And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, even of the first-fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the turn of the year. (Ex. 34:22)
Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee; from the time the sickle is first put to the standing corn shalt thou begin to number seven weeks. And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD thy God after the measure of the freewill-offering of thy hand, which thou shalt give, according as the LORD thy God blesseth thee. (Dt. 16:11)
Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto Me in the year. The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep; seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, at the time appointed in the month Abib--for in it thou camest out from Egypt; and none shall appear before Me empty; and the feast of harvest, the first-fruits of thy labours, which thou sowest in the field; and the feast of ingathering, at the end of the year, when thou gatherest in thy labours out of the field. Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD. (Ex. 23:14-17)
Also in the day of the first-fruits, when ye bring a new meal-offering unto the LORD in your feast of weeks, ye shall have a holy convocation: ye shall do no manner of servile work; but ye shall present a burnt-offering for a sweet savour unto the LORD: two young bullocks, one ram, seven he-lambs of the first year; and their meal-offering, fine flour mingled with oil, three tenth parts for each bullock, two tenth parts for the one ram, a several tenth part for every lamb of the seven lambs; one he-goat, to make atonement for you. Beside the continual burnt-offering, and the meal-offering thereof, ye shall offer them--they shall be unto you without blemish--and their drink-offerings. (Nm. 28:26-31)
This evening, if I'm not mistaken, begins Shavuot, with Sukkot one of the two major harvest festivals of the Jewish calendar (Shavuot is to grain harvest as Sukkot is to fruit harvest). The most common name in English is the Feast of Weeks; it was one of the three pilgrimage holy days of the calendar (the other two being Passover and Sukkot, mentioned above). It's somewhat unusual out of Jewish holy days, though, in that it has only ceremonial commandments associated with it; but this is perhaps fitting insofar as it is traditionally the day God gave Moses the whole covenant at Sinai. The book of the Bible that is associated with it is the book of Ruth, and the feast is also by later tradition associated with King David, being a commemoration of his birth and death. Harvest, Covenant, Redemption, Throne -- there are more important Jewish holy days, but none that sum up so many of the hopeful and joyful features of Jewish history.
It is from Shavuot that Christians get the name 'Pentecost'. Shavuot is calculated by counting seven weeks from the second day of Passover (hence the name 'Feast of Weeks'). Because of this Hellenistic Jews called it Pentecost, i.e., the Fiftieth, and Christianity, which in its ritual roots is nothing other than Messianic Hellenistic Judaism opened to Gentiles, carried over the holiday and name, associated now with the Descent of the Spirit on the Church; but as the calendars diverged, so did the holidays.
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Two New Poem Drafts
Coyote
Each nation has a god
that sums its thought
that whispers in its ear
for good or ill
and gives it force of will
for right or wrong.
And once I saw afar,
beneath a desert star,
the god of our America;
his throated song
rang out long,
his amber eyes
looked up to desert skies
in mournful dream.
Coyote is his name;
his pad is soft.
His form shirks the same:
a Trickster god is he,
never what he seems,
untrustworthy but free;
and in his eyes
the spark of new surprise
works mischief.
St. Joseph
St. Joseph, build now to the sky
an unnailed staircase spiralled round
of prayers interlocked that cry,
of psalms whose echoes never die,
but through angelic halls resound.
We cannot build; our lilied hands
are scratched by boards so roughly hewn,
and nails we use, and iron bands,
or else our words will not keep tune.
No bridges built up to the height,
but only piecemeal stairways, rise;
but, pontifex, you fair and light,
with grace of balance, will build aright,
of cross-like truths, and never lies.
So take our prayers, each heartlike beat,
and raise them up to heaven's choir
to be a stair for stumbling feet,
a pathway fit for heart's desire!
Each nation has a god
that sums its thought
that whispers in its ear
for good or ill
and gives it force of will
for right or wrong.
And once I saw afar,
beneath a desert star,
the god of our America;
his throated song
rang out long,
his amber eyes
looked up to desert skies
in mournful dream.
Coyote is his name;
his pad is soft.
His form shirks the same:
a Trickster god is he,
never what he seems,
untrustworthy but free;
and in his eyes
the spark of new surprise
works mischief.
St. Joseph
St. Joseph, build now to the sky
an unnailed staircase spiralled round
of prayers interlocked that cry,
of psalms whose echoes never die,
but through angelic halls resound.
We cannot build; our lilied hands
are scratched by boards so roughly hewn,
and nails we use, and iron bands,
or else our words will not keep tune.
No bridges built up to the height,
but only piecemeal stairways, rise;
but, pontifex, you fair and light,
with grace of balance, will build aright,
of cross-like truths, and never lies.
So take our prayers, each heartlike beat,
and raise them up to heaven's choir
to be a stair for stumbling feet,
a pathway fit for heart's desire!
Monday, June 06, 2011
P4CM and Didactic Poetry
One of the more interesting Evangelical movements of recent times is the Passion for Christ Movement, more often known as P4CM, in Los Angeles, which adapts the old activity of giving testimony to new verbal forms -- whether by song, speech, and poetry. One of the main ways in which they do this is through their Lyricists' Lounge, which is essentially what we usually think of as coffeehouse-style poetry. But it's generally less pretentious than coffeehouse poetry, and more passionate; and the testimonial character of it brings out the didacticism that is often found in muted form in coffeehouse poetry. It is performed didactic testimonial poetry: it sets out not just to play with words (although it does that) nor to set out images (although it does that) but to teach, and, what is more, to teach Christ through personal testimonies that are performed. But as performances they are almost more conversations with the audience than mere performances. But, really, all these descriptions are very loose analogies for what P4CM does.
I'm not a huge fan of coffeehouse-style performed poetry, by any means, and but I do like decent didactic poetry, and the young people collected together as Official Poets of P4CM have a lot of talent. It's an acquired taste, but there is much to be said for it. Here is a piece by Janette...ikz (pronounced 'genetics'), one of the stronger talents in the talented bunch, about the difference between Deception and Mystery (some intense things, be forewarned):
Her most popular piece so far, though, is I Will Wait for You, about the trials and tribulations of a woman not settling for the sort of man who "sorta kinda right, sorta kinda wrong, his first name Luke, his last name Warm".
I'm not a huge fan of coffeehouse-style performed poetry, by any means, and but I do like decent didactic poetry, and the young people collected together as Official Poets of P4CM have a lot of talent. It's an acquired taste, but there is much to be said for it. Here is a piece by Janette...ikz (pronounced 'genetics'), one of the stronger talents in the talented bunch, about the difference between Deception and Mystery (some intense things, be forewarned):
Her most popular piece so far, though, is I Will Wait for You, about the trials and tribulations of a woman not settling for the sort of man who "sorta kinda right, sorta kinda wrong, his first name Luke, his last name Warm".
Eagleton on NCHum
I'm not really convinced by most of it as a matter of general principle, but anyone interested in the subject of Grayling's New College of the Humanities project really should read Eagleton's take-down of the idea. This is pretty much the way to make the argument against it.
The master of the college will be public sage and identikit Islington Man, AC Grayling. Many observers, he comments, will be surprised to see a group of "almost pinko" academics pitching in to the project. If Dawkins, Colley, Ricks and Ferguson are pinko, I'm a deep shade of indigo. Anyway, why should anyone be surprised at the prospect of academics signing on for a cushy job at 25% more than the average university salary, with shares in the enterprise to boot?
Each in His Separate Book
The Logical Conclusion
by Ezra Pound
When earth's last thesis is copied
From the theses that went before,
When idea from fact has departed
And bare-boned factlets shall bore,
When all joy shall have fled from study
And scholarship reign supreme;
When truth shall "baaa" on the hill crests
And no one shall dare to dream;
When all the good poems have been buried
With comment annoted in full
And art shall bow down in homage
To scholarship's zinc-plated bull,
When there shall be nothing to research
But the notes of annoted notes,
And Baalam's ass shall inquire
The price of imported oats;
Then no one shall tell him the answer
For each shall know the one fact
That lies in the special ass-ignment
From which he is making his tract.
So the ass shall sigh uninstructed
While each in his separate book
Shall grind for the love of grinding
And only the devil shall look.
Against the "germanic" system of graduate study and insane specialization in the Inanities.
