Philosophy of Perfect Virtues
Bernardo Marcelo Dainese
Part I: Introduction to the Moral and Perfect Virtues:
Aristotelian definition of Virtue:
Aristotle says in Nicomachean Ethics Book IV, chapter 2 that “virtue ethics is a way of being on the choise and the choise is a deliberate desire”.
The man’s philosophical division:
To better expose Aristotle’s definition we give the two philosophical division of men:
1) We affirm that Plato in his Republic, Book IV, reports that Socrates mentioned the threefold division of the soul: a)rational, b) Passion, c) Part appetitive (desire).
2)The philosophical systems usually divided man into a duality of body and soul. In the Byble man is tripartite between a) body, b) soul, c)spirit, 1 Thessalonians 5:23
We give bellow the definitions of soul and spirit:
The soul is the firts mobile engine, is the perfection of the body, says Aristotle in The Anima.
The spirit is the divine substance Thomas Aquinas says in Summa Theologica.
So Thomas Aquinas mentions two types of appetites (Part Ia, Issue 80)
1)Sensitive appetite which originates in the soul and identify with the desire of enjoyment.
2)Intelectual appetite that comes from the spirit and identifies with the desire for good. The desire for good is desire for perfection, is the taste for wisdom.
Virtue Classes:
Combining the three divisions of the soul of Socrates and the triple divison of man we can say in practical terms there are two kinds of virtues, whose origine on the desire:
1)Moral Virtues whose origin is the desire for happiness (soul) as follows: Prudence, Justice, Temperance, Fortitude
2)Perfect Virtue or Ethical Virtue: the origine is the desire for good (spirit) as follows: Charity (love to virtue), Wisdom, Perseverance, Discernment.
Analysis of the Moral Virtues:
Thomas Aquinas synthesized the moral virtues or virtues of the soul in 4 (Part I-Iiae, Question 61), and that any action required of them: Temperance, Fortitude, Justice, Prudence.
In his book tell us: “that virtue is required for these things: first you know what you are doing; second choise, and choose for a particular purpose; third, to stand firm and still in the act.
Knowing what you do, mean the best reason you want and that works and it makes for prudence.
The choise means that we do not act by passion and that make temperance.
The order involves a particular purpose because it is justice.
The stand firm and still in the act means striving and this is to have fortitude.
Features of the Moral Virtues:
Goal:own happiness
Moderate Selfishness
Are means
Are static (no growth)
Law of the las effort
They “practice”
They originate in the soul
Analisys of the Perfect Virtues:
Perfect Virtues are also called spiritual gift by Thomas Aquinas in Summa Theologica, are the highest virtues of its genre and have their origine in the intelectual appetite (desire for good).
Thomas Aquinas distinguished in creation there are different degrees of perfection and perfect virtues can be classified in degrees of perfection:
1) Perfect Virtues of the Will: Retitude, Mercy, Serenity (Fear of god), Continuous Improvement
2) Perfect Virtues of the Understanding: Understanding, Discernment, Wisdom.
3) Perfect Virtues of the Character: Perseverance, Eternal Life.
Main characteristics of the Perfect Virtues:
1) End: Common good and the betterment of society
2) They are means and ends
3) Implies growth
4) Are purified, bring us closer to the truth
5) We describe how to act with excelence
6) They “live”
What is the relationship between the moral and perfect virtues?
Aristotle in his Politics says that men naturally seeks happiness and pursue it to be linked together and founded the polis or community, and this serves justice and moral values to this desire of the soul.
But to have quality of life the polis needs someting else and this are the Perfect Virtues. In other words moral values make the existance of the polis and the Perfect Virtues the quality of life. That’s why when a society is in crisis is for lack of desire for good.
Part II: Basical Methaphysical Definitions:
Concept of Perfection:
From the metaphysical point of view, see Aristotle’s Methapysics Book V, Chapter 16, is called perfection to the following:
1) That out of wich it is impossible to find any part thereof, for example, full time is that everything outside of wich is impossible to find a time that is not part of this time.
