The 60-Second Aquinas
Lesson
Freedom of Choice Revisited
August 15, 1998
"There’s only two things ya gotta do," the old saying goes, "die and pay taxes."
Of course, you don’t HAVE to pay taxes. People do to avoid certain consequences. You have to obey the law unless you want to pay the price for not doing so.
Death, on the other hand, comes whether we want it to or not.
The freedom to choose, I have said in previous lessons, is an integral part of being human and having free will. But, perhaps I have not explained freedom to choose well enough.
Aquinas said, "what is a cause unto itself is precisely what we call free" (Compendium Ch. 76). He goes on to explain how intellectual beings comprehend a desired end and the means needed to achieve it. The being then can choose to act upon it.
Now, since we obviously did not cause our own existence, we did not have freedom of choice in regards to our very being. Neither do we have freedom of choice with regards to our death. We will inevitably die.
Between birth and death however, we have the freedom to choose our actions.
Explanation of The 60-Second Aquinas Lesson