Sunday, June 05, 2011
NCHum
There's recently been the beginnings of a fuss about a new initiative in British education, the New College of the Humanities. A roster of names that are fairly well known are involved in it: A. C. Grayling, Richard Dawkins (Biology), Simon Blackburn (Philosophy), Ronald Dworkin (Law), Sir David Cannadine (History), Steve Jones (Biology), Lawrence Krauss (Cosmology), Sir Christopher Ricks (Literature), Peter Singer (Applied Ethics), Adrian Zuckerman (Law), Linda Colley (History), Sir Partha Dasgupta (Economics), and for visiting professors, Niall Ferguson and Steven Pinker. Grayling is the one spearheading it. What makes it controversial is that it's a private tuition model, and thus expensive for a British university (18000 pounds a term year -- not as expensive as high-end American universities, but well above anything you'd usually pay for in Britain).
One thing spending several years in Canada taught me is that education is an area in which the issues differ much more than one would expect, and that therefore one must be cautious about cross-comparisons. This is especially true with how education funding is viewed from nation to nation. Much of this problem is, I think, a purely British one: the proposal would barely be noticed in the United States, I think, because it's pretty much an American approach with some British modifications, and while Canadians might talk about selling out, I'm not sure that they would take it quite so personally as the British seem to take it -- some people are talking about boycotting all the academics involved. Setting aside the fact that academic boycotts are usually useless and ill-conceived even when they can be organized properly, it at least tells you how seriously people are taking it. Or if you're less interested in serious than in passionate, you could look at comments to the Guardian's article on the project.
I confess, though, that even trying to compensate for cultural differences I see very little more than a teapot tempest here. The basic points of Grayling's defense of the model -- there needs to be a more sustainable model for humanities education, this sustainable model is unlikely to arise if one attempts to hang its sustainability on government funding, the high cost will be offset in many cases by scholarships and bursaries, the rest will allow for educational innovation and experimentation that could benefit humanities education generally by serving as a model for less expensive programs later -- are all entirely good points. To be sure, it would be a bad thing to do all or most of one's educational system along these lines, but there's a great deal to be said for trying things out, and trying things out in education is expensive, which is one reason why government dependence (which is not a bottomless purse, and tends to restrict programs to basics with criteria for success that are easy to identify in the short term) tends to choke out innovation unless you take steps to compensate. And the arguments to the contrary are mostly not convincing unless you think it obvious that everything will eventually go this way, which, given Britain's educational culture, seems unlikely. The only one that I think has any bite is that this project is heavily piggybacking on public education resources; but I know for a fact that the British do this sort of thing to foreign students all the time, and that seems to me to make the argument run dangerously close to hypocrisy.
The real question is whether this model really can be made sustainable in Britain; in the U.S. it would at least have a chance of succeeding, if it got philanthropic support (which it likely would), but in a nation in which the very idea of it results in a palpable distaste, I'm not sure that this is really going to be forthcoming. Looking at the roster, I'm also not actually sure that this is the group that could manage it if it could be made to succeed; they are mostly senior academics with a lot on their plates already, and unlikely to make, or even to be able to make, the long-term and intensive commitment it would require.
But, again, talk about education across national borders is harder than most people realize; there are always many subtle differences that make for big differences elsewhere; what works here does not always work there, and what people expect, of course, has an effect and differs widely from place to place.
One thing spending several years in Canada taught me is that education is an area in which the issues differ much more than one would expect, and that therefore one must be cautious about cross-comparisons. This is especially true with how education funding is viewed from nation to nation. Much of this problem is, I think, a purely British one: the proposal would barely be noticed in the United States, I think, because it's pretty much an American approach with some British modifications, and while Canadians might talk about selling out, I'm not sure that they would take it quite so personally as the British seem to take it -- some people are talking about boycotting all the academics involved. Setting aside the fact that academic boycotts are usually useless and ill-conceived even when they can be organized properly, it at least tells you how seriously people are taking it. Or if you're less interested in serious than in passionate, you could look at comments to the Guardian's article on the project.
I confess, though, that even trying to compensate for cultural differences I see very little more than a teapot tempest here. The basic points of Grayling's defense of the model -- there needs to be a more sustainable model for humanities education, this sustainable model is unlikely to arise if one attempts to hang its sustainability on government funding, the high cost will be offset in many cases by scholarships and bursaries, the rest will allow for educational innovation and experimentation that could benefit humanities education generally by serving as a model for less expensive programs later -- are all entirely good points. To be sure, it would be a bad thing to do all or most of one's educational system along these lines, but there's a great deal to be said for trying things out, and trying things out in education is expensive, which is one reason why government dependence (which is not a bottomless purse, and tends to restrict programs to basics with criteria for success that are easy to identify in the short term) tends to choke out innovation unless you take steps to compensate. And the arguments to the contrary are mostly not convincing unless you think it obvious that everything will eventually go this way, which, given Britain's educational culture, seems unlikely. The only one that I think has any bite is that this project is heavily piggybacking on public education resources; but I know for a fact that the British do this sort of thing to foreign students all the time, and that seems to me to make the argument run dangerously close to hypocrisy.
The real question is whether this model really can be made sustainable in Britain; in the U.S. it would at least have a chance of succeeding, if it got philanthropic support (which it likely would), but in a nation in which the very idea of it results in a palpable distaste, I'm not sure that this is really going to be forthcoming. Looking at the roster, I'm also not actually sure that this is the group that could manage it if it could be made to succeed; they are mostly senior academics with a lot on their plates already, and unlikely to make, or even to be able to make, the long-term and intensive commitment it would require.
But, again, talk about education across national borders is harder than most people realize; there are always many subtle differences that make for big differences elsewhere; what works here does not always work there, and what people expect, of course, has an effect and differs widely from place to place.
Saturday, June 04, 2011
Thor
I saw Thor this past week and, despite going into it not expecting much, was actually impressed: while it's still very comic-book-ish, it's very sophisticated for a comic book movie, which often retains only the flashiest features of the comic books. The humor is done well. I also think that one of the things they managed to do very well, through a surprisingly good interplay of writing, acting, and directing, is to convey the courtliness that would come from being raised in the court of the gods: even the failings and vices of some of the main characters are courtly failings and vices. The root of this seems to be the Shakespearean background of some of those involved: Branagh apparently pushed this aspect of it actively. Hiddleston, for instance, plays Loki like a mix of Cassius in Julius Caesar and Edmund in King Lear. And a nice thing was that Loki was, in fact, not botched: he was properly subtle, with all the inscrutability caused by over-thinking that such subtlety implies.
If you like comic book movies, this is one of the better ones.
ADDED LATER: Eric Scott has a good review of the film from a pagan perspective.
If you like comic book movies, this is one of the better ones.
ADDED LATER: Eric Scott has a good review of the film from a pagan perspective.
Dashed Off
All the standard caveats apply.
Extraordinary sympathy is necessary for extraordinary insight.
the Sertillanges argument against determinism: as the universal always abstracts from something, every ide is a scheme, & thus it is not possible to put into laws everything whatsoever nature does.
-> i.e., determinism confuses what we can identify as laws of nature with divine ideas, in terms of comprehension
"For the proper life of intelligence is above all play, a game within the principles of being and thought." De Koninck
Wonder at the universe is a moral response.
Human sin creates a problem for anything holy that would have dealings with us; a problem that perhaps only omniscience can solve.
All of salvation history is summed up in the messianic character of Christ, which we receive imprinted on us, so to speak, in baptism.
We have on the altar the true philosopher's stone, the true peach of immortality, the elixir and nectar of life, but whta it gives is not the crass material gift the alchemists sought, nor even the crass mental gift the better and wiser alchemists sought.
The vocation of the Church is not to build the Kingdom of God on earth but to be the Kingdom of God on earth.
When one looks at marriages of great love, one finds that, in each, both of the spouses have learned to cultivate habits of gratitude.
thinking through rigorous logical structures metaphorically
to try out each position and argument given by someone else as if it had just occurred to yourself on your own
the fragmentary residues of the great minds of civilization
Every effect manifests its cause simply by being what it is; but some effects only manifest that the cause has caused, these are only vestiges of their cause, while others manifest the form of the cause, and these are images of one kind or another.
True honor begins with the protection of motherhood and deference to the truth, and expands outward from these.
a study of vestige and image in experimental work (telescopy probably has some good examples, as would microscopy)
Setting aside things that have persisted, we usually only have vestiges of the distant past. But there are cases where we have images, as with the stars.
