I. Reply to the question
Ordinatio II, d. 38, q. un.
"Is intention an act of the will alone?"
Concerning distinction 38 I ask whether intention is an act of the will alone.
Arguments for the negative:
Every per se agent acts for the sake of an end, according to Physics II [196b17–22], and therefore from intention.
Furthermore, there is no distinct vision without intention joining [the power of vision to the visible object], according to Augustine in On the Trinity XI.2.2. But there can be distinct vision preceding any act of the intellect, and consequently preceding any act of the will. Therefore, intention is not an act of the will alone.
Furthermore, Luke 11:34–5: "If your eye is simple, your whole body will be full of light"; and in the same place: "See to it, therefore, that the light that is in you not be darkness." The Gloss expounds 'eye' and 'light' as intention, and eye and light pertain to the intellect.1
Furthermore, intention involves relating one thing to another, but relating, like comparing, belongs to the intellect itself.2
On the contrary:
The Master argues for the affirmative in the text.3
And furthermore there is what Augustine says in On the Trinity XIV.3.5.
I. Reply to the question
I reply:
The first thing to examine is what is meant by the word 'intention.'4 Now 'to intend' means 'to tend toward something else.' This can be understood generally, as 1 Cf. Bonaventure, Sent. II d. 38 a. 2 q. 2 arg. 1–2 in opp. and q. 1 arg. 1.
2 Cf. ibid., a. 2 q. 2 arg. 3 in opp.
3 Peter Lombard, Sent. II d. 38 c. 4 nn. 2–6.
4 And the second (stated explicitly in the parallel text in the Lectura) is to which power the act of intention belongs.