index, icon, & symbol as three ways in which Logos is imitable
one-good-reason stopping rules
proximate descriptions of feelings in the shape of arguments
the merely verisimilar and its function in argument
hope as guarantor of fidelity
The opposite of usury is love.
sacred vernaculars as treasures of the people
Grace is the personality of God in us.
the theology of grace a theology of the Presence
religion:sacrifice::fortitude:martyrdom
Each sacrament contributes to humility, instruction, and spiritual work in a distinct way.
Marriage is the one form of human society with a paradisial root; it is the one human tradition not found under the regime of original sin.
the three mysteries that structure the Church: moral virtue, theological virtue, the Incarnation
'Our Father': a bold humility!
Part of the task of a great playwright is to leave the right things unsaid.
Every proof presupposes a background.
"Hypocrisy, while it desires to captivate the eye, becomes itself captive to the eye." (Peter Chrysologus)
"Fasting without mercy is not truth but figure." (Chrysologus)
"Love makes the beloved the lover's form." (Aquinas, III Sent d27 q1 a1)
the exemplarity of prudence
hagiographical tradition
(1) to remember (I Macc 2)
(2) to praise (Sir 44-50)
(3) to see Wisdom in (Wis 10)
(4) to know as witnesses for salvation (Hb 11)
confirmation as the mother sacrament for catechism
sacraments as signs of desire to serve God with devotion
Balzac's "La Messe de l'athée" and symbolisms of friendship
the Creed as the structure of Christian prayer
We can measure things in endlessly many ways; but some of these are natural classifications.
appeals to authority as arguments for the presumptive // appeals to intuition
What equations say depends on things not in the equations.
Middlemarch as a study of shame
Note that most blind mathematicians work in geometry.
the garden of Eden as a symbol of original justice
boundary as "the first thing outside of which no part is to be found, and the first thing inside of which every part is to be found" (Metaphysics 1022a)
-> Note that incipit and desinit seem to split the two clauses up
six views of boundaries in connected space
(1) classical: a boundary is part or complement but not both
(2) paraconsistent (glutty): both part and complement
(3) paracomplete (gappy): neither part nor complement
(4) coincidence: one boundary that is part, one that is complement
(5) eliminativist: no actual boundary (boundary constructed by identification)
-> it seems clear that each of these is true of some things called boundaries
Our natural way of thinking of boundaries is directional, in terms of approach.
whether (judgment or quality)
what/which/who (term)
why/how (middle term of connected principle/principiate)
-> In English, quantity is discovered by whether + arbitrarily posited quantity
Imperative accounts of questions introduce operators (e.g., epistemic) but questions do not always involve any such operators.
questions & deduction with incomplete information
Quamvis operatio attribuatur hypostasi ut operanti, tamen attribuitur naturae ut operationis principio. (Aquinas, DV 20.1ad12)
tradition as a particular form of cultivating good sense
dogmatic definition as magisterial sign
Every extrinsic principle of certainty is reducible to intrinsic principles of certainty.
possibility of thought <-> thinkability of being
There are no one-issue suicides.
pretty dystopias
Sin of its own nature tends toward irrevocability.
micro-weaknesses in arguments
Through the gift of wisdom we are secure of God.
the systems structuring the Mystical Body
(1) sacramental
(2) doctrinal: (a) verbal (b) iconic
(3) penitential
Acedia is the enemy of every tradition.
Faith is a virtue that is a power and achievement of God.
"The effect of Incarnation is in fact to spread radiance, and it is just for that reason that today there can still be witnesses of Christ, whose evidence has a value that is not only exemplary but strictly apologetic." (Gabriel Marcel)
"...conversion is the act by which man is called to become a witness." (Marcel)
"...the free variation of the world of experience leads to knowledge of its essential structure." (Edith Stein)
intersections of disease and moral weakness
free will, duty, present probation, future judgment, divine judge
-- look more closely at Anthony Collins's A Discourse of Free-Thinking on analogy and how Berkeley's Alciphron answers it; note too TVV 6 as summary -- the Euclid reference is particularly interesting
Molyneux's Problem & knowledge of God (cp. TVV 6)
"For we know our ideas; and therefore we know that one idea cannot be the cause of another. We know that our ideas of sense are not the cause of themselves. We know also that we do not cause them. Hence we know they must have some other efficient cause distinct from them and us." Berkeley TVV 13
Neither natural selection nor sexual selection are capable of reduplicative precision beyond the structure of the selection itself.
It is unsurprising that the vitalists conceived of a vital force analogous to physical forces, given that earlier generations of physicists conceived of physical forces on analogy with life.
The problem with thinking in terms of progress is that progress under conditions of easy accessibility is very different from progress under conditions of heavily impeded accessibility.
To consider: Extended periods of swift technological innovation are backed by empire.