2) What in terms of excellence and goodness can not be surpassed in its kind, for example, a physician and a flautist are perfect when they do not need anything for their own excellence...And excellence is a type of perfection, everything is perfect and a substance is perfect when on its own kind of excellence is not lacking any part of its natural size.
3) Of the things that come to an end and it ‘s good, are said to be complete and perfect, because they have reached their end. So given that the end is a type of extreme...
Application of the concept of perfection in Summa Theologica
Tomas Aquinas in Summa Theologica (Part I) states in Article 2 item 4 the following:
“In God are the perfection of all things” And is said to be absolutely perfect because it lacks any grandeur that is in any genre.
That is there perfection in the creation and attribute a divine origine, so the perfection are spiritual gifts. He argues that there are different degrees of perfection in the universe and that is the desire of God shine his perfections to the creatures.
Examples of Perfection:
1) The feelings are a genre, there are many kinds of feelings, what is the feeling that can not be surpassed on its kind? Invariably, the most excellent feeling is the love perfected by the nature of good. Love the good, also called Agape in the Gospels. For this we say that the Agape, the law of God, is Perfect Virtue.
2) In the sciences. What is the most perfect? That wich is about the ultimate principles, as Aristotle says in Metaphysics, that is wisdom. Therefore wisdom is a spiritual gift, a perfection.
3) When the virtue is greatest in its genre we say it is a perfect virtue. Examples: Wisdom, Mercy, Undertanding, Serenity.
Definition of essence:
Is the distinctive caracteristic of being, is what gives being to something.
Examples: the essense of the rational man is the reason, the essense of God is wisdom. The essences can be grouped by common caracteristics in genres.
Definition of genre (Metaphysics Book V, agreed on XXVIII)
1 - If there is continues generation of things that have the same species; for example, while exist human genre it means while is continued the generation of them.
2 - A genre is that one from what the things come, what first moves them towards its being …
3 - I generate to the way in which the surface is the genre of the flat figures and the solid thing of the solid ones … The genre in this sense is what sublies to the differences.
4 - The first component of the definitions that is formulated in the quididad is the genre, and its qualities are called differences.
And so, one speaks about genre in all these senses: according to the continuous generation of the same species, according to the first engine belonging to the same species of the blurred thing, and, finally, like matter, since what has difference and quality is the subject, which we call a matter.
Different in genre it is said of the things which first subject is different, and that not even the one are solved neither in other one or both in a common subject; for example the form and the matter are different for the genre, and also this it is quite what is preached according to figures different from the category of the Being.
Definition of part (Metaphysics Book V, Chapter XXV):
Of that one in what it is possible to divide the form to the margin of the quantity it is said that it is a part of the form; hence we say that the species are parts of the genre.
Definition of Deprivation (Metaphysics freed V chapter XXII):
1-If there is not any of the attributes that by nature are possessed, even if the subject in question is not suitable for nature to have it; for example we say that a plant is deprived of eyes.
2-Si the thing if or its genre does not have an attribute that for nature corresponds to him; for example a blind man and a mole are deprived of sight in different senses; this one with regard to its genre, that one for himself.
3-If, although one is suitable for nature to possess something, it is not had at the moment when for nature it corresponds; the blindness is a deprivation, but one is not a blind person at all the ages, but only if sight is not had at the age in which it corresponds to take it as a nature.
Third part: analysis of practical cases
The first Case: Judgment error, Joshep butler of Putifar, Genesis 39:1-23
When Joshep was taken to Egypt, Putifar – an Egyptian who was an official of the Pharaoh, captain of guards - bought it to the ismaelitas that had taken it there … As Joseph was good-looking and of good presence, the wife of his boss fixed his eyes on him and said to him: "Go to bed with me”. But he refused and answered to the woman: "Having me to my, my boss does not think already about the matters of the house, why he has entrusted to me everything what it possesses … how am I going to commit such a serious crime and to sin against God?” … But one day, José entered the house to expire with its obligations, at the precise moment in which the whole personnel was absent. Then she took it of the clothes and insisted to him: "Go to bed with me”. But the scaped, leaving its cloak in the hands of the woman.
