Question Two: On the Vices Opposed to Temperance

S. Th. II-II, q. 142.

941. To temperance by defect in pleasure there is opposed insensibility or stupor. - Insensibility is a very rare vice which turns away from pleasures of touch in an undue way, so that one does not will to use them when, where, how, how much, etc., right reason dictates they are to be used.

It is a sin and vice, because it is contrary to the natural order and to the Creator, who set pleasures upon actions necessary for the life of man; whence right reason dictates that these are to be used as much as is necessary for preserving human life and the power for due offices, whether of the individual or of the species. Of itself it is venial; but mortal if from it someone omits something to which he is held under mortal sin, such as to render the conjugal debt, to take food necessary for life, etc.

It is no sin to abstain from these for an honest end, for example, health, penance, contemplation of divine things, etc., but according to right reason and without excess, so that it does not harm the fulfillment of duties (a. 1).

942. To temperance by excess in pleasure there is opposed intemperance. - Intemperance is a vice by which someone seeks pleasures of touch in an undue way and beyond measure, namely, where, when, how, etc., right reason does not dictate or more than it dictates (a. 2).

It is a sin, because it is opposed to virtue, insofar as it exceeds the mean of reason which temperance establishes in pleasures. Indeed it is most disgraceful: a) because it is concerned with pleasures common to us and the beasts, and therefore is most repugnant to the excellence of man; b) because in those pleasures less appears of the light of reason from which the beauty of virtue comes, and therefore it is more repugnant to the beauty of man (a. 4).¹

¹ Cf. q. 145, a. 2.

943. Observation. - Intemperance is a graver sin than timidity, because it is more voluntary (a. 3), or than insensibility, because it recedes more from temperance.