Still getting through these from last year.
The problem with Shapiro's plan positivism is that it lacks any real sense of ongoing plan evaluation; it also assumes, without good reason, that legal plans are the broadest and most encompassing plans (that, e.g., there are no broader moral plans).
Ruth as an exemplar for penitents
Mary as Virgin and Mother a sign of Christ as God and Man
"Oil gave itself to the sick that they might gain by it all helps, as the Anointed who gave Himself to gain by Him all glories." Ephrem, Hymn on Virginity 4.5
In Confirmation & Unction alike it is made clear that our destiny is Messianic, the first in life, the second in reward.
"To think is excellent; to pray is better; to love is everything." Elisabeth Leseur
The body of work requires the breath of prayer.
To ask why, given baptism, you would have confirmation, is like asking why, given that you can put anything you wish in an introduction, you would write the book.
the two major problems with universalism:
(1) distinguishing its arguments from problem of evil arguments in general
(2) accounting for universal contrition
--> Universalists typically err with regard to (2) in accounting only for the possibility of universal satisfaction
Mt 25:41 // Rv 20:10
The contrast to the New Jerusalem is the lake of fire.
Rv 22:14-15 & counternatural sins
baptism - Trinity
eucharist - Incarnation
marriage - Church
unction - Resurrection
confirmation - Holy Spirit
ordination - Heaven's worship
penance - judgment
justice in soul, justice in exchange, justice in society
Mathematical contact is simply equivalence; physical contact is a causal notion.
problems as discrepancies between what a goal-directed system is capable of and what the scope of its intention/disposition is (cp. Fisch)
Abot 6:5 - "Greater is Torah than both the Priesthood and the Monarchy."
Aristotle's virtues as aspects of solidarity
The logic of the sacraments is confluence of analogies constrained by revealed truths.
Infused virtues are in some sense more inward than acquired virtues.
Positive laws do not settle what ought to be done; but people may settle what ought to be done out of respect for positive law.
Tradition is preserved by (1) direct reception (2) natural repetitions (3) rational deduction from evidence. Natural repetitions arise from constraints (physical, rational, social, those involved in the sense of faith, etc.).
'Hallowed be your name' is a prayer for martyrdom-if-it-comes-to-that, i.e., all that I have is on the line for the sanctification of your Name. (cp Berakhot 19b; Ta'anit 24b; Sanhedrin 106b)
The pains of purgatory are greater than ours because they are more clear.
Satispassion is more like baptism than like penitential practice.
"Those who are in hell can receive the reward of their good." Aquinas
overlap as the actual parthood relation in intransitive parthood
incipit and desinit as boundary operators
clocks as boundary markers
There is no point *in* Scripture that gives us a complete rendering of salvation history, even in just essentials; salvation history is given *by* Scripture. Likewise there are things more clearly given by Scripture than in Scripture, e.g., the Trinity or that which was defined by Chalcedon.
What we actually get in dogmatic definitions are not isolated dogmas but upsurges or pleats in the fabric of the whole dogmatic faith with which the Church is garbed.
naive physics as the medium of physical evidence
machines are constructed of pairs of elements (Reuleaux)
One could Platonize Kant's autonomy formulation into: Act according to intelligible good and not merely sensible good.
hole : space :: pause : time
hole : body :: pause : change
What is professed through faith is possessed through sacrament.
The Church prays to share in Mary's Assumption.
Human beings do not merely use signs; we vest ourselves with them, sometimes strictly literally (uniforms, regalia, pins), sometimes more loosely.
Since hell is hardened impenitence, the sacrament of reconciliation is always a victory over hell, an act of anti-hell, and thus a taste, one small taste, of heaven.
Heaven being what eye has not seen nor ear heard, we can never *imagine* anything better than a limbo of hell plus things that can be taken as symbols of something more.
It is the nature of hell not to be able to think of anything better than a very nice hell.
Faculties are necessary for absolution because confession is a tribunal.
