The Sensitive Appetite in Man

No appetite is a knowing power, but cognitionalappetite is aroused by knowing. Knowledge lays hold of its object; appetite only tends to its object. Hence knowing is sometimes called rest, and appetizing is called movement.

Sentient or sensitive appetency is of two kinds. Aconcupiscible appetite is a simple tendency towards what is sense das good and away from what is sensed as evil. An irascible appetite is a tendency to overcome difficulty or hindrance in attaining good and avoiding evil. Thus sentient desire is a concupiscibleappetite; courage or daring is an irascible appetite. These two types of appetite or appetency in the sense-order are species ofone genus. They cannot be reduced to one specific kind, forirascible appetency tends to grapple with difficulties from whichconcupiscible appetite tends away.

Reason, that is, the thinking mind, can exercise acontrollinginfluence upon the sentient appetency; by thinking, a person can stir up desire or courage; by fixing the mind on pacific things, a man can allay anger. The will controls the lower appetites by directing the mind’s attention to objects other than those to which the appetites tend. Reason and will (and these two faculties together are most frequently called by the simple name of reason) have no absolute or despoticcontrol over the lower appetites; they exercise a politic and persuasive influence.