She kept José's cloak up to the return of its husband, and then it told him the history:“ The Hebrew slave that you brought us has made fun of me and he tried to violate me. But when I shout asking for help, but he left its cloak next to me and I escape”. On having heard the words of its wife: "Your slave did this and this to me”, … it made to stop Joseph, and put it in the jail where the prisoners of the king were imprisoned. Like that it went to stop to the jail.
Explanation:
Let's see this from the moral values, that is to say the Justice and the Prudence. Is it a just and prudent Putifar?
It is just he imprisons Joseph to be judged and submitted to judgment. It is prudent because he takes as an end to defend its family, that is to defend his own happiness, and it takes as average the values of the allegiance and the love to its wife.
Does it do correct Putifar? Obviously Not. This demonstrates to us that the moral values are not sufficient to work the good.
What is needed then to do the correct thing?
The answer is simple: Wisdom.
Let's see then the following illustrative cases
Second Case: Retitude of Judgment. The tax due to the authority (Mark 12: 14-17)
They sent to him later a few Pharisees and Herodianos to surprise it in some of its affirmations. They were and they said to him: "Teacher, we know that you are sincere and do not bear in mind the condition of the persons, why you do not concentrate on the category of anybody, but you teach with all loyalty the God's way. Is it allowed to pay the tax or not? Must we pay or not it?”.
But, … he said to them: "Show me a denario”. When they showed them to themselves, I ask: "Of whom is it this figure and this inscription?” They answered: "Of Cesar”. Of that time Jesus said to them: "Give to Cesar what is of Cesar and to God what belongs to God”. And they remained surprised by the answer.
Explanation:
There proves to be this pericopa to us how it is solved correctly: How does Jesus do?, it resolves with Gift of Council (Tomas de Aquino, Theological Sum), with Exact Justice (Aristotle, Rhetoric), with Sacred Listening.
Of what does the advice or listening consist practically?
1. To listen, that is to say to perceive with attention
2 to meditate, with intuition and inspiration to resolve creativamente.
3 to decide or to answer with discernment
Then this way Jesus resolves.
Third Case: Retitude of Judgment. The Adulterous woman (Juan 8:3-9)
The Scribes and the Pharisees brought to him a woman who had been surprised in adultery and, putting it in the middle of all, they said to Jesus: Teacher this woman has been surprised in flagrant adultery. Moses, in the Law, ordered us to stone this class of women. And you: What do you say? They were saying this it to put itself to the test, in order to be able to accuse it. Pero Jesus, inclining, began to write in the soil with the finger. As they were insisting, I straighten up and he said to them: "The one that should not have sin that throws the first stone”. And inclining again he kept on writing in the soil. On having heard these words, they all moved back, one after other beginning for the most aged.
Explanation:
How does Jesus resolve? In a similar way to the previous one, that is to say the first it perceives the situation with attention, then he meditates with intuition and inspiration and then he answers with discernment. But this case presents something particular, they are still to stone a woman any minute now, it is a situation that can end concerning seconds, it is a rapid but meditate answer.
Classes of persons opposite to a problem:
Since we can observe Jesus they possess a skill to solve correctly that obviously Putifar the Egyptian does not have.
Putifar is a virtuous man, that is to say, he has a problem and: what does?
He looks for a just solution, a prudent solution and when it found it with that it resolves.
Jesus think differently, he is not serching a just and prudent solution, the search of between all the possible just and prudent solutions the best, and this is the correct solution.
Is it observed then, that a just solution is not the same as a correct solution?