When most people talk about whether this or that ecclesial proclamation is infallible, they are really asking not about infallibility (a feature of intelligible teaching by a teacher, not of proclamations or formulations) but about juridical imposition.
the elements of hagiography: facts, virtues, gifts, and miracles (these are not completely separable)
While heroic virtue may arise in other ways, the normal beginning of it is in heroic repentance.
semiosis as analogue of the giving of grace
Peirce: if mere possibilities may nonetheless be in some sense real, "it can no longer be granted that every conditional proposition whose antecedent does not happen to be realized is true."
ceremonial law as an antidote for misuse of sign and symbol (Mendelssohn)
The fear of the Lord is that which protects and respects the image of God.
Torah as a planting of the eternal in the midst of the world
Ps 150 & the parallel between the sanctuary and heaven
ssu & sollicitudo
The prosocial functions of beliefs are always tied to their truth, although one must consider partial truth and approximate truth.
The capacity to invoke supernatural and preternatural agents is closely linked to human dignity.
All natural potencies are also obediential potencies.
dreaming as epistemological experiment, as psychological evidence, as ethical venue
the digressions and delays used by scholars to extend the joys of inquiry
"One is punished by the very thins by which one sins." Wisdom 11:16
Torah as imperishable memorial
Consensus is an artifact of social interactions.
eudaimonia as providing the formal character of rational action
the practical syllogism in deliberation vs the practical syllogism in command
the sacramental character must be stirred into flame 2 Tim 1:6
Real composition, as opposed to colligation by the mind, has a causal aspect.
(1) The act of one thing can sometimes be in another.
(2) Two things can have one and the same act.
(3) Even if to act and to be acted on are the same, they need not be the same in respect of their account.
the sensible/intelligible thesis as the key thesis of Neoplatonism
being kind and patient with ideas
work as an instrumentality of prayer
making one's death holy in advance
"Moral virtues are the effective condition for the rationality of acting subjects." Rhonheimer
Prudence is the excellence in us pertaining to normativity as such.
We can ask of any theory of normativity: What does this make of prudence?
temperance as the preserver of prudence (sozain phronesin) EN 6.5
the pursuit of beauty as an aid to prudence
The objects of our actions are in some way part of us.
Jealousy poisons interpretations.
the possibility of love as the seed of love
fade-out as tension-relieving transition
external world // other minds // induction
Modern mathematics as the logic and hypothetical metaphysics (using transcendental argument) of quantity (extension and measure) rather than just the study of the category of quantity (it starts with quantity but spreads out from there). One can see philosophical phenomenology as trying to do the same with quality.
As canon Scripture regulates, as prayer Scripture is appropriated, made one's own.
Probability begins with the construction of possibilities.
Given the sins of humanity, true charity will have among its modes a piacular mode.
the sense of the ridiculous as a guide (however limited) for inquiry
-> restraint of passions and their corresponding biases (cp. Hutcheson)
Christ's atonement as piacular, eucharistical, and federal (testamentary)
A government, to be stable, must limit the extent to which it harms either the property or the reputation of those subjected to it.
marriage as a generator of almsdeeds (acts of mercy)
recognition of the importance of the middle term as used for extrapolating probable arguments for a newly encountered position
explanation as a kind of middle term
plausibility as first reasonableness
the scientific community as
(1) requiring resources
(1a) liberality
(1b) magnificence
(2) requiring interaction (collegiality)
(2a) patience/good temper
(2b) truthfulness
(2c) amiability
(2d) modesty
(2e) indignation against abuses
(2f) wit
(3) requiring drive
(3a) courage
(3b) ambition
(3c) magnanimity
(3d) self-restraint/discipline
potential parts of a virtue as having integral parts analogous to the integral parts of the principal virtue
Utilitarianism takes right and wrong to be a purely empirical matter; Kantianism takes it to be a purely rational matter; but in the lives of saints and heroes we seem to find something of both.
Ex 17:8-13 as an image of prayer
the saints as being the means for an abundance of reconciliation
What unifies a people must be able to tolerate a diversity of interpretation.
representative government a "semi-sacramental idea" (Chesterton)
the potential parts of justice as touching on aspects of the piacular
faith : Mansfield Park :: hope : Persuasion :: love : Pride and Prejudice
True love is that which makes the virtues shine.
Sublimity is linked to morality by carrying us outside ourselves.
