It has been a while since I've done one of these posts. Semi-random thoughts from the notebook I carry around everywhere, some interesting, some silly, some somewhere in between.
the triple solidarity of the Church
(1) solidarity by similitude (each in the Image of Christ)
(2) solidarity by division of labor (the organic Body of Christ)
(3) solidarity by equability (the bond of charity and peace)
principium exclusae collisionis officiorum
reason that is lively & mixed with some propensity
doxastic uneasiness ("uneasiness arises from the opposition of two contrary principles" T 206)
(1) sacrifice one principle to the other
(2) oscillating assent
(3) palliative hypothesis (we muddle the matter up so the opposition is less obvious)
(4) restrict one or both of the principles
"Not being able to do the work of the angels in choir, we can at least write about them." Thomas Aquinas
networks of influence vs. hierarchies of prestige
ethics works on the basis of an infrastructure, which it requires; but it has little infrastructure of its own & so borrows political, social, & religious infrastructure
the use of associative correlatives (Treat. SBN 107) in poetry & art (description by associative correlatives)
In the Vision at Ostia, the conversation of Monica and Augustine adumbrates the conversation of the saints in heaven.
For Hume's "calm passion" substitute "settled principle of action" (cf. T 419)
Education is indeed an artificial cause, & its maxims are frequently contrary to reason, & even to themselves at different times & places; but it is not, for all that, a fallacious ground of assent, merely an incomplete one. It grounds assent together with the grounds for the doctrine itself; those grounds remain as they are whether we are aware of them or not. In education, then, we witness an intellectual division of labor (sometimes this division is merely temporary & provisional, sometimes not), and see how being rational involves, and does not merely suggest, being social.
the philosophical Grand Tour
networks of personal acquaintance
vs. networks of philosophical influence
vs. networks of infrastructure
vs. networks of opposition
"Novels are the Socratic dialogues of our time." Schlegel
We act according to our rational natures when we desire virtue, strive for virtue, and contemplate what is.
Sophists always prove themselves wrong by showing how they are right.
exclusive or as exclusive some
It is part of human nature to be joined together in a bond of peace.
sagacity: scent of the truth in advance
Nota notae rei est nota rei ipsius.
Repugnans nota notae rei, repugnat rei ipsi.
->it would seem that these both need qualification
Faith as a capacity for invention, by which we are qualified for transfiguring & divinizing in new ways the elements of our lives
the horse-taming Trojans tamed by a horse
Thought experiments & intuition pumps & counterexamples presuppose univocity (this is because they are abbreviated inductions & inductions require an adequate division).
One may describe through the ratio or analogy of two vocabularies what neither vocabulary on its own can describe.
We sing not merely with voice but with human reason.
"For there is in me a lamentable darkness in which my latent possibilities are hidden from myself, so that my mind, questioning itself upon its own powers, feels that it cannot rightly trust its own report." Augustine Conf. X.xxxiii.48
Defeasible reasoning may be provably undefeated.
philosophy: common sense :: poetry : natural language
a system in which people vote for candidates not to be in office
It was written, it is written still,
but you never knew me, you never will.
Thus now speaks the Lord your God:
In the vineyard the grapes are trod,
the cup of wrath to fill.
the visceral pedagogy of rhetoric
A church unable to reabsorb schismatics (consistently) is defective. (Cf. Donatism)
"A Spell for Inducing Genius"
Ring the world around with reason,
and reason's reason, and pile again
reason unto the highest of heights;
for madness is but flooding reason
and madness and genius are allied.
Place the lunar sphere within the mind,
the fickle, changing rays of moon,
to deal out dreams until dreams pour out
and live in waking as in nightly sleep;
this is madness, to genius near allied.
But add to all that single steel-born thread
we call the common sense that, rarely forged,
can chain the Fenris-wolf with silken touch,
and hang the earth, with triple-wrought thread
from the very throne of Zeus;
and anchor it to solid earth and life,
for genius is to madness allied,
but, through that unsplit thread, only allied!
And reason pressed to madness,
and dream let loose like madness,
and common sense giving sane anchor,
reforged as one, make genius.
Rites are an agreed-upon language within a community; this comm. is its communicative context.
In poetic syllogism we can convert A & O?
The most pernicious hypocrisy: To call rational merely whatever seems good to one.
"Nothing is so destitute as a mind philosophizing about God when it is without Him." Diadochos of Photiki (On Spiritual Knowledge 7:254)
The first step in metaphysics is the poetry of reason as the mind makes its first attempts to express its wonder at things, to formulate in the best terms the puzzles that have begun to strike it, and to set its experiences in a rational and intelligible order.
my heart is writ with a mapamound
"Yo he visto en la noche oscura / llover sobre mi cabeza / los rayos de lumbre pura / de la divina belleza." Martí
The three laws of intellectual survival: save it, use it, make it do
Every human being is at once a moral agent and a social instrument.
The difference between Heaven and Hell is that in Heaven utility presupposes morality, without which it cannot properly be defined. But Hell is based on the violation of fundamental moral obligations, thus rendering null and void any apparent obligation contingent on those; but an imperfect utility transaction can still exist, morally null and void as to normative force, but still able to give purposeful structure to action. In Hell, utility substitutes for morality, and utility is itself a shadow of the utility of Heaven, just as cosmetic good looks are a shadow and imitation of the good looks of cheerful good health, just as flattery is a shadow and imitation of evaluation, just as sophistry is a shadow and imitation of philosophy.
naturalist drawing as science and art at once
->indeed natural history generally can be seen as such
Naturalist drawing is the attempt to interpret evidence artistically (w/ drawing utensils) in such a way that the artistic result is itself useful for scientific reasoning.
->cf. also uses of photography & 3D models & diagrams
One of the most difficult things to learn is how to distinguish good sloppiness from bad sloppiness (and, conversely, good precision from useless precision).
One of the things philosophy is: the Long War against the sophists of every age and every nation, a war to last until the end of time.
And the mice eat all our bowstrings,
and the mice bring madness down,
and the angel of the Lord, still mocking,
casts the army to the ground.
curiositas : studiositas :: superstitio : religio
"the living clockwork of the State must be repaired while it is still striking" Schiller
moral obligations that are affected by observation
etiquette as a package of protections against ethical crises, a set of compensations to reduce ethical risks
That etiquette, however much a lesser morality, is relevant to morals can be seen in many extreme situations (e.g., suicidal callers to emergency hotlines).
"Men never do evil so completely & cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." Pascal (#895)
Boethius begins to write his lament & complaint; but is prevent by Philosophy, who makes him feel foolish, although he cannot yet see that it is Philosophy that prevents him. This is a figure that captures well how Philosophy often works: exposed to Philosophy in our educations, she whispers in our ears elsewhere, whether we recognize her voice or not.
"Every person is the seed of an infinite genius." Novalis NRE #63
fantastics: invention :: logic : ratiocination
lux pulchrificat, quia sine luce omnia sunt turpia
Ex divina pulchritudine esse omnium derivatur.
outsit, outperform, & divide
Human interaction is the infrastructure of thought.
Not all that is water eases your thirst.
"Torah and wisdom are twin sisters." Isaac Satanow (Mishlei 'Asaf II p. 70a)
Derash, unlike peshat, is constrastive, and thus requires not merely understanding of the words but reasonings about their use.
the importance of rational play
Make no arguments unless they can be prayed.
The poet lacks technical precision not from a defect in poetry but from the fact that all technical precision on the topics (s)he discusses is necessarily rationally downstream from the point at which (s)he speaks the experience for reason to consider.
