Q5A1-3: According to St. Thomas, all being is good. Therefore, one assumes (and A3 pretty well says) evil is a sort of non-being, or lack. However, I have normally thought of evil as a distortion of the good. I am comfortable with the pre-existence of the good, but isn't sin an addition to the good, and thereby an evil? Doesn't the Philosopher say that vice is not only a deficiency, but also an excess of what otherwise would be a virtue?
JR
A daily slog by a few Catholic men through the Summa.
I think both the excess and the defect are "less than" the virtue, inasmuch as we learn the virtue by building "training wheels" habits. The excess is not so much too much of the virtue as too little of some other habit building other virtues. Someone who becomes obsessed with weight loss may build a habit that could lead to a certain virtue, but without attention to strength and stamina, may be building a vicious habit, instead. Correctly identifying the virtue and its relation to the total system of virtues helps us to build proper habits in support of our growth in virtue; excess and defect are more strictly properties of the total system of virtue, that is, uneven development. Section 2 of this article [ http://www.iep.utm.edu/aris-eth/#H2 ] is excellent on the subject.
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