concupiscible

Concupiscible is an adjective used in scholastic philosophy and Catholic theology to describe one of the two main divisions of the sensitive appetite, the concupiscible and the irascible. The term derives from Latin concupiscibilis, meaning able to be desired eagerly, from concupiscere, “to long for.” It denotes the part of the soul’s appetite that moves toward or away from sensible goods in a relatively simple, immediate way.

In Aristotelian and Thomistic thought, the concupiscible appetite encompasses basic passions that orient toward readily attainable goods: love toward the good, desire for further goods, joy at good, and their contrary movements, hatred and aversion toward evil or pain, as well as sorrow at the loss of the good. These passions are distinguished from the irascible, which relates to difficult or distant goods and includes emotions such as hope, despair, fear, daring, and anger. The distinction helps explain how reason should regulate impulses toward or away from goods.

Historically, the concept appears in the works of medieval scholastics, notably Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologiae, where it figures in analyses of human passions, virtue, and moral action. In Catholic moral theology, concupiscence often refers to the disordered tendencies arising from the concatenation of concupiscible and irascible appetites, particularly after the Fall. The term concupiscible thus provides a framework for understanding how appetites can be rightly ordered by reason and grace, or disordered through sin.

See also: irascible passions, Summa Theologiae, scholastic psychology, concupiscence.