-- look more closely at Berkeley's account of Newton's 3rd (DM 69-70)
Every sign of power, wisdom, or goodness in creation is a sign of power, wisdom, and goodness, even if it does not manifest each equally clearly.
3DHP was designed both to stand alone and to be a sort of bridge between PHK Part I and the lost & never published PHK Part II, and like PHK Part I is explicitly linked (in its 1st & 2nd ed. Preface) to NTV.
matter as object, as substrate, as cause, as instrument, as occasion
the sacrament of marriage as a pillar of social justice
covenant symbolisms in sacraments (oil, water, imposition, &c.)
Presuppositionalism treats everything like exegesis.
the implicit dialogue of juxtaposition in liturgy
juxtaposition of the ridiculous and the sublime in Menippean satire
genre classification // saint classification
Genre classification is an integration of multiple typological classifications.
politics as concerned with climates of virtue
mathematics as studying resemblances, contiguities, and constant conjunctions
entrelacement of argument (polyphony)
the Consolation & Lucian's Fugitivi
the principles or ends of Menippean satire (Double Indictment)
(1) to have philosophical discussion walk on common ground
(2) to give it a social presentability
(3) to enable it to gain the confidence of the audience by way of the comic
Wandering off topic while genuinely discussing it is very different from jumping off topic.
typological classifications based on real types vs typological classifications based on hypothetical types (the latter is a derivative form, since it involves blending or comparison of several real cases that ground the type)
The most irenic reading is not always the most charitable reading.
When confronted with something like an Austen novel, one is confronted with something that works extraordinarily beautifully, but saying, or even discovering, why it does so is no mean feat.
A complex number is a dilation with rotation.
vectors as ordered pairs of ordered pairs of integers
confirmation as the sacrament of Shekinah
"The Memra brings Israel night to God and sits on His throne receiving the prayers of Israel." Targ Yer to Deut iv.7
The only thing that makes Whitehead's philosophy a self-forming rather than sustained continuance account is the assumption of an intrinsic direction in time (cp. Ford's account of God as Active Future). Seen in reverse, it would exhibit a sustained rather than self-forming continuance.
forensic justification as crypto-Pelagianism
Meier's five authenticating 'criteria' and the corresponding defective cause one is trying to eliminate
(1) embarrassment: distortion to self-interest : requires accurate assessment of self-interest
(2) discontinuity (dissimilarity): contamination from other sources: requires accurate assessment of other sources
(3) multiple attestation: distortion in channel : requires ability to distinguish independence of channels
(4) coherence: sources of implausibility (think about this) : requires independnetly established facts and accurate assessment of fit with them
(5) rejection & execution: misinterpretation involving failure to adequate explanans to explanandum : requires correct assessment of explanandum
Not all questions are petitions. (Consider, for example, puzzled questions put to oneself.)
Part is relative to division.
topoi as ways of transforming one proposition into a different, not necessarily equivalent, proposition
Note that Buridan distinguishes three different kinds of numerical sameness, all of which can be genuinely called such.
lists, multisets, heaps, sequences
infinitesimals as decay rates (Wildberger)
The Notes of the Church are the notes of faith itself insofar as it is a confidelity.
Voodoo is a kind of economics of spirit-related symbolisms.
sanctuary arguments
three elements of tradition-reception: learn, accept, appropriate
Christ's circumcision is a precondition of our baptism.
monistic: anything in the universe is the universe itself and not a proper part of the universe
pluralistic: anything in the universe is a proper part of the universe and not the universe itself.
glutty: anything in the universe is both the universe itself and a proper part of the universe.
gappy: anything in the universe is neither the universe itself nor a proper part of the universe.
marriage:justice::penance:mercy
distributive and commutative justice in marriage
indefinite proofs, i.e., proofs whose conclusions may or may not be completely general
unciton & evangelistic consolation
simplicity of concept vs simplicity of operations in mathematics
the cultivation of manners, morals, & piety
Authority is rooted in responsibility.
irony as itself an argument based on incongruity
The methods of analytic philosophy could only ever give approximations.
"This world is a system of invisible things visibly manifested." Maistre
The communion of bishops is a material ecumenical council.
The weapons against heresy are prayer, patience, and instruction.
"a proverb is a brief statement containing some profound science." (Ramon Llull)
"If there were no God the Son, no creature could be a child of God."
"Who gives nothing is not alive."
"One act of virtue is sustained in another."
"One virtue fortifies another virtue."
"God grants one good prayer through another."
"A prayer is worth more than an excuse."
"Minor dignity exists for the sake of major dignity."
"Patience is the refuge of virtues."
"Lawfulness is an image of compassion."
"Vice is the privation of the habit of seeing God."
understanding: beginning and ending :: knoweldge : consistency & inconsistency
understanding:unity::knowledge:distinction
To deny and to doubt each involve appeal to the norm of truth.
hierarchy as a defense of the dignity of persons
development of doctrine by transposition of key
Each Gift of the Spirit has both an individual and a communal face.
the Magisterium of the Church as structured by the Gifts of the Spirit
the clerical hierarchy as the trellis with which the vines of charism are hung and grow
to work for the reform of civilization
Law is powerless without conscience.