The true foundation of human dignity is common good.
Christians sin more seriously than nonbelievers with the same sins because there is less to excuse them. This needs to be more clealry in the consciousness of Christians than it is, and pastors of the Church gravely err if they do not make this clear.
Reconciliation, pardon, andpenitence are appropriated to the Holy Spirit, fo rhte Holy Spirit is charity.
Virtues are all kinds of personal human order.
Human responsibility has a twofold character: we are responsible for things we do by our own choice and by ourselves, as individual persons. But we are also responsible for what is done byt he whole of a community, or by the majority of a community, or by a person servince in some way as the principle of the community, insofar as we are members of the community.
A Church council is a collection of bishops participating in body; but not merely that. In truth, all who affirm the faith of a council participate in it spiritually,a nd all who affirm the Creed and the definitions form a ring around the Conciliar Fathers and speak with them as if with one voice.
Mary as Aurora consurgens
our ability to act in light of common good as a reason for the incorruptibility of the soul
Nature is a reason or logos in things, caused by divine art, by which they act for ends.
Certain fields, like law, specialize in the construction of quasi-genera, each of which has a merely practical unity.
Mariology borrows its principles from Christology, to which it is subalternated.
The biosphere achieves the end of plurality and diversity by means of composition and division. It is because of this that evolutionary and other processes can be modeled by intellectual operations of composition and division, e.g., search algorithms or engineering metaphors.
love of the good insofar as it is enduring and permeating
Friendship generally has a unitive end and marriage as a friendship necessarily has such an end; but precisely because of this the unitive end itself is not an end distinctive of it as marriage.
Because matrimony is a sacrament or mystery, the theology of its is inexhaustible, and thus we may well say that we have in a sense hardly skimmed the surface of a very great ocean, however extensive discussion of ti may have been to date.
analogy of magisterium to regnative & political prudence (operatio prudentiae totius civitatis)
To serve as handmaiden to theology, philosophy must be set in order by theology.
Some miracles are such as to be extrinsic motives of credibility and others are not. The distinction is important.
Propositions in theology may be known per se where theology provides an understanding of the terms; such propositions are not fundamentally different from those known from elsewhere, although some of these may practically be inaccessible without the aid of theology.
Evil is not mere privation but privation such that it is contrary to good.
reason : acquired virtues :: grace : infused virtues
The structure of persuasion is inferential. Becaus ethe structure of persuasion is inferential, even persuasion that is not based on verbal arguments is naturally characterized or described by an argument.
3 ways a true opinion can be changed
(1) object changes
(2) forgetfulness
(3) persuasion
For the mind as for the world, diversification is a subordinate end.
Prudence is the magisterial virtue.
Just as a person's true opinion changes only when the facts change, or when the opinion is forgotten, or when the person is persuaded otherwise, so change from true propositions in the history of philosophy is always by a change of evidential facts, or because communication fails from generation to generation, or because of the mechanisms of persuasion. And diagnosing the source rightly is important: we have an excessive tendency to attribute change of ideas to change of facts, and overlook the roles of transmission and incentive.
Be fruitful in your understanding and multiply your conceptions, for thereby you more fully express the goodness of God.
In poetry we express the goodness of God by diversifying the world.
Psalms as the book of the pursuit of wisdom
Talking about 'what it is like to see red' is just another way fo talking about actually seeing red.
(1) What is naturally potential with respect to an object is, as such, without it.
(2) Intellect is naturally potential to sensible and corporeal natures as such.
(3) Therefore intellect is without sensible and corporeal nature insofar as it is potential to it.
: confirmation: where the intellect of a corporeal, sensible nature, this would limit its capacity to take that kind of corporeal, sensible nature as an object, because it would serve as an impediment.
Mathematical objects are known sensitively and imaginatively; mathematical essences are known intellectually.
The act of teaching is exterior projection of interior meditation.
false opinion : intellectual activity :: monstrous birth : natural activity
Moral deficiencies are remitted and protected against by intensification of charity, which can occur through three causes: rational contemplation, higher impulse, and settled disposition.
Some acts inculcate charity in all three ways: these are participations in the sacraments, which reason regards as remedies, which give special graces because God works in them, & which give habitual grace.
Others do nto give gracious disposition but inculcate charity in the other two ways: these are uses of sacramentals.
Yet others do so only in the first way, & these are pious acts, like the Lord's Prayer, striking the breast, reading Scripture, etc.
Solidarity is first recognized , but not only found, in distribution of goods and remuneration for work.
the Church as both juridical and amicable
There is no preferential option for the poor where there is no love of the poor.
Prudence mediates between natural law and civil law.
philosophy in facto esse & philosophy in fieri
the heuristic & hermeneutical functions of HoP
Material things are potentially intelligible; they must be made actually so.
The strongest sense of design that arguments from irreducible complexity &c. could show is coordinated assembly. Moving from this to intelligence can only be done on the basis of how final causes are involved in the assembly. It is true that assembly is an explanation different in character from explanation by law or by chance, but, first, it is not inconsistent with either, and, second, we know that natural things can coordinately assemble things (e.g., cells assemble things); even if one holds that ultimately this traces back to intelligent cause, at any given stage going back it si possible that there was such natural assembly.
History of science requires philosophy to mediate between historical explanation and scientific discovery.
Recovery, Escape, and Consolation (Tolkien) as spiritual discipline for spiritual beginners.
-> Tolkien is talking about creative fantasy, but note that these purposes can be served by other things (e.g., paintings, music, Chesterton's essays) where these either have a fantasy component or something analogous to it.
->Escape, Recovery, & Consolation in the Mass (it is Creative Art invoking Eucatastrophe that makes the connection)
Any argument can be rejected. It is the price of rejection that is the interesting thing.
Every invitation to Hell is always under the aspect of great good.
In venial sin we tend toward the creature as means & thus are not prevented from still having God in view as our primary end, & the creature is itself a means that does not rule out God as our end.
To be blessed is to be in some way untouched by death; and the Beatitudes show ways that, in Christ, we can become so.
Prometheus intersected with Hippolytus
The most essential thing to have in almost any ecclesastical matter is a good sense of proportion; histrionics is the foe of every true ecclesiology.
patience : fortitude :: continence : chastity
ecclesiological hypochondria
Be on your guard against all kinds of pleonexia; put them to death with the old man.
The chief forms of sin against one's nature are deceit and violence.
Canonization of saints expresses the principle that God not only makes the just & Christ-like so, but often makes them conspicuous so as to serve as an example to others.
- imitation of saints (I Thess 1:6-7; Eph 5:1; Phil 3:17)
What cannot be expressed poetically is imperfectly understood.
In Christ all petitions of the Paternoster are fulfilled: the name of God is hallowed, His Kingdom come, His will done on earth as in heaven; in Him we have from God our bread for the day, forgiveness as we forgive, protection from trial, and deliverance from evil. Our prayer to God is Christ, the fulfillment of our petitions Christ, and thus both our prayer and its fulfillment are infinitely greater than we can imagine.
To pray Christ is to receive Christ.
Without ascent to God there is no understanding of divine things.
Scripture as the paraclesis of the Paraclete
the potential parts of prudence in the study of Scripture
If the open question argument shows anything, it shows that good as such is not participated good. Thus one should focus on notes of participation instead.
The degree to which law and liberty are opposed is a measure of the degree of imperfection in the law.
The Magisterium has only three functions: to encourage Christian charity, to oppose spiritual violence, and to oppose spiritual fraud. Al authoritative actions of the Church fulfill one or more of these functions.
analogy accounts of induction vs division accounts of induction
Gentiles can be grafted on to Israel by being united to Christ Jesus, who was a participant in the covenant of Israel.
catechesis by synousia & catechesis by study
Phil 4:8 as the touchstone of catholicity
I Cor 3:23 & catholicity
wonder leading to awe, and wonder leading to perplexity
the analogy between law and grace as external principles of action
Where our pursuit of true goods is not refined there is no education.
sexual desire as a sign of contingency of being
authority, continuity, & moderation as the three key features of government
Mutuum adiutorium is a secondary rather than primary end of marriage because it is an end of marriage insofar as marriage falls under the genus of friendship, not insofar as its specific difference is concerned. And remedium concupiscentiae is a tertiary end of marriage because it is an accidental rather than essential one, albeit a stable one, arising from the existence of marriage in a world with concupiscence.
reason -> ability to delight in incongruity -> risibility
Conversion, like creation, begins with the Spirit of God brooding over the darkness, and then there is light, and gradual distinction, and the end of it is peace.
