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Objection 1: It would seem that the increase of habits is by way of
addition. For the word "increase," as we have said, is transferred
to forms, from corporeal quantities. But in corporeal quantities
there is no increase without addition: wherefore (De Gener. i,
text. 31) it is said that "increase is an addition to a magnitude
already existing." Therefore in habits also there is no increase
without addition.
Objection 2: Further, habit is not increased except by means of
some agent. But every agent does something in the passive subject:
for instance, that which heats, causes heat in that which is heated.
Therefore there is no increase without addition.
Objection 3: Further, as that which is not white, is in
potentiality to be white: so that which is less white, is in
potentiality to be more white. But that which is not white, is not
made white except by the addition of whiteness. Therefore that which
is less white, is not made more white, except by an added whiteness.
On the contrary, The Philosopher says (Phys. iv, text. 84):
"That which is hot is made hotter, without making, in the matter,
something hot, that was not hot, when the thing was less hot."
Therefore, in like manner, neither is any addition made in other
forms when they increase.
I answer that, The solution of this question depends on what we have
said above (Article 1). For we said that increase and decrease in
forms which are capable of intensity and remissness, happen in one way
not on the part of the very form considered in itself, through the
diverse participation thereof by the subject. Wherefore such increase
of habits and other forms, is not caused by an addition of form to
form; but by the subject participating more or less perfectly, one and
the same form. And just as, by an agent which is in act, something
is made actually hot, beginning, as it were, to participate a form,
not as though the form itself were made, as is proved in Metaph.
vii, text. 32, so, by an intense action of the agent, something
is made more hot, as it were participating the form more perfectly,
not as though something were added to the form.
For if this increase in forms were understood to be by way of
addition, this could only be either in the form itself or in the
subject. If it be understood of the form itself, it has already been
stated (Article 1) that such an addition or subtraction would change
the species; even as the species of color is changed when a thing from
being pale becomes white. If, on the other hand, this addition be
understood as applying to the subject, this could only be either
because one part of the subject receives a form which it had not
previously (thus we may say cold increases in a man who, after being
cold in one part of his body, is cold in several parts), or because
some other subject is added sharing in the same form (as when a hot
thing is added to another, or one white thing to another). But in
either of these two ways we have not a more white or a more hot thing,
but a greater white or hot thing.
Since, however, as stated above (Article 1), certain accidents
are of themselves susceptible of more or less, in some of these we may
find increase by addition. For movement increases by an addition
either to the time it lasts, or to the course it follows: and yet the
species remains the same on account of the oneness of the term. Yet
movement increases the intensity as to participation in its subject:
i.e. in so far as the same movement can be executed more or less
speedily or readily. In like manner, science can increase in itself
by addition; thus when anyone learns several conclusions of geometry,
the same specific habit of science increases in that man. Yet a man's
science increases, as to the subject's participation thereof, in
intensity, in so far as one man is quicker and readier than another in
considering the same conclusions.
As to bodily habits, it does not seem very probable that they receive
increase by way of addition. For an animal is not said to be simply
healthy or beautiful, unless it be such in all its parts. And if it
be brought to a more perfect measure, this is the result of a change in
the simple qualities, which are not susceptible of increase save in
intensity on the part of the subject partaking of them.
How this question affects virtues we shall state further on (Question
66, Article 1).
Reply to Objection 1: Even in bodily bulk increase is twofold.
First, by addition of one subject to another; such is the increase of
living things. Secondly, by mere intensity, without any addition at
all; such is the case with things subject to rarefaction, as is stated
in Phys. iv, text. 63.
Reply to Objection 2: The cause that increases a habit, always
effects something in the subject, but not a new form. But it causes
the subject to partake more perfectly of a pre-existing form, or it
makes the form to extend further.
Reply to Objection 3: What is not already white, is potentially
white, as not yet possessing the form of whiteness: hence the agent
causes a new form in the subject. But that which is less hot or
white, is not in potentiality to those forms, since it has them
already actually: but it is in potentiality to a perfect mode of
participation; and this it receives through the agent's action.
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