We have then 3 classes of persons opposite to a problem:
1 - The virtuosos, who practise the Art of living (Prudence and moral values)
2 - The wise persons, the spiritual ones, who lives the art of listening
3 - The perverse ones who practise the astuteness and the trick.
For the analysis of these cases let's bear in mind that the intuition and the inspiration belong to the spiritual sphere, on the other hand the imagination and the fantasy to the sphere of the soul. “I am prudent because I imagine that can happen something to me.”
It is important to emphasize that the wise person and the prudent one opposite to a problem use different faculties from the mind, the prudent one the faculties of the soul (imagination and fantasy), the wise person the spiritual faculties (intuition, inspiration, creativity).
The fourth Case: The justice and the mercy. The son repent and excused (Lucas 15: 11 – 32)
Jesus said also: "A man had two children. Their minor said to its father: ' Father, give me the heredity that corresponds to me’. And the father distributed its goods. A few days later, the younger son gathered everything what tapeworm and it went away to a distant country, where waste its goods in a licentious life. It had already spent everything, when many misery supervened in that country, and he began to suffer deprivations. Then it put itself to the service of some of the inhabitants of this region, which sent it to its field to take care of pigs. The would wished to calm its famine with the acorns that the gluttons ate, but nobody was giving them to himself. Then reflect and he said: ' All the day labourers of my father have bread in abundance, and I am here dying of famine! Right now I will go to the house of my father and will say to him: ' Father I sin against the sky and against you; I do not deserve to be called already your son, treat me as one of your day labourers Then returned to the house of his father.
When it was still far, its father saw it and shook deeply; it ran to its meeting, embraced it and kissed it. The young man said to him: ' Father should sin against the sky and against you; I do not deserve to be called your son’. But the father said to its servants: ' Bring immediately the best clothes and dress him, put a ring to the finger and sandals in the feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's eat and let's celebrate, why my son was dead and it has returned to the life, it was lost and it was found’. And the holiday began.
The elder son was in the field. On having returned, already close to the house, it heard the music and the choirs that were accompanying the dance. And calling one of the servants, I ask him that it was meaning that. He answered him: ' Your brother has returned, and your father made to kill the fattened calf, because it has recovered it healthily and safely’. I get angry and he did not want to enter. Its father went out to ask him to enter, but he answered him: ' It has been years since I serve to you, without never having disobeyed not only one of your orders, and you never gave me a kid to do a holiday with my friends. And now when this son of yours has returned, after having spent your goods with women, you make to kill for him the fattened calf.
Explanation:
That is saying this parable to us. Sometimes what is entupid for the reason is intelligent for the heart. For what does the faithful son ask? He asks to solve with Justice (moral virtue), that is to say proportionality it to be in the dealing, skylight this is the justice definition to give and to receive in a proportional way; and the father? With what does it resolve?
It resolves with more, resolves with the best thing, resolves with mercy (perfect virtue), he answers it to himself. Then in this case to resolve whith means to resolve, if, but the minimal thing and resolve with mercy it is to resolve with execellence, with more.
Five Case: Continuous improvement. The weddings of Cana. (Jhon 2: 1-10)
Three days later there were celebrated the weddings of Cana of Galilee, and Jesus's mother was there. Jesus also was invited by its disciples. And since wine was missing, Jesus's mother said to him: "They have no wine”. Jesus answered him: "Woman: what do we have that it sees? My hour has not come yet”. But its mother said to the servants: "Do everything what says to them”.
There were there six stones earthen jugs destined to the rites of purification of the Jews, who were containing approximately hundred liters each one. Jesus said to the servants: "Fill with water these earthen jugs”. And they filled them up to the rim. “Extract now, added Jesus, and take the manager of the banquet”. This way they did it. The manager proved the water changed into wine and as he was ignoring its origin, although it was known by the servants who had extracted the water, called the husband and said to him: "The good wine always makes use first and when they all have drunk good, that of low quality is brought. You, on the other hand, have kept the good wine up to this moment”
Explanation:
How does Jesus solve this problem?
