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The Appetite of Man

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The Appetite of Man
Henri Renard – The Philosophy of Man, Chap. 7: The Appetites of Man Every human being has the natural urge to seek a good end, for the reason that is

desired and sought by the intellect of the soul alone. However, there is a continuous and

necessary order that we are follow to reach the end. Our obligation to reach an end is the

fundamentals of Metaphysics. The appetite of man can be divided into three parts; sensitive

appetite of men, the nature of intellectual will, and the nature and the need for habits. A former

professor of philosophy at Creighton University by the name of Henri Renard, expressed this

concept in his book The Philosophy of Men, which he dedicates a whole chapter to the appetite

of man though St. Thomas Aquinas’ theory.

The Sensitive appetite of men can be distinguished into the natural, the sensual, and

the intellectual appetites of man. Which contribute to the order of an ultimate perfect end? The

natural appetite of men means that without having the knowledge of an end we can still move

towards our end. This is possible because every form has thought of a natural inclination towards

an end. “All beings in act, because they have a form, have imprinted in them a natural appetite to

their end” (Renard 155). As human beings we tend to know the truth and the love of God. So to

know an end is natural because God is the author of nature which includes human beings. The

sensual appetite is another of our appetites as human beings, which is a desire for the good.

Helps distinguish between what is pleasurable and what’s not. An additional sense is the intellect

of man in which he seeks what is primarily both good and useful.

However, there is a distinction between the two types of sensitive appetites, which

include the concupiscible and the irascible. As a result the natural appetite has two direct ends

which are to

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