Moral Morale: A Thomistic Account of Quotidian Despair and Moral Injury

This paper turns to Thomas Aquinas’s moral anthropology and theory of emotion to explore the felt lack of agency associated with feelings of despair. I argue that a distinction between a felt lack of moral agency and a diminished agency to put one’s moral values into action enables us to consider how quotidian activities, such as reading or watching news media, might cause two different yet related forms of moral injury. I begin by developing a working definition of moral injury with reference Joseph Wiinikka-Lyndon’s (2021) Murdochian account. I then use the ethical theory of Thomas Aquinas to offer a distinction between moral feeling and moral agency. I contend that this distinction aligns with forms of moral injury which I refer to as “moral injury-as-feeling” and “moral injury-as-diminished agency.” This distinction draws attention to the importance of daily practices to prevent feelings of despair from developing into habits of despair.