Let's see, he makes a new wine that improves the previous wine, that is to say he does the best wine, it is not simply a wine of equal quality to the previous one (if the moral virtue of the Fortitude). Jesus “resolves with the best thing”, with excellence resolves with continuous improvement (perfect virtue). And what is Continuous Improvement? It is to do and small progress settles, but in a constant way, and measurable in the time. It is a Perfect Virtue. This is also what the Japanese call a System Kaizen.
Sixth Case: Serenity or Temperance? The announcement of the treachery of Judas (Mateo 26: 20-25).
To the evening, it was to the table with the Twelve and, while they ate, Jesus said to them: "I make them sure that one of you should deliver me”. Deeply upset, did they begin wondering one for one: "Will be I, Teacher”? He answered: "The one that finishes of making use of the same source that I, that one is going to deliver to me. The Son of the man goes away, as it is written of, but: oh of that one for whom the Son of the Man will be dedicated: better it would be not to have been born!” Judas, which was going to deliver it, asked him:” Will be I, Teacher?”. “You have said it”, answered him Jesus.
Explanation:
Jesus how faces the situation?: With Temperance?, the temperance is a moral virtue of the appetite, it is the moderation of the passions, normally this moderation or virtue can be accompanied in many cases of anxiety, of affliction, of sorrow, of pain. But in this case he understand his destiny “without affliction”, “without anxiety”, “without hate”. The low passions are extinct, that is to say it faces the situation with Serenity (perfect virtue).
Seventh Case: Fortitude, Continuos Improvement or Perseverance?
The first Text that we use: The flagellation and the coronation of thorns (Jhon 19: 1-11), Second Text that we use: Jesus's crucifixion (Jhon 19: 17 - 22).
The first Text: (We use only a part of the Pericopa)
Pilatos ordered then to flog Jesus. The soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put themselves it on the head.
Second Text:
Jesus, carry on the cross, it went out of the city to go to the called place “of the Skull”, in Hebrew, “Gólgota“. There they crucified it;.
Explanation:
Let's see Jesus has Fortitude (moral virtue)? It is said about the Fortitude: "It is the moral virtue that assures in the difficulties the steadfastness and the steadfastness in the search of the good.”
Clearly there is “more than fortitude”, they flog Jesus to debilitate it and to do that it does not load with the Cross, Jesus resists the enclosed pain when it is prolonged (it loads with the cross during long stretch), “it bears the extreme pain” to realize the task and this is the main characteristic of the Perseverance (perfect virtue).
Conclusion of the analysis of practical cases:
To resolve with a moral value is to resolve with the acceptable minimal thing socially, to resolve with a gift or perfect virtue is to resolve with excellence.
Part Fourth: Definitions of the Perfect Virtues:
Gnosis:
To the spirit, it is identified by the desire for good, which is a desire of improvement, desire for perfection, is the taste of wisdom.
Let's remember that the desire for good is the taste for the wisdom, and we all retain in memory what we like, there exists a form of the memory related to the taste. This form of memory is the internal engine of the gnosis.
It is the wisdom retention what pushes internally the gnosis.
To retain always in mind means to bear the knowledge of wisdom, remember even for years. Let's remember that the wisdom is the knowledge of the correct means to live.
The gnosis is a sudden jump in the mental energy, it is the fructification of the gifts, it is a heart repentance. In neurological terms it is the creation of new sinapsis.
The gnosis happens in a given moment, it is an internal psychic phenomenon.
The gnosis takes place for double push that is to say for the simultaneous push of the grace (God's favor) and the retention of knowledge.
Its result is the acquisition of the Gifts of the Understanding that are: Wisdom, Discernment, Understanding.
The gnosis is the step of the love of the soul (Philos) to the love of the spirit (Agape, Love to the Good)
To understand the importance of the Gnosis we will give the following Biblical passage that finds in 2 Chronicles 1: 1 - 13.