All and each of Austen's works can be seen as exploring aspects of prudence: common sense, moderation, overcoming of bias, solicitude, counsel, constancy.
the importance of 'the restraint of sentiments which were not in themselves illaudable"
the Land as symbol of Torah // the Land as symbol of world to come
Positions in the metaphysics of mathematics have analogues in the philosophy of law.
theological virtues : end :: infused moral virtues : means
virtues : being an agent :: gifts : being an instrument
While all virtues are linked to natural law in some fashion or other, natural law is most closely linked to justice.
'one', 'holy', 'catholic', and 'apostolic' as the four ways in which the Church exhibits wholeness
prayer of intercession as the especial expression of the communion of saints
the law as a network and instrument of agency
paradox of thrift as highlighting the fallacy of composition
Human prayer involves witnesses.
the sacrament of marriage as a school of prayer
lives that are just, useful, and symbolic of beautiful ideals (cp. Mill)
1 Cor 11:26 & eucharist as the sacrament of preaching
meditation on history as a spiritual practice
implausibilities as the aporiai of historical scholarship
the property of the Church as a patrimony of the poor
the contrition/confession/satisfaction structure as having analogues in the other sacraments (seems esp. clear for marriage & eucharist)
the sacraments as first movers of the liturgical commonwealth, moving as the beloved moves the lover (of course, it's Christ through the sacraments)
-> formed as a body, we begin to form customary law
sacrament : impression :: doctrine : idea
a utility theory of hope and despair rather than pleasure and pain (a utilitiarianism of hope)
Taking pain to be an intrinsic evil is confusing sign and signified.
Jer 17:3 the Lord, the baptismal pool of Israel
The fact that psychopaths and the vicious are put on a level with the virtuous, and only overruled by being outnumbered, is a greater weakness of utilitarianism than is generally recognized. (It's not blatant weakness, and utilitarians can work up defenses to more simplistic pressings of the matter, but it is a weak point.)
Platonic recollection // doctrinal development
Aptness to dwell on creatures of one's own imagination is an impediment to constancy.
motives of credibility
(1) confirming wonders
(2) confirmed wisdom
(3) consistent fruitfulness in good
(4) intrinsic beauty
Miracles, surpassing the ability of nature alone, symbolize doctrines surpassing the ability of natural reason alone.
Tronto's definition of care makes it indistinguishable from prudence (attentiveness, responsibility, competence, and responsiveness are all aspects of prudence).
Schopenhauer's positivism is his first false step in criticizing Kant.
Schopenhauer's 'Harm none but rather help all people, so far as you can' is reducible to the first principle of practical reason.
simplex sigillum veri -- note that the seal, while confirming, requires already possessing (everyone has the experience of things becoming simple once you understand things in the right way)
the sense of investment, the sense of property, the sense of enterprise, the sense of discipline/saving
Motives affect the classification of consequences.
Our capacity for faith, hope, and love indicates three main lines of human dignity.
'Disinterest' in Kant's account of taste is functionally linkable to the fact that beauty pleases merely on the contemplation, and not due to some further incentive.
The Deleuze-Guattari conflation of hierarchies and arborescent structures, and of both with dichotomies, is a serious error.
Measurement is not mere quantity but quantity with respect to a relation (this is why a positivist can treat it as a kind of classification).
Cain & Abel : the Maker kills the Drifter for not being inferior
Checks and balances only work properly when combined with direct responsibility to constituency.
All knowledge is of shared being and by the sharing of being.
piacular guilt as a sign of human dignity
proper admiration of Henry Crawford: "as a clever, pleasant man" Jane to Cassandra 2 March 1814
Exemplarity clearly has some affinity with life.
panpsychism & the World Soul as confusing ways of talking about angels
Occasionalism treats the entire world as if it worked like the mind.
baptism - Immaculate Conception
confirmation - Annunciation
eucharist - Dolors
unction - Assumption
penance (qua tribunal) - Intercession
grotesque : comic :: sublime : tragic
grotesque : rude/primitive :: picturesque : sophisticated technique
the role of novelty in the grotesque
grotesque : pity :: sublime : awe
the grotesque as analogous to the paradoxical
Ruskin - grotesque composed of the ludicrous and the fearful, leading to two tendencies of grotesque (sportive and terrible)
The grotesque is that in the comic that is suggestive the sublime.
the relation between the grotesque and the gruesome
suitability of the grotesque as symbolism of the divine
(1) divine names
(2) miracles & grace // lusus naturae
(3) providence (and the place of the bad/ugly in it)
The grotesque presents its incongruity on its face.
sublimity & deity Seneca Letter XLI
"Philosophy has no business supplying vice with excuses." (Seneca)
Note that Kant's ethical commonwealth can only exist among people united in a political commonwealth (from which, however, it is distinct).
the grotesque as a way in which the ugly can be part of the beautiful
Sensorimotor capability just is the rudiment of tool use.
