**Medieval Philosophy
The convertability of being and goodness in Aquinas
the knife exists insofar as it is a good knife, insofar as it can cut, since cutting si the goal or function of a knife.
Good and being are identical in reality, they differ conceptually.
The terms being and good refer to the very same thing but under different descriptions, just like in Frege.
They have the same extension but different intention.
Being and goodness are transcendental concepts. Something universal that have maximal extension. Existence is the actuality of everything.
The concept of the good consists in this: that something is desirable; hence the philosopher says in that the good is what all things desire. The good is what is desirable, the source or cause of action – why something is done.
Now a thing is perfect insofar as it is actual. Completeness is actuality, or being in act.
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the good is what is desirable.
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what is desirable is desirable precisely because it is perfect.
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what is perfect is perfect only insofar as it is actual.
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The actuality of every thing is existence.
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therefore something is good inly insofar as it exists.
In God essence = existence.
There is a scale of being. At the peak, there is this supreme goodness; God. Who is also the supreme being. And the point is that he is also the pure act. It means that his essence is being in act. His essence, his whatness, is to exist. And that’s the core idea of Aquinas. This equivalence in God, between essence and existence, is what explains his scale of being, how the hierarchy of entities is built up. In God essence is identical with existence for three reasons. Causality, act and potency, and participation. God is a first cause; nothing can cause God. Most things receive its existence from something else, it is not justified in itself. Because God is the first principle, therefore, his essence must be to be, so that other things can also be.
Avicenna: the indifference of essence as such to existence: essence in itself is neither existent nor non-existent; existence is added to it from outside.
On the other hand, every essence or quiddity can be understood without its act of existing being understood. I can understand what a man or phoenix is, and yet not know whether or not it exists in the nature of things. Therefore, it is evident that the act of existing is other than essence or quiddity.
God Essence = existence
for angels Essence = form
For humans Essence = form + matter
Something is called more ore less good because of its further actualisation – for instance, because of knowledge of virtue. Unqualified goodness means absolute goodness, and if we consider the actualisation of a thing, as in the case of becoming a perfect human being, as perfection in itself, is nothing but thinking. Thinking is perfection. We are rational animals, so being good for us is to actualise our potentiality of thinking. Rationality is our specific form, or essence. From the point of view of goodness we need to perfect our potences – our rationality.
When something is evil, it is because it fails in relation to the good of its essence. Evil is the absence of goodness, or even of being. It is a lack. Being and goodness are convertible. Not just any negation of good is called evil. There is negative absence like the fact that someone can be ascribed to have the strength of a lion. It is not something that distinguishes humanity, but a particular human. This is obviously not evil. Rather privative substance is evil, when something should be there but it is not; like the lack of rational thought for humans.**