Reason's Political Alliance with Emotion

The chapter's central question

Thomas likens the relationship between will and sensuous desire to political governance. Emotions are not slaves who immediately stop when they hear a sentence from reason, but are closer to citizens with body habits, imagination, and memory. Reason offers new perspectives on objects, creates repeated habits, and indirectly leads to passion.

Read the complete essay

Thomas gave a very interesting political analogy about how to control the mind.

The method in which a master forcibly tramples and controls a slave, as if he were a slave, is called ‘despotic rule.’ Some people behave like cruel dictators when it comes to dealing with their emotions. When I feel even the slightest bit sad or angry, I force myself to block it out, saying, ‘Don’t think such pathetic thoughts!’ However, suppressed emotions will inevitably explode one day and destroy the soul.

The alternative presented by Thomas is ‘political domination (Politicus principatus).’ A good monarch respects the rights and voices of free citizens and governs his city peacefully through reasonable persuasion and laws. The reason should also avoid scolding the body's natural emotional response and say, 'I know why you're so angry.' But we need to gently persuade them, saying, “It’s better for all of us to go in this direction.”

Context and nuance

Thomas Aquinas deals with the passions in the detailed format of question-rebuttal-answer in Summa Theologiae, Part 1, Part 2 (I–II), questions 22-48. By reconstructing Aristotle's theory of the soul and ethics within the Christian understanding of human beings, we see that for humans with bodies, emotions are not accidental defects but natural movements of sensuous desires.

Political governance does not mean that you should follow your feelings because they are always right. Just as we listen to the voices of citizens and establish laws and education toward the common good, we must judge the direction of action while acknowledging the reasons for our emotions. This model, between oppression and neglect, allows us to understand self-care as an ‘inner dialogue’.

Do not oversimplify it this way

Medieval ‘passion’ does not exactly overlap with the passive passion of modern Korean. Also, the categories of desire and anger should not be treated as if they were two brain circuits or personality types. This is a system that logically divides the movement of desires according to the way good or evil comes to them with ease or difficulty.

Philosophy in life

Have you ever felt guilty because of the emotions rising like fire in your heart, even though your head said, ‘I need to forgive, I need to stay calm’?

Talking to your emotions (political harmony): Instead of scolding when you get angry, gently ask, ‘What are the values I want to protect now?’

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