Models presuppose minds for which they are models.
the High Priestly Prayer as a precis of salvation history
the handing on of the Lord's Prayer in Baptism and Confirmation
The pastoral function of the priest subserves the sacramental.
Mathematics is not a closed, or indeed a single, system.
Godel's qualified argument against mechanism is in reality an argument for mathematical creativity.
Law is powerful enough that even the possibility of it is powerful.
a menagerie of ideas
The cultivation of social justice requires the expansion of opportunities for giving and receiving what is good.
Understanding is not merely an organization of some material.
In a whole constituted by an end, the parts will have their proper ends, the less important parts will have the more important parts as their ends, and all parts will have the whole as their end.
-> Arguments are wholes constituted by ends.
the contrast between Elinor & Lucy SS 24: "Elinor spoke it with the truest sincerity" "replied Lucy, her little sharp eyes full of meaning"
Catechesis is the most important ecumenism. Nothing interferes with union so much as ignorance and neglect of doctrine.
if baptism : passive magisterium and orders : active magisterium, this suggests an intermediate magisterium corresponding to confirmation; think about this
Ethics on analogy with | analogous varieties
mathematics | platonistic, logicist, intuitionist (constructivist), formalist?, predicativist?
physics | realist, instrumentalist (empiricist anti-realist), historicist, social constructivist, pragmatist
medicine | realist-rationalist, realist-empiricist, anti-realist-rationalist, anti-realist-empiricist
utility-based prudential guidelines
office-based prudential guidelines
desert-based prudential guidelines
particular measurements as mereological locations
Feuerbach: "In relation to the inner life, grace may be defined as religious genius; in relation to the outer life as religious chance."
All three sacraments of indelible character purify, illuminate, and unify; but to baptism is appropriated purification, to confirmation illumination, and to orders unification.
metaphors & jokes: striking congruities and startling incongruities
Sacramentalia are ways we not only participate in liturgy but vest ourselves with it. We put the liturgy on, both literally and figuratively.
The treasury of merits is Christ Himself.
Provability is always relative to conceptual resources; proof is an end the attainment of which depends very much on the means available.
the modern superstition of the Mandate of History
Feuerbachian atheism is vulnerable to Cartesian subversion.
the play of thought wrapping around logical structure
Christian hope as divine temperance in us
It is in humility that the natural human being most reflects divine immutability.
the suitability of Christian moral principles of historical study: the goodness of human vocation and natural tendency, original sin, historical study as a practical problem falling under natural law insofar as it touches on common good, the piety of history
If it takes a village to raise a child, the saints are the village for the baptized.
exchangeable, exchange, market
creation as proto-Incarnation
It is fundamentally important to the Catholic process of canonization that it is not a personalized list of favorites. Saints are to teach, and how they perform this function is a matter of how the Church as a whole takes them.
virtue, character, witness of character
the heavens // covenant
thy name : faith :: thy kingdom : hope :: thy will : charity :: give us : temperance :: forgive us : justice :: lead us not : prudence :: deliver us : fortitude
Christlikeness is not merely a resemblance but a signification.
gratitude as community-forming (Feuerbach)
utilitarianism, effective altruism, and the bureaucratization of ethics
The problem with the at-wake-up account of dreaming is that what most plausibly acounts for this set of images at wake up is that they were already there to be taken that way; particularly as environmental factors not at wake up but before (e.g., rumble of thunder) can sometimes be identified as plausibly in the causal chain -- in such cases the at-wake-up view gives us a causal gap.
Dennett's upload account of dreaming is pure Cartesian theater.
philosophical issues in dreaming // philosophical issues in paradox of fiction
The un-Marian is an indicator of the pseudo-Messianic.
"Law in general is human reason, inasmuch as it governs all the inhabitants of the earth" Montesquieu
the theory of capital vices as a theory of cascade failures