“In Gabaon, the Gentleman one appeared to Salomón in a sleep, during the night. God said to him: "Ask me for what you should want”. Salomón respondió:... Give, then, to your servant a heart that can listen, to judge your people, and to discern between the good and evil” … and God said to him: … I give you a wise and understood heart”
Explanation:
If it is observed, seemingly a desire is offered to Salomón, in fact God is not offering him. He is asking him about what more he wishes, and it be remembered that what more is wished is for what one asks first, and in this case Salomón he asks for the aptitude to work good, that is to say of "listening".
What says the text to us is that when the biggest desire is the desire to work the good or desire for good, three extra skills arise.
These extra skills are:
1) Wise heart or Spiritual Gift of Wisdom, in practical terms it is the love for the virtue, the correct means lo live and the truth. The wisdom is compared often with the salt and called key of the science. "Because each one will be salted by the fire” Mark 9:49, because like the salt the wisdom has its own flavor, the fire symbolizes the Gnosis, the renaissance across the god energy.
2) Understood heart or Understanding: it is the called Superior Reason, the “Good Intelligence” according to Aristotle, it is the perception of the Divine Order or cosmic Order, which expresses itself in practical terms in a code of universal ethics, it is in practical terms the skill of realizing ethical reasonings, it is the “Eye of the Mind” (Oriental religions). In the gospels who do not possess this skill they are called “blind persons“, “to live in the darkness” is to live without understanding in the Christianity. Some authors were calling to the understanding top reason to separate from the common and current reason also called natural or low reason. It is the intelligent desire, it is the reason that loves the good. Its main characteristics are the precision and the accuracy that is translated in the capacity of “reading inside” that is to say of perceiving the "essence" across the "forms".
3) Discernment: it is the aptitude to separate in an adapted way the good and evil. It is a capacity it is intimately tied to the listening, “we listen to discern” but more that not at all this capacity arises from the aptitude to identify the ego with the good, this way by identification it is detected when something is good and for contrast or opposition when something is bad. Of a way it discerns the perverse or evil one. The discernment gift is the intelligent desire that he debates accompanied by the reason.
We have like that three perfection or Gifts that arise after the Gnosis, called “Gifts of the understanding” for Tomas de Aquino.
Serenity:
The Serenity as imitation of God (Perfect Virtue of the Will)
On having mentioned the gifts in Summa Teologica, Tomas Aquinas distinguishes basically the gifts of the will, to which there belongs the God's Fear (Serenity); and the Gifts of the Understanding. The God's Fear, it is the name that was used in the Middle Ages to designate the Serenity, this gift is defined as a constancy, a firmness, a devotion. It is one of the most important gifts of the Christian religion.
Reasons for which it is like that:
1) We speak about constancy in the faith, like requisite to grow in the same one.
2) In the parable of the sower there are three classes of man: 1) those who listen to the word and trample on it, 2) those who listen to it with happiness but for the problems of the life they forget it, 3) those who listen to it, retain it and put it in practice with "constancy, firmness" and these are those who bear fruit. The Serenity is the way towards the gnosis
Not to confuse the Fortitude that is a virtue on the control of the appetites with the serenity. The Fortitude has its origin in the soul (sensitive appetite), it is a cardinal virtue. The God's Fear on the other hand has its origin in the spirit (appetite intelective)
The Serenity as resemblance to God (Perfect Virtue of the Understanding)
The Serenity in the first moment was defined as constancy, firmness, devotion. This Spiritual Gift suffers a transformation after the gnosis reaching a new level that is described as equanimity, stability.
Why is it like that? The Gnosis is a heart repentance, in practical terms it is the creation of new sinapsis. The way of thinking changes (effect of the heart repentance), and as the thoughts generate emotions, the Gnosis affects the emotional system. The low passions become extinct with the Gnosis.
The fear of the death, the anxiety, the hate, the envy are feelings that a pure of heart (person integrates, which loves the good) can comprise intellectually but not experiment.
