Intention

Intention can be defined most simply as the "why" or reason a person chooses to perform a particular action, i.e., as the person's motivation or purpose in performing the action. More technically, intention is the movement of an acting subject's will toward an end that is chosen as the object of the act (see the Catechism, Part Three, Section One, Chapter One, Article 4, n. 1752). According to St. Thomas, the movement of the will to the end (intention) and the movement of the will to the means (choice) in a particular or concrete action are one and the same thing (Summa Theologica II, Question 12, Article 4). Since there can be many ends served by a single action, it is important to distinguish between one's proximate or essential intention--one essential element of the object of an act--and the circumstantial intention. Circumstantial intentions are those further ends that are chosen in addition to the essential or proximate end of the action. Because such ends are not essential to the act, circumstantial intentions can only increase or decrease the moral goodness of an already morally good act, but they cannot determine the moral species (i.e., essential moral character) of the act.

In some cases, it is necessary to distinguish between what one directly intends and what is indirectly intended in the performance of a particular action. Such cases arise when a particular action has two inseparable consequences. A direct intention is that which the agent would choose as the desired object of the action, which also constitutes the essential or proximate intention of the act. An indirect intention is a circumstantial intention that the agent would not consider as the immediately desired result of an action, but as an inevitable and unavoidable consequence of choosing the means to the desired result. Thus, an indirectly intended bad consequence would be a foreseen and merely tolerated effect of the action but not the ultimate reason for performing the action. The undesirable effect is in a certain sense intended, since one still chooses the means, i.e., performs the action, but it is only indirectly intended since it would have been avoided if possible. This understanding of direct and indirect intent is an essential element of the principle of double effect.

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