The merits of the saints are the merits of Christ. On the Cross He merits through Himself in the Great Work; in teh saints He merits through their participation in Him in many small works; but all is the merit of Christ through His body on the Cross and through His Body of the Church.
Different kinds of necessity yield different kinds of demostration.
Freedom of indifference is merely the will's contribution to personal freedom.
Love is an instinct of reason.
Catechesis is a touring of the boundaries of one's inheritance.
The only counterexamples that matter are those that remain counterexamples in light of all relevant truths. This is always the weakness of arguments based on counterexamples: much of the real work is done by assumptions or principles of relevance.
Human good is scaffolded.
The true aim of teaching is to aid the student in attending to transcendental matters - matters of truth, of goodness, of beauty, of nobility.
The weakness of eclecticism is that it is an accidental unity, not an integral one. But it may approximate the unity of truth.
Humility is the foundation of sincere life.
Is 26 & the resurrection fo the dead
The Plowman Is 28: 23-29
John the Baptist heralds (Is 40:3) the revelation of the glory of the Lord, which mankind shall see (40:5), so that one may proclaim the good news, "Here is your God!" (40:9), the Lord who comes with power (40:10) to be a shepherd to his flock (40:11).
beatitude as gaudium de veritate
reason -> word -> social life
Love alone can find a third way between the legalist and the laxist.
"What sensible light is to the eye, God's Word is to the soul." Basil Ad Eun. 2.16
the holy maiden graceful-made
Rm 15:27 & pro-Jewish policy
"The experience of freedom goes hand in hand with the experience of truth." Wojtyla
philosophizing with pictorial clue
The members of the Church regrow by redintegration.
absorbing lawfulness from music and poetry
Because it is in the image of God, and insofar as it is, the human person exceeds human comprehension.
Consulting intuitions is like casting runes and reading them; they must be interpreted, put in context, and what goes into the interpretation may be foolish or wise, arbitrary or indicative of reason and sensitivity to contextual cues, balanced or overly influenced by prejudice, with a narrow or broad understanding of the the possible range of interpretation.
Everyone loves condemnations of hypocrites because no one thinks they are hypocrites themselves.
In a fundamental sense the whole human race has as its universal destiny Christ; but conventions of religious freedom frlow from this universal destination of man in much the way conventions of private property flow from the universal destination of goods.
revelation's reveille
Christianity saves human societies by directing itself to individuals. (Rosmini)
Zen as a regard for the limit of thought
Is 50:1-3 as prophecy of faith
Marriage is not mere procreation, but an institution of union suitable for procreation, a government of sorts.
matrimony as threefold sacrament - naturae, legis, gratiae
prayer as a way of being particeps Creatoris
Sikhism is a philosophical and poetic outworking of the idea of assimilation to God as True Lord and Truth and Lover of Truth. "Those who know the Truth are absorbed in Truth." "The practice of Truth is the essence of the Shabad." "Through the Guru's teachings Truth becomes pleasing to the mind." "When one dwells in Truth all actions become True." "Whether there is Truth in the heart one becomes true and obtains the True Lord." "They gather Truth, remain always in Truth, and love the True Name." "Let Truth and continuous remembrance of God be your prayer."
Matrimony and holy orders are alike in being simultaneously acts of human and of divine reason.
the participation of the laity in the priestly, prophetic, and princely munera of Christ
munus in tria munera Christi
priestly: by the sacrifices of virtue, prayer, & praise
prophetic: by spreading the truth of Christ
princely: by self-discipline, stewardship * preference for common over private good
sacramental repentance as slow adaptation
Justification is a manifestation of the justice of God. (Rm 3:21-25)
Marriage is
a friendship
of pleasure
of use
of virtue
instituted
in itself as a covenant
by consent
with standards of faithfulness
by God
with recognition from the community
for the purpose of procreation
in the having of children
in the raising of children
the Church at Massah and Meribah
Socratic munus
Honor is a shadow of virtue, respectability a shadow of honor, and tolerance a shadow of respecability; in each a trace or outline is kept, but precision and clarity is lost.
Part of being true to a person is being true that person's nature.
justice, honor, respectability, tolerance, and force in the society that is marriage
Biological processes have roles in the work of living according to practical reason.
Usury is opposed to civic friendship.
By charity, justice and honor and respectability and tolerance are made one.
Only in terms of something infinite in some way can all things be explained.
The character we receive at baptism is that through which Christ is rendered perceptible.
Divine mysteries are intelligible in every respect but infinite in their intelligibility.
Max Muller talked about the 'theogonic capacity of things, and argued that some things, like a stone, or a dog, have no such capacity, since they are too limited for us to see them open out on a sublime beyond. But poets know better, for they explore what Muller calls the theogonic capacity of things as part of their art; and a stone, a dog, yea, a mote of dust, has some seed or sign of the infinite in it, a seed or sign that a true poet can find and describe.
the li of liturgy, the de of episcopal authority.
aristarchic, timarchic, oligarchic, demarchic, and tyrannic poetry
the unitive function of speech
Actions between friends are communicative.
What contemporary philosophers call intentionality is signification.
Extraordinary sympathy is necessary for extraordinary insight.
the Sertillanges argument against determinism: as the universal always abstracts from something, every ide is a scheme, & thus it is not possible to put into laws everything whatsoever nature does.
-> i.e., determinism confuses what we can identify as laws of nature with divine ideas, in terms of comprehension
"For the proper life of intelligence is above all play, a game within the principles of being and thought." De Koninck
Wonder at the universe is a moral response.
Human sin creates a problem for anything holy that would have dealings with us; a problem that perhaps only omniscience can solve.
All of salvation history is summed up in the messianic character of Christ, which we receive imprinted on us, so to speak, in baptism.
We have on the altar the true philosopher's stone, the true peach of immortality, the elixir and nectar of life, but whta it gives is not the crass material gift the alchemists sought, nor even the crass mental gift the better and wiser alchemists sought.
The vocation of the Church is not to build the Kingdom of God on earth but to be the Kingdom of God on earth.
When one looks at marriages of great love, one finds that, in each, both of the spouses have learned to cultivate habits of gratitude.
thinking through rigorous logical structures metaphorically
to try out each position and argument given by someone else as if it had just occurred to yourself on your own
the fragmentary residues of the great minds of civilization
Every effect manifests its cause simply by being what it is; but some effects only manifest that the cause has caused, these are only vestiges of their cause, while others manifest the form of the cause, and these are images of one kind or another.
True honor begins with the protection of motherhood and deference to the truth, and expands outward from these.
a study of vestige and image in experimental work (telescopy probably has some good examples, as would microscopy)
Setting aside things that have persisted, we usually only have vestiges of the distant past. But there are cases where we have images, as with the stars.
The true foundation of human dignity is common good.
Christians sin more seriously than nonbelievers with the same sins because there is less to excuse them. This needs to be more clealry in the consciousness of Christians than it is, and pastors of the Church gravely err if they do not make this clear.
Reconciliation, pardon, andpenitence are appropriated to the Holy Spirit, fo rhte Holy Spirit is charity.
Virtues are all kinds of personal human order.
Human responsibility has a twofold character: we are responsible for things we do by our own choice and by ourselves, as individual persons. But we are also responsible for what is done byt he whole of a community, or by the majority of a community, or by a person servince in some way as the principle of the community, insofar as we are members of the community.
A Church council is a collection of bishops participating in body; but not merely that. In truth, all who affirm the faith of a council participate in it spiritually,a nd all who affirm the Creed and the definitions form a ring around the Conciliar Fathers and speak with them as if with one voice.
Mary as Aurora consurgens
our ability to act in light of common good as a reason for the incorruptibility of the soul
Nature is a reason or logos in things, caused by divine art, by which they act for ends.
Certain fields, like law, specialize in the construction of quasi-genera, each of which has a merely practical unity.
Mariology borrows its principles from Christology, to which it is subalternated.
The biosphere achieves the end of plurality and diversity by means of composition and division. It is because of this that evolutionary and other processes can be modeled by intellectual operations of composition and division, e.g., search algorithms or engineering metaphors.
love of the good insofar as it is enduring and permeating
Friendship generally has a unitive end and marriage as a friendship necessarily has such an end; but precisely because of this the unitive end itself is not an end distinctive of it as marriage.
