As always, dashed off notes, to be taken with a grain of salt.
the rhapsodic & hortatory aspects of Mass
the significance of the fact that marriage links Genesis and Revelation
The Holy Spirit, communicating through those He first inspired to all others who through faith are capable of sharing in the inspiration the influence of that first divine expression, creates a chain and a succession. Through all these links God draws the souls of men according to His good pleasure, having attached them to one another by the power sent forth from Himself.
responses to the problem of induction // responses to objections to tradition
narrative explanations as descriptions of relevance
threefold human sublimity: reason, free will, capacity for beatitude
Suppositions are evaluated by means-end reasoning.
angelology as contributing to our understanding of understanding
the monstrous as an aesthetic idea
Emotions imitate and express music.
Instrumentality links composition and change.
SBN 160: parallel between mathematical and causal necessity
the existence of substantial forms
(1) indirectly indicated by equilibria
(2) subordinations in organizations as a sign of
(3) from accidental forms
(4) from material cause
(5) from efficient cause
(6) from final cause (primary argument)
parts external to each other -> quantity
(1) All evil defects from good.
(2) What defects from good must be initially good.
(3) Were a good supremely good, there would be no defection from good.
(4) Good that is not supremely good is good by participation.
(5) Good by participation is from supreme good.
Coherence in scientific theories is of importance only teleologically.
Judith, Tobit, I & II Maccabees, Sirach, & Wisdom as a system of moral catechesis
faith as an index, icon, & symbol
faith as encryption in God
sources of the sense of futility
(1) loss of purpose
(2) loss of order
(3) loss of responsibility
dog : pet :: cat : pet
simplifies to dog//cat qua pet (analogy and reduplication)
Gospel Harmony as classificatory inquiry
the perfume analogy of the Trinity (from Song 2:1)
the burning coal analogy (from Isaiah 6:6-7)
The Church Fathers usually draw their Trinitarian analogies directly from Scriptural images.
Nicaea II is Christological because it settles that iconic representation of Christ is neither Nestorