I'm a bit behind on these, so there will probably be a few of these in the coming weeks. As always, these are dashed-off notes, so take with a grain of salt.
probability in light of personal trust and love
- Newman addresses this from three directions before the Catholic period in University Sermons, Ecclesiastical Miracles, and Development of Doctrine
apologetic, polemical, & didactic evangelization
jury duty as a possible crime deterrent
In every age the disciplina arcani must be practiced but in every age its form must be different; for where the Spirit of the Age turns its gaze, and where one may hide from that gaze, changes from age to age.
three kinds of analogies in terms of which any moral principles can be exposited
(1) natural
(2) practical
(3) political
- i.e., morality being natural, practical, and political in some sense, there is always the possiblity of analogizing it to things that are natural, practical, or political in other senses
three stages of corruption by concupiscence
(1) frailty
(2) impurity
(3) wickedness
Kant's duty "to raise onself out of the crudity of one's nature"
Sabellianism, taken in the precise sense in which it is heretical, is known not by the form of words it uses nor by the approach it takes to teaching the doctrine fo the Trinity, but by its effect on the doctrine fo the Incarnation: that is Sabellian which affirms the unity fo God in such a way that the affirmation requires either Patripassianism or a denial of such personal or hypostatic union as is required to see the distinction of the Father and the Son.
assortative reasoning
With a dialogical argument evaluation of its status requires attention to the means used to excite apprehension of, and direct attention to, what is thought relevant.
Adequate refutation requires adequate diagnosis.
subject-making & exception-tracking & nonexception-tracking features of quantity
predicate-making & inclusion-tracking & exclusion-tracking features of quality
intrinsic & extrinsic notes of truth
Whether temporal prosperity is a note of the True Church necessarily depends on what is meant by 'prosperity'.
the explanation-like character of naming practices
Hope by its nature paints pictures of its object; these may be more crude or more sophisticated, and more or less imaginative, sentimental, or rational, without changing the object at all.
diamondward & boxward ampliation
Toleration works well if everyone can agree about the harmless and the harmful.
Monotheisms in contact with polytheisms develop theologies.
The spirit of antichrist rests on the anomos; the anomoi spread it like an infection, under the cover of good causes sincerely but lawlessly believed.
The darkness of an age is overcome by creating alliances among otherwise isolated islands of good.
In The Fellowship of the Ring, note the link between Gandalf's comment to himself in II.1 and Galadriel's gift to Frodo in II.8. Note, too, that Book II is framed by crises in which Frodo puts on the Ring and struggles with the power of Mordor, first the Ringwraiths, then the Eye. Note, too, that we have first Rivendell then Lorien:
Crisis - Rivendell ... Lorien - Crisis
Good statistics are always reasons to inquire but even good statistics are not always reasons to conclude.
analogical arguments as fugues
Gersonides' account of perplexity in terms of massive numbers of contradictory disjuncts
logic of analogical inference & logical method of counterexamples
finitary and infinitary polytheisms
metaphor as inviting the audience to fill in the canvas
acknowledgment and appreciation responses in conversation and texting
mendicity depots
general assurance societies
The philosopher with no metaphors can only recombine old ideas.
First approximations are not to be despised.
the importance of archives in The Lord of the Rings
People do not form relationships because they find them fulfilling, even if they are; they form them for other reasons and then hope that they will be, or will continue to be, fulfilling.
Reason is the guardian of understanding.
understanding, making, and healing
incommensurability of doubt and puzzlement
Love for the neighbor is that which is eternal in all love. (Kierkegaard)
Genuine competition occurs only in a Goldilocks Zone of moderate unpredictability.
Sport derives from training.
probability as guarded assertion (cf. Toulmin)
the mereological analysis of definitions
Human life does not sharply begin and sharply end; its edges are not clearly delineated at conception and death. People ar enot being unreasonable in puzzling over when human personhood begins and whether zygotes are living a properly human life; they are not being unreasonable in puzzling over whether heart death or brain death is the better endpoint or whether patients in vegetative states are living a properly human life. There are no manifest signs at either ends. But why should prudence and reason need such manifest signs and sharp cut-offs, as if they were incompetent to navigate any of the fuzziness of human life?
Theology is only queen of the sciences to the extent that it is the doctrine of saints; the teaching of this or that academic is often enough mere speculation and too often mere fantasy.
tu quoque as estoppel
justice as the structure of philanthropy
the ordering relation among preferences is irreflexive, imperfectly transitive, and asymmetric
topological interpretation of strict implication
Aesthetic consciousness -- seeing a circle, to recognize it as a cross-section of sphere and hypersphere, though still seeing only a circle; seeing a Pieta, to recognize it as a cross-section of something infinite, though seeing only this statue here.
to write with catholicity of thought
To do things only one way is to fail to give reason its due.
to prefer the chance of eternity to the certainty of time
Every genuine demonstration is a circle whose circumference exhibits infinite tangential possibilities.
wise, brave, sober, just Rep 427e