Because matrimony is a sacrament or mystery, the theology of its is inexhaustible, and thus we may well say that we have in a sense hardly skimmed the surface of a very great ocean, however extensive discussion of ti may have been to date.
analogy of magisterium to regnative & political prudence (operatio prudentiae totius civitatis)
To serve as handmaiden to theology, philosophy must be set in order by theology.
Some miracles are such as to be extrinsic motives of credibility and others are not. The distinction is important.
Propositions in theology may be known per se where theology provides an understanding of the terms; such propositions are not fundamentally different from those known from elsewhere, although some of these may practically be inaccessible without the aid of theology.
Evil is not mere privation but privation such that it is contrary to good.
reason : acquired virtues :: grace : infused virtues
The structure of persuasion is inferential. Becaus ethe structure of persuasion is inferential, even persuasion that is not based on verbal arguments is naturally characterized or described by an argument.
3 ways a true opinion can be changed
(1) object changes
(2) forgetfulness
(3) persuasion
For the mind as for the world, diversification is a subordinate end.
Prudence is the magisterial virtue.
Just as a person's true opinion changes only when the facts change, or when the opinion is forgotten, or when the person is persuaded otherwise, so change from true propositions in the history of philosophy is always by a change of evidential facts, or because communication fails from generation to generation, or because of the mechanisms of persuasion. And diagnosing the source rightly is important: we have an excessive tendency to attribute change of ideas to change of facts, and overlook the roles of transmission and incentive.
Be fruitful in your understanding and multiply your conceptions, for thereby you more fully express the goodness of God.
In poetry we express the goodness of God by diversifying the world.
Psalms as the book of the pursuit of wisdom
Talking about 'what it is like to see red' is just another way fo talking about actually seeing red.
(1) What is naturally potential with respect to an object is, as such, without it.
(2) Intellect is naturally potential to sensible and corporeal natures as such.
(3) Therefore intellect is without sensible and corporeal nature insofar as it is potential to it.
: confirmation: where the intellect of a corporeal, sensible nature, this would limit its capacity to take that kind of corporeal, sensible nature as an object, because it would serve as an impediment.
Mathematical objects are known sensitively and imaginatively; mathematical essences are known intellectually.
The act of teaching is exterior projection of interior meditation.
false opinion : intellectual activity :: monstrous birth : natural activity
Moral deficiencies are remitted and protected against by intensification of charity, which can occur through three causes: rational contemplation, higher impulse, and settled disposition.
Some acts inculcate charity in all three ways: these are participations in the sacraments, which reason regards as remedies, which give special graces because God works in them, & which give habitual grace.
Others do nto give gracious disposition but inculcate charity in the other two ways: these are uses of sacramentals.
Yet others do so only in the first way, & these are pious acts, like the Lord's Prayer, striking the breast, reading Scripture, etc.
Solidarity is first recognized , but not only found, in distribution of goods and remuneration for work.
the Church as both juridical and amicable
There is no preferential option for the poor where there is no love of the poor.
Prudence mediates between natural law and civil law.
philosophy in facto esse & philosophy in fieri
the heuristic & hermeneutical functions of HoP
Material things are potentially intelligible; they must be made actually so.
The strongest sense of design that arguments from irreducible complexity &c. could show is coordinated assembly. Moving from this to intelligence can only be done on the basis of how final causes are involved in the assembly. It is true that assembly is an explanation different in character from explanation by law or by chance, but, first, it is not inconsistent with either, and, second, we know that natural things can coordinately assemble things (e.g., cells assemble things); even if one holds that ultimately this traces back to intelligent cause, at any given stage going back it si possible that there was such natural assembly.
History of science requires philosophy to mediate between historical explanation and scientific discovery.
Recovery, Escape, and Consolation (Tolkien) as spiritual discipline for spiritual beginners.
-> Tolkien is talking about creative fantasy, but note that these purposes can be served by other things (e.g., paintings, music, Chesterton's essays) where these either have a fantasy component or something analogous to it.
->Escape, Recovery, & Consolation in the Mass (it is Creative Art invoking Eucatastrophe that makes the connection)
Any argument can be rejected. It is the price of rejection that is the interesting thing.
Every invitation to Hell is always under the aspect of great good.
In venial sin we tend toward the creature as means & thus are not prevented from still having God in view as our primary end, & the creature is itself a means that does not rule out God as our end.
To be blessed is to be in some way untouched by death; and the Beatitudes show ways that, in Christ, we can become so.
Prometheus intersected with Hippolytus
The most essential thing to have in almost any ecclesastical matter is a good sense of proportion; histrionics is the foe of every true ecclesiology.
patience : fortitude :: continence : chastity
ecclesiological hypochondria
Be on your guard against all kinds of pleonexia; put them to death with the old man.
The chief forms of sin against one's nature are deceit and violence.
Canonization of saints expresses the principle that God not only makes the just & Christ-like so, but often makes them conspicuous so as to serve as an example to others.
- imitation of saints (I Thess 1:6-7; Eph 5:1; Phil 3:17)
What cannot be expressed poetically is imperfectly understood.
In Christ all petitions of the Paternoster are fulfilled: the name of God is hallowed, His Kingdom come, His will done on earth as in heaven; in Him we have from God our bread for the day, forgiveness as we forgive, protection from trial, and deliverance from evil. Our prayer to God is Christ, the fulfillment of our petitions Christ, and thus both our prayer and its fulfillment are infinitely greater than we can imagine.
To pray Christ is to receive Christ.
Without ascent to God there is no understanding of divine things.
Scripture as the paraclesis of the Paraclete
the potential parts of prudence in the study of Scripture
If the open question argument shows anything, it shows that good as such is not participated good. Thus one should focus on notes of participation instead.
The degree to which law and liberty are opposed is a measure of the degree of imperfection in the law.
The Magisterium has only three functions: to encourage Christian charity, to oppose spiritual violence, and to oppose spiritual fraud. Al authoritative actions of the Church fulfill one or more of these functions.
analogy accounts of induction vs division accounts of induction
Gentiles can be grafted on to Israel by being united to Christ Jesus, who was a participant in the covenant of Israel.
catechesis by synousia & catechesis by study
Phil 4:8 as the touchstone of catholicity
I Cor 3:23 & catholicity
wonder leading to awe, and wonder leading to perplexity
the analogy between law and grace as external principles of action
Where our pursuit of true goods is not refined there is no education.
sexual desire as a sign of contingency of being
authority, continuity, & moderation as the three key features of government
Mutuum adiutorium is a secondary rather than primary end of marriage because it is an end of marriage insofar as marriage falls under the genus of friendship, not insofar as its specific difference is concerned. And remedium concupiscentiae is a tertiary end of marriage because it is an accidental rather than essential one, albeit a stable one, arising from the existence of marriage in a world with concupiscence.
reason -> ability to delight in incongruity -> risibility
Conversion, like creation, begins with the Spirit of God brooding over the darkness, and then there is light, and gradual distinction, and the end of it is peace.
The merits of the saints are the merits of Christ. On the Cross He merits through Himself in the Great Work; in teh saints He merits through their participation in Him in many small works; but all is the merit of Christ through His body on the Cross and through His Body of the Church.
Different kinds of necessity yield different kinds of demostration.
Freedom of indifference is merely the will's contribution to personal freedom.
Love is an instinct of reason.
Catechesis is a touring of the boundaries of one's inheritance.
The only counterexamples that matter are those that remain counterexamples in light of all relevant truths. This is always the weakness of arguments based on counterexamples: much of the real work is done by assumptions or principles of relevance.
Human good is scaffolded.
The true aim of teaching is to aid the student in attending to transcendental matters - matters of truth, of goodness, of beauty, of nobility.
The weakness of eclecticism is that it is an accidental unity, not an integral one. But it may approximate the unity of truth.
Humility is the foundation of sincere life.
Is 26 & the resurrection fo the dead
The Plowman Is 28: 23-29
John the Baptist heralds (Is 40:3) the revelation of the glory of the Lord, which mankind shall see (40:5), so that one may proclaim the good news, "Here is your God!" (40:9), the Lord who comes with power (40:10) to be a shepherd to his flock (40:11).
beatitude as gaudium de veritate
reason -> word -> social life
Love alone can find a third way between the legalist and the laxist.