Rational belief depends not on comprehension but an evidence; this is shown in every intellectual field.
congruity of coordinate evidences
There are many things the bare possibility of which carries moral significance. The bare possibility that you will die tonight is a reason not to let the sun go down on your anger; the bare possibility that all things may be taken from you is a reason to be grateful for what you have. The bare possibility of a future life is a reason to consider how to prepare for it.
Note that Descartes' account of God as self-cause takes Him to be efficient cause not strictly but by extending the concept of sufficient cause to the limit.
the cogito as establishing the existence of a capacity for understanding principles as self-evident (i.e., intellect)
the sacramental/iconic character of miracles
civilization as divine revelation (Whately)
deism -> pantheism -> atheism
MacIntyre's After Virtue as a reflection on A Canticle for Leibowitz
lines of utility, lines of pleasantness, and lines of excellence in traditions
Faith is Tradition working in us.
Each human being is part of the common good of mankind.
Hope is the destroyer of the boredom that attempts to acedia.
'Critique' in academia could often be replaced with 'will to power'.
pietas as structuring tradition
the gift of piety as guarding tradition
We locate things relative to parts.
Drama naturally tends more to polyphony than the novel; the novelist must handle polyphony like the painter depth.
Kant is right about examples to the extent that examples carry no necessities of the sort he wants, being counsel-like rather than obligation-like.
platonistic vs. aristotelian accounts of genre
What is good, is good with respect to divine will as primary standard; what is true, with respect to divine intellect; what is possible, with respect to divine power.
Since the miracles of Jesus were messianic signs, they signify also the works of those ministers woh are stamped with the character of Christ's messianic ministry in Confirmation.
Liturgy as the first teaching of bishops.
Having a view that seems vaguely like a heresy to someone is not having a heretical view; it isn't even possible to have a view that doesn't seem like some possible heresies, because heresy mimics orthodoxy (and, indeed, sometimes by imitation).
Newton's definitions directly imply that impressed forces are acting on matter as measurable, so as to change its measured swiftness, density, or volume.
design and directional series of improbabilities
invariants across divergent points of view
charity as the root of self-discovery
The structure of reasoning is analogous to the structure of hope.
divine love: simple apprehension::faith:judgment::hope:reasoning
Analogy and classifications often work in similar ways.
finding natural analogies through the confluence of artificial analogies
using one analogical inference to confirm another
bare analogies vs. affinity analogies
analyzing ethical approaches and positions by looking at the ceremonies and rituals that would be their objective correlates
"Every error...is camouflaged or mistaken truth...." Rosmini
Neither the world nor the flesh like being put to the question.
resemblance as aptness of symbolism
To mistreat animals, when deliberate, is something like stealing from the common good of human beings. In addition, to love God is to love that which He has created in some appropriate way.
accidents as indicators of substance
The correct & unqualified answer to the question, "What is it?" when asked of that which the sensible accidents of the consecrated elements indicate, is "The Body and Blood of Christ."
Baber's account of the Eucharist is more plausible as an account of sacramentalia.
consecration as making to represent accessible grace or holiness
presence as direct accessibility
The exemplar character of charity connects it with truth.
Presence is always a causal notion; we see this even in the theory of the external world or of other minds.
interlocking argument arcs
The doctrine of purgatory is the recognition that we require not merely repentance but proportional repentance.
"The essence of melodrama is that it appeals to the moral sense in a highly simplified state, just as farce appeals to the sense of humour in a highly simplified state." Chesterton
Vividness of language requires not merely flame in the poet but also tinder in the reader.
The only time you should not use cliche in poetry is when you have reason to think that you can make the point in a better way than what everyone else thinks is an obviously good way.
the 'genotype' and 'phenotype' of argument
emotions as a probabilistic assessment & reasoning system
transcendental ego as self qua indicated/signified
what-it-is vs. sensible indicators of what it is
To measure is to assume truths about the actual and the potential and use them to relate one thing to another.
Augustine uses reading aloud as an example for time-consciousness; this is fitting because reading aloud is structured temporally and nothing can be written so as to rule out this temporal structure of reading aloud.
Note that instead of 'argument from authority is the weakest' it is really 'the locus from authority is weakest' (1.1.8obj2) -- Aquinas is referring to Boethius' account of the otpics. The topos of autohrity is the weakest topos. This is reflected in the response, 1.1.8ad2
(1) An action without being is a contradiction
(2) A happening is an action
(3) In a happening that is a beginning to exist, that which begins to exist cannot be the being of the action
(4) Therefore there must be for every happening that is a beginning to exist some being other than that which begins to exist.
