Can synderesis ever be extinguished? No: it is an innate orientation towards goodness that cannot be completely eradicated, ontologically speaking, even in the most vicious of people. In its exercise, however, it can become impeded “either by the darkness of blindness, or by the wantonness of pleasure, or by the hardness of obstinacy” (commentary on the Sentences 2.39: a. 2, q. 2; Potts trans. 1980: 117). In such cases, synderesis ceases to “murmur” against evil or “goad” towards the good, eithe