, as a rule, makes no noise. An ancient Chinese proverb says: "If you do a good deed, your neighbor will never find it out; but if you commit a crime, everybody for a hundred miles around will talk about it." To regard only the evil that men do will never lead to an adequate knowledge of human nature.

¹⁵ Cfr. C. Gutberlet, Willensfreiheit, pp. 40 sqq.

READINGS. —Cath. Encyclopedia, Vol. I, p. 163; XV, 687. —A. Rosier, C.SS.R., Die Frauenfrage vom Standpunkt der Natur, der Geschichte und der Offenbarung, 2nd ed., Freiburg 1907, pp. 18 sqq., 26 sqq. —H. Marion, Psychologie de la Femme, Paris 1900.—Ch. Turgeon, Le Féminisme Français, Vol. II, Paris 1902, pp. 152 sqq. —C. Krieg, Die Wissenschaft der Seelenleitung, Vol. I, pp. 138 sqq. —A. Tanquerey, Synopsis Theologiae Moralis, Vol. II, Tournai 1905, pp. 69 sqq.

L. Desers, L'Education Morale et ses Conditions, Paris 1909. —W. Toischer, Die Macht der Schule, Prague 1897.—F. W. Foerster, Schule und Charakter, 7th ed., Zurich 1909.