The result of this is the "mental stability" that makes possible to listen to the voice God (Gift of Council).
A practical example: in the gospels when they are still to stone to the prostitute Jesus answers "the one that should be holy that throws the first stone"; this is a rapid but meditate answer. This skill only is possible becuause the mind does not turn out to be affected by passions.
The Serenity then in its "complete" form is defined as a devotion, constancy, firmness, stability, equanimity.
That's why the Serenity is one of the least included gifts.
Examples of this gift:
1) Announcement of the angel to Maria: devotion
2) In the last dinner crucifix recognizes after its deliverer without experiencing sadness, not hate, Judas Iscariote: this is a stability
3) Poncio Pilatos questions Christ and asks him: Are you a king of the Jews? You say it, that Christ answers: this is a firmness.
Retitude:
It is to do the correct thing in the correct moment with the correct means to obtain a correct end.
1) As Perfect Virtue of the will:
As perfect virtue of the will is to act for ethical beginning, the golden rule: do for the others what you would like that they were doing for you.
2) As Perfect Virtue of the understanding:
The second aspect is like a perfect virtue of the understanding here it is Gift of Council (Tomas Aquinas) or sacred listening (to listen: that is to say to perceive with attention, to meditate with intuition and inspiration, to decide with discernment), in practical terms the listening is not to listen to the voice of the conscience but the god's voice.
When to listen to the voice of the conscience there are used the faculties of the soul that are the imagination and the fantasy and this is prudence. On the other hand when there are used the spiritual faculties that are the intuition, the inspiration and the creativity listens to the God's voice.
Mercy:
It is defined as an amability, gentleness, benedicencia. The benedicencia is to avoid to speak badly about the others. The compassion is defined also as "an ethical friendship" (Aristotle), in contrast to the justice that is defined as "a widespread friendship" (Aristotle).
Continuous improvement:
Is to settle small goals of a progressive way, measurable and logrables in the time.
Wisdom:
It is the love for the truth and the virtue
Understanding:
Tomas de Aquino supports that San Agustín calls Understanding to any intellectual illustration (Summa Teologica Divides II Question 8), nevertheless it supports the existence of the Understanding as gift, which happens along with that of Council, Science and Wisdom
Tomas de Aquino in Theological Sum distinguishes two potency the appetite intelective and the sensitive appetite (Part Ia, question 80).
The sensitive appetite identifies with the desire of the soul, that is to say the natural happiness desire.
The appetite intelective on the other hand with the pleasure for the divine things, that is to say to the spirit said otherwise to the desire for good, which is the taste for wisdom. The Understanding as Spiritual Gift answers to the above mentioned desire.
The understanding as gift arises with the Gnosis. It is intimately associated with the gift of the Serenity, parable of the sower.
In its reasoning it continues and supports that there corresponds to the understanding the intimate penetration of the things (Part II, Question 8, Theological Sum), said otherwise the understanding is the talented reason of ''' precision and accuracy ''', it is the reason that loves the good (Agape, Love without passion) or good intelligence. It is the form of the reason that arises when the desire of the good prevails. This does that the understanding in practical terms is translated in the aptitude to realize "ethical reasonings", to work on ''' essences ''' not on ''' you form ''' or ''' appearances '''.
The Understanding is considered to be a divine attribute, a perfection or if the same God intelligence is preferred.
Discernment:
It is the aptitude to separate appropriately the good of the evil, giving him to the understanding an edifying sense.
Perseverance:
The Perseverance is defined as the daily determination to work the good and to avoid the evil. Its main characteristic is the resistance to the enclosed pain when it is long. The Perseverance perfects the grace, and it is related to the fruits of the spirit. "The one that perseveres even the end will be safe" M 24:13.
Eternal Life or Contemplative:
Basically it is a Contemplative activity, also in the second instance it is a longevity. By this in some philosophies (Tao) it is named immortality.