"What sensible light is to the eye, God's Word is to the soul." Basil Ad Eun. 2.16
the holy maiden graceful-made
Rm 15:27 & pro-Jewish policy
"The experience of freedom goes hand in hand with the experience of truth." Wojtyla
philosophizing with pictorial clue
The members of the Church regrow by redintegration.
absorbing lawfulness from music and poetry
Because it is in the image of God, and insofar as it is, the human person exceeds human comprehension.
Consulting intuitions is like casting runes and reading them; they must be interpreted, put in context, and what goes into the interpretation may be foolish or wise, arbitrary or indicative of reason and sensitivity to contextual cues, balanced or overly influenced by prejudice, with a narrow or broad understanding of the the possible range of interpretation.
Everyone loves condemnations of hypocrites because no one thinks they are hypocrites themselves.
In a fundamental sense the whole human race has as its universal destiny Christ; but conventions of religious freedom frlow from this universal destination of man in much the way conventions of private property flow from the universal destination of goods.
revelation's reveille
Christianity saves human societies by directing itself to individuals. (Rosmini)
Zen as a regard for the limit of thought
Is 50:1-3 as prophecy of faith
Marriage is not mere procreation, but an institution of union suitable for procreation, a government of sorts.
matrimony as threefold sacrament - naturae, legis, gratiae
prayer as a way of being particeps Creatoris
Sikhism is a philosophical and poetic outworking of the idea of assimilation to God as True Lord and Truth and Lover of Truth. "Those who know the Truth are absorbed in Truth." "The practice of Truth is the essence of the Shabad." "Through the Guru's teachings Truth becomes pleasing to the mind." "When one dwells in Truth all actions become True." "Whether there is Truth in the heart one becomes true and obtains the True Lord." "They gather Truth, remain always in Truth, and love the True Name." "Let Truth and continuous remembrance of God be your prayer."
Matrimony and holy orders are alike in being simultaneously acts of human and of divine reason.
the participation of the laity in the priestly, prophetic, and princely munera of Christ
munus in tria munera Christi
priestly: by the sacrifices of virtue, prayer, & praise
prophetic: by spreading the truth of Christ
princely: by self-discipline, stewardship * preference for common over private good
sacramental repentance as slow adaptation
Justification is a manifestation of the justice of God. (Rm 3:21-25)
Marriage is
a friendship
of pleasure
of use
of virtue
instituted
in itself as a covenant
by consent
with standards of faithfulness
by God
with recognition from the community
for the purpose of procreation
in the having of children
in the raising of children
the Church at Massah and Meribah
Socratic munus
Honor is a shadow of virtue, respectability a shadow of honor, and tolerance a shadow of respecability; in each a trace or outline is kept, but precision and clarity is lost.
Part of being true to a person is being true that person's nature.
justice, honor, respectability, tolerance, and force in the society that is marriage
Biological processes have roles in the work of living according to practical reason.
Usury is opposed to civic friendship.
By charity, justice and honor and respectability and tolerance are made one.
Only in terms of something infinite in some way can all things be explained.
The character we receive at baptism is that through which Christ is rendered perceptible.
Divine mysteries are intelligible in every respect but infinite in their intelligibility.
Max Muller talked about the 'theogonic capacity of things, and argued that some things, like a stone, or a dog, have no such capacity, since they are too limited for us to see them open out on a sublime beyond. But poets know better, for they explore what Muller calls the theogonic capacity of things as part of their art; and a stone, a dog, yea, a mote of dust, has some seed or sign of the infinite in it, a seed or sign that a true poet can find and describe.
the li of liturgy, the de of episcopal authority.
aristarchic, timarchic, oligarchic, demarchic, and tyrannic poetry
the unitive function of speech
Actions between friends are communicative.
What contemporary philosophers call intentionality is signification.
They Appeared Glorious and Blessed
Such was the vast power which the god settled in the lost island of Atlantis; and this he afterwards directed against our land for the following reasons, as tradition tells:
For many generations, as long as the divine nature lasted in them, they were obedient to the laws, and well-affectioned towards the god, whose seed they were; for they possessed true and in every way great spirits, uniting gentleness with wisdom in the various chances of life, and in their intercourse with one another. They despised everything but virtue, caring little for their present state of life, and thinking lightly of the possession of gold and other property, which seemed only a burden to them; neither were they intoxicated by luxury; nor did wealth deprive them of their self-control; but they were sober, and saw clearly that all these goods are increased by virtue and friendship with one another, whereas by too great regard and respect for them, they are lost and friendship with them.
By such reflections and by the continuance in them of a divine nature, the qualities which we have described grew and increased among them; but when the divine portion began to fade away, and became diluted too often and too much with the mortal admixture, and the human nature got the upper hand, they then, being unable to bear their fortune, behaved unseemly, and to him who had an eye to see grew visibly debased, for they were losing the fairest of their precious gifts; but to those who had no eye to see the true happiness, they appeared glorious and blessed at the very time when they were full of avarice and unrighteous power.
Zeus, the god of gods, who rules according to law, and is able to see into such things, perceiving that an honourable race was in a woeful plight, and wanting to inflict punishment on them, that they might be chastened and improve, collected all the gods into their most holy habitation, which, being placed in the centre of the world, beholds all created things. And when he had called them together, he spake as follows-
Plato, Critias. What we have of the Critias, of course, and of the original philosophical myth of Atlantis, ends right here. There is a whole political philosophy wrapped up in this one section, though.
Friday, June 03, 2011
Wisdom from Weil
The intelligence can only be led by desire. For there to be desire, there must be pleasure and joy in the work. The intelligence only grows and bears fruit in joy. The joy of learning is as indispensable in study as breathing is in running.
Simone Weil, "Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God," Waiting for God, Craufurd, tr. Harper & Row [New York: 1973] p. 110.
Solipsism and Gratitude
Heather MacDonald has a post at "Secular Right" on what she calls the solipsism of faith:
I think this response gets both the implications and the psychology quite wrong. There is no particular a priori reason why God would do exactly the same thing for everybody, and it doesn't follow from thanking God for saving one from calamity either that God did nothing for the unfortunate neighbors or that God cared for the fortunate person more -- indeed, as old-fashioned Baptist preachers are sometimes fond of reminding their congregations, it could very well have been the exact opposite: as one preacher I know put it (I paraphrase), God may have saved you rather than them because you need more time and help to escape from hell than they do. Only the good die young, as the saying goes! MacDonald's 'inescapable implication', far from being inescapable, isn't really even implied without making a number of obviously debatable assumptions. MacDonald's implication, in other words, is really based on her own idea of What God Would Do, and the assumption that everyone else has this idea, too; a problematic assumption given that MacDonald is an atheist with a long history of not exactly having a complete sympathy with theists.
But, more importantly, I think she is clearly misreading the psychology of the situation. It is a natural human response, on having survived a great catastrophe, to feel grateful for it. And it's important to note that this is true regardless of whether one has anyone to whom one can be grateful. Martin Gardner has an excellent and underappreciated philosophical novel, The Flight of Peter Fromm, in which this is a secondary theme: gratitude is a very human response, even in situations where there is no human agent responsible; it's a common, although not universal, accompaniment of relief. If you're a theist, you'll feel grateful to God, as the most obvious higher-order agent to whom it could be attributed; if you're an atheist or agnostic (or perhaps a deist who doesn't believe God intervenes, as Gardner was), it might just be a strange sense of gratitude to no one in particular. And it does seem strange to be grateful yet to no one in particular, but there's nothing irrational about it, because gratitude is the human response in which we feel more than merely relieved, and this can be appropriate whether one has anyone to be grateful to or not. The feeling comes first, and sometimes demands expression.
People in general, however religious, tend to be rather agnostic about what they can know about God's purposes; that doesn't change the fact that they feel grateful to have survived, nor does it change the fact that the force of relief can demand that this gratitude be expressed. And the associated feelings don't have any particular connection with each other: you can be grateful for having survived while sad for those who didn't; you can be grateful for emerging unscathed even while bewildered as to why others didn't; you can be grateful for having lived even while anguished that others didn't; you can be grateful and relieved that you got through and feel bad for feeling grateful and relieved. The two sides simply come apart because they have no necessary connection.
