Thomas Aquinas · Deep Essay · Chapter 02
Two Families of Passion: Attraction and Difficulty
How do emotions change when good or evil appears easy to approach versus difficult to attain or avoid?
The short answer
Concupiscible passions concern good and evil considered directly: love, desire, pleasure, hatred, aversion, and sorrow. Irascible passions respond when difficulty appears: hope, despair, fear, daring, and anger.
Read more deeply
A desired good produces simple longing when it seems within reach. Add a serious obstacle and longing becomes hope if attainment still appears possible, or despair if it does not. A difficult threat calls forth fear when defeat seems likely and daring when resistance seems possible. Emotion thus contains an appraisal of capacity and future.
This helps explain why information alone may not change feeling. Two people can value the same goal yet differ in hope because they judge resources, support, and possibility differently. Practical care may need to change the situation or the person's sense of available agency, not merely repeat that the goal is good.
Context and caution
‘Irascible’ does not mean that every emotion in the group is aggressive. Difficulty, not hostility, is the organizing feature; anger is one specific response within it.
Primary-source guide
Primary guide: Summa Theologiae I–II, qq. 22–48, especially qq. 24, 25, 38, and 40–48.
Pathos Editorial · Reviewed 2026-09-12