Thus there's no particular reason why one should feel compelled to explain the difference -- one might try, in order to satisfy one's curiosity, or in order to relieve one's anguish or guilt, but there's nothing that positively demands that one do so. It's entirely possible just not to know, and even to believe that one can't know; the motivation for expressing a thank-God will still be there, utterly unaffected by one's agnosticism about God's mysterious ways. This is not the solipsism of faith or of anything else; it's simply a case where motivation does not depend on what one knows or what one doesn't, and where (what is more) the rationality of the motivation doesn't depend on what one knows or what one doesn't.
Still, it is always puzzling to me how believers can attribute their escape from calamity to God’s protection without feeling compelled to explain why God did not extend that protection to other people not clearly less deserving than themselves. If God was capable of working a “miracle” to prevent you from death by tornado in Missouri or Alabama, why didn’t he work that same miracle to save your neighbors? (We will leave aside the added puzzle of why God would allow the natural cataclysm to proceed in the first place and confine himself to piecemeal, after-the-fact efforts to mitigate its effects for a select number of survivors.) The implication of attributing one’s own good fortune amid a wave of misfortune to God is inescapable: God cared for me more than for the deceased victims. Yet only rarely does this implication seem to break through into a believer’s consciousness.
I think this response gets both the implications and the psychology quite wrong. There is no particular a priori reason why God would do exactly the same thing for everybody, and it doesn't follow from thanking God for saving one from calamity either that God did nothing for the unfortunate neighbors or that God cared for the fortunate person more -- indeed, as old-fashioned Baptist preachers are sometimes fond of reminding their congregations, it could very well have been the exact opposite: as one preacher I know put it (I paraphrase), God may have saved you rather than them because you need more time and help to escape from hell than they do. Only the good die young, as the saying goes! MacDonald's 'inescapable implication', far from being inescapable, isn't really even implied without making a number of obviously debatable assumptions. MacDonald's implication, in other words, is really based on her own idea of What God Would Do, and the assumption that everyone else has this idea, too; a problematic assumption given that MacDonald is an atheist with a long history of not exactly having a complete sympathy with theists.
But, more importantly, I think she is clearly misreading the psychology of the situation. It is a natural human response, on having survived a great catastrophe, to feel grateful for it. And it's important to note that this is true regardless of whether one has anyone to whom one can be grateful. Martin Gardner has an excellent and underappreciated philosophical novel, The Flight of Peter Fromm, in which this is a secondary theme: gratitude is a very human response, even in situations where there is no human agent responsible; it's a common, although not universal, accompaniment of relief. If you're a theist, you'll feel grateful to God, as the most obvious higher-order agent to whom it could be attributed; if you're an atheist or agnostic (or perhaps a deist who doesn't believe God intervenes, as Gardner was), it might just be a strange sense of gratitude to no one in particular. And it does seem strange to be grateful yet to no one in particular, but there's nothing irrational about it, because gratitude is the human response in which we feel more than merely relieved, and this can be appropriate whether one has anyone to be grateful to or not. The feeling comes first, and sometimes demands expression.
People in general, however religious, tend to be rather agnostic about what they can know about God's purposes; that doesn't change the fact that they feel grateful to have survived, nor does it change the fact that the force of relief can demand that this gratitude be expressed. And the associated feelings don't have any particular connection with each other: you can be grateful for having survived while sad for those who didn't; you can be grateful for emerging unscathed even while bewildered as to why others didn't; you can be grateful for having lived even while anguished that others didn't; you can be grateful and relieved that you got through and feel bad for feeling grateful and relieved. The two sides simply come apart because they have no necessary connection.
Thus there's no particular reason why one should feel compelled to explain the difference -- one might try, in order to satisfy one's curiosity, or in order to relieve one's anguish or guilt, but there's nothing that positively demands that one do so. It's entirely possible just not to know, and even to believe that one can't know; the motivation for expressing a thank-God will still be there, utterly unaffected by one's agnosticism about God's mysterious ways. This is not the solipsism of faith or of anything else; it's simply a case where motivation does not depend on what one knows or what one doesn't, and where (what is more) the rationality of the motivation doesn't depend on what one knows or what one doesn't.
Thursday, June 02, 2011
Seventh Year
So Siris has finished its seventh year; I had almost forgotten. According to Blogger, there have been 4,720 posts here, not counting this one; barring anything unusual, I'll hit the five thousand mark at some point in this next year. Most of them are trivial little things, of course. But Siris was started mostly just so that there would be somewhere for my mind to be unruly; and so it is. I've learned much in the past years, and all too little; and that, I suppose, is the human lot. We'll see what more can be learned.
The most popular post from the past year has been Immanuel Kant's Guide to a Good Dinner Party.
The most popular post from the past year has been Immanuel Kant's Guide to a Good Dinner Party.
A Poem Draft
Intimations
Although the Godborn words are broken,
the tablet smashed upon the floor,
we keep of it a wistful token,
one whisper born of something more,
as though in boats upon the river
we caught some wind from downward sea
and in its bracing chill did shiver
in hope of someday's destiny.
The words are passed. Their life, now withered,
survives alone in pictured frame,
pressed under glass and saddened, hither
restored to semblance of the Name.
But weep no tears for faded glories,
no sorrow give to flowers dead;
they only serve to hint of stories
within the realms of Heaven bred.
For once we learned the joy of heaven
from rock and tree and breath of air,
and it all tastes and values leavened
with hope beyond what angels dare;
so to this hint of lost things hearken,
for though things pass through deathly door,
this cannot tale or splendor darken:
we, too, will pass, and hear once more.
Although the Godborn words are broken,
the tablet smashed upon the floor,
we keep of it a wistful token,
one whisper born of something more,
as though in boats upon the river
we caught some wind from downward sea
and in its bracing chill did shiver
in hope of someday's destiny.
The words are passed. Their life, now withered,
survives alone in pictured frame,
pressed under glass and saddened, hither
restored to semblance of the Name.
But weep no tears for faded glories,
no sorrow give to flowers dead;
they only serve to hint of stories
within the realms of Heaven bred.
For once we learned the joy of heaven
from rock and tree and breath of air,
and it all tastes and values leavened
with hope beyond what angels dare;
so to this hint of lost things hearken,
for though things pass through deathly door,
this cannot tale or splendor darken:
we, too, will pass, and hear once more.
An Incommunicable Word
There was an Island in the Sea
by Conrad Aiken
There was an island in the sea
That out of immortal chaos reared
Towers of topaz, trees of glass,
For maidens adored and warriors feared.
Long ago was it lost in the sea ;
And now, a thousand fathoms deep.
Sea-worms above it whirl their lamps.
Crabs on the pale mosaics creep.
Voyagers over that haunted sea
Hear from the darkness under the keel
A sound that is not wave or foam,
Nor do they only hear, but feel
The timbers quiver, as eerily comes
Out of the waters an elfin singing
Of voices happy as none can be.
And bells an ethereal anthem ringing.
Thereafter, where they go or come.
They will be silent, they have heard
Out of the infinite of the soul
An incommunicable word.
Thereafter, they are as lovers who
Over an infinite brightness lean :
'It is Atlantis !' all their speech,
'To lost Atlantis have we been.'
William Harvey's Aristotelianism
Benny Goldberg has a very nice post on William Harvey's Medical Aristotelianism, which is well worth reading.
Charles Wolfe has a comment on it, but I confess I don't understand it; he seems to imply that there was a strand of scholarship in post-WWII that argued that Harvey wasn't an Aristotelian. Now, it's not my primary field by any means, but I can't find any such thing: you do find articles that argue that Harvey is reinterpreting certain Aristotelian ideas, but it's very difficult to argue that Harvey is not Aristotelian because he is very explicit about it himself and uses Aristotelian terminology all over the place. (To find claims that Harvey is not an Aristotelian, you have to go back quite far.) Wolfe asks three questions:
All three of these questions I find somewhat perplexing.
(1) For one thing, Harvey really isn't given 'pride of place' in the Discourse; he's given one paragraph, devoted entirely to the issue of the circulation of blood. Everything else in Harvey falls away. Descartes explicitly gives us the arguments he finds convincing; they are arguments closely linked to particular experiments and both of them admit of more mechanistic interpretations. One of Descartes's lifelong ambitions was a rigorous mechanistic medicine on Cartesian principles, and explanation of the heart was key to that ambition. It is, in other words, the heart, not Harvey, that is given pride of place; Harvey just happens to have good arguments (on Descartes's own standards) for circulation of blood and the most important rival account of the heart's motion (which Descartes has to top -- he famously fails, of course).
(2) I'd have to look at the original context of the claim, since I don't recognize and can't find it offhand, but one reason that an Aristotelian might say that sometimes a final cause has no explanatory power is that, depending on what you are trying to explain, it wouldn't. Some forms of explanation on Aristotelian principles presuppose the final cause by holding it constant relative to other things; in yet others, the final cause, while objectively the reason for the other causes, is the least known cause; some things are better explained by matter and material resistance to the final cause; and so forth. Again, I'd have to look at the context, but there are lots of circumstances where it would be an unsurprising thing for an Aristotelian to say.
(3) Harvey doesn't use "design language" very much; he does use Aristotelian causal terminology a lot, and the two vocabularies are not the same. What's more, Harvey often explicitly attributes his vocabulary to Aristotle (and sometimes more substantive content) and appeals to Aristotle for methodological principles (the preface to the book on the generation of animals is solidly, even if, some might argue, selectively, Aristotelian in its account of scientific method), so it's not as if we're talking a few vague references here. Moreover, Harvey uses lots of other Aristotelian terminology as well, things that have little or nothing to do with final causes as such. Harvey was very unusual in the seventeenth century for his Aristotelianism; setting aside Fabricius and a few others, extensive use of Aristotle for methodology in medical matters was not all that common by this point, so Harvey's use can hardly be attributed to common usage, and the detail of it is so extensive that it can't just be educated man's parlance. He sticks out, and it's his Aristotelian features that most stick out.
One can argue how close Harvey is to Aristotle himself -- he certainly does at times seem to interpret Aristotelian claims fairly freely in the light of the evidence -- so you could argue that he's in some ways loosely Aristotelian. He's also very insistent that Aristotle hasn't discovered everything of importance about the natural world, an idea he thinks is obviously contrary to evidence. But I don't see that there's any evidential promise in the argument, which Wolfe seems to be suggesting, that Harvey wasn't at least broadly Aristotelian, particularly since Harvey regularly and deliberately locates himself in a broadly Aristotelian tradition.
Conceivably, of course, because Wolfe's comment is so short, I'm just misreading and missing his point.
Charles Wolfe has a comment on it, but I confess I don't understand it; he seems to imply that there was a strand of scholarship in post-WWII that argued that Harvey wasn't an Aristotelian. Now, it's not my primary field by any means, but I can't find any such thing: you do find articles that argue that Harvey is reinterpreting certain Aristotelian ideas, but it's very difficult to argue that Harvey is not Aristotelian because he is very explicit about it himself and uses Aristotelian terminology all over the place. (To find claims that Harvey is not an Aristotelian, you have to go back quite far.) Wolfe asks three questions:
if he was such an Aristotelian, why did Descartes give him pride of place in the Discourse on Method? If he was such an Aristotelian, why does he sometimes say that final causes may have no explanatory power whatsoever? Of course he speaks of 'office', of ends, which doesn't quite make him an Aristotelian, and (just sayin'), might the design language just be English bourgeois cultural standards?
All three of these questions I find somewhat perplexing.
(1) For one thing, Harvey really isn't given 'pride of place' in the Discourse; he's given one paragraph, devoted entirely to the issue of the circulation of blood. Everything else in Harvey falls away. Descartes explicitly gives us the arguments he finds convincing; they are arguments closely linked to particular experiments and both of them admit of more mechanistic interpretations. One of Descartes's lifelong ambitions was a rigorous mechanistic medicine on Cartesian principles, and explanation of the heart was key to that ambition. It is, in other words, the heart, not Harvey, that is given pride of place; Harvey just happens to have good arguments (on Descartes's own standards) for circulation of blood and the most important rival account of the heart's motion (which Descartes has to top -- he famously fails, of course).
(2) I'd have to look at the original context of the claim, since I don't recognize and can't find it offhand, but one reason that an Aristotelian might say that sometimes a final cause has no explanatory power is that, depending on what you are trying to explain, it wouldn't. Some forms of explanation on Aristotelian principles presuppose the final cause by holding it constant relative to other things; in yet others, the final cause, while objectively the reason for the other causes, is the least known cause; some things are better explained by matter and material resistance to the final cause; and so forth. Again, I'd have to look at the context, but there are lots of circumstances where it would be an unsurprising thing for an Aristotelian to say.
(3) Harvey doesn't use "design language" very much; he does use Aristotelian causal terminology a lot, and the two vocabularies are not the same. What's more, Harvey often explicitly attributes his vocabulary to Aristotle (and sometimes more substantive content) and appeals to Aristotle for methodological principles (the preface to the book on the generation of animals is solidly, even if, some might argue, selectively, Aristotelian in its account of scientific method), so it's not as if we're talking a few vague references here. Moreover, Harvey uses lots of other Aristotelian terminology as well, things that have little or nothing to do with final causes as such. Harvey was very unusual in the seventeenth century for his Aristotelianism; setting aside Fabricius and a few others, extensive use of Aristotle for methodology in medical matters was not all that common by this point, so Harvey's use can hardly be attributed to common usage, and the detail of it is so extensive that it can't just be educated man's parlance. He sticks out, and it's his Aristotelian features that most stick out.
One can argue how close Harvey is to Aristotle himself -- he certainly does at times seem to interpret Aristotelian claims fairly freely in the light of the evidence -- so you could argue that he's in some ways loosely Aristotelian. He's also very insistent that Aristotle hasn't discovered everything of importance about the natural world, an idea he thinks is obviously contrary to evidence. But I don't see that there's any evidential promise in the argument, which Wolfe seems to be suggesting, that Harvey wasn't at least broadly Aristotelian, particularly since Harvey regularly and deliberately locates himself in a broadly Aristotelian tradition.
Conceivably, of course, because Wolfe's comment is so short, I'm just misreading and missing his point.
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Feast of St. Justin the Martyr
For He sets before every race of mankind that which is always and universally just, as well as all righteousness; and every race knows that adultery, and fornication, and homicide, and such like, are sinful; and though they all commit such practices, yet they do not escape from the knowledge that they act unrighteously whenever they so do, with the exception of those who are possessed with an unclean spirit, and who have been debased by education, by wicked customs, and by sinful institutions, and who have lost, or rather quenched and put under, their natural ideas. For we may see that such persons are unwilling to submit to the same things which they inflict upon others, and reproach each other with hostile consciences for the acts which they perpetrate. And hence I think that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ spoke well when He summed up all righteousness and piety in two commandments. They are these: 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your strength, and your neighbour as yourself.' For the man who loves God with all the heart, and with all the strength, being filled with a God-fearing mind, will reverence no other god; and since God wishes it, he would reverence that angel who is beloved by the same Lord and God. And the man who loves his neighbour as himself will wish for him the same good things that he wishes for himself, and no man will wish evil things for himself. Accordingly, he who loves his neighbour would pray and labour that his neighbour may be possessed of the same benefits as himself. Now nothing else is neighbour to man than that similarly-affectioned and reasonable being—man. Therefore, since all righteousness is divided into two branches, namely, in so far as it regards God and men, whoever, says the Scripture, loves the Lord God with all the heart, and all the strength, and his neighbour as himself, would be truly a righteous man.
Justin, Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter 93. St. Justin, of course, was a Middle Platonist philosopher who was martyred in the persecutions under Marcus Aurelius, a philosopher, possibly at the instigation of Crescens, a philosopher. I talked a bit about his philosophical context last year. He's most famous, perhaps, for his view that Socrates and other righteous pagans were proto-Christians, for they devoted themselves to Logos (=Word, Reason) and, as the Gospel of John tells us, the Logos is Christ.
Leibniz on Skepticism
The Skeptics are never liked by the experts in a scientific field or a doctrine, whatever it may be; they only satisfy the ignorant, who bow to skepticism because it seems to console their ignorance. However, insightful objections are always useful, and serve to better clarify the truth: but those who only object, and who doubt only for the purpose of doubting, damage their own reputation in the company of well educated people and harm those who are not educated, by seducing them, and by teaching them to neglect to learn.
G. W. F. Leibniz, quoted in Maria Rosa Antognazza, Leibniz on the Trinty and the Incarnation, Gerald Parks, tr. [Yale UP: 2007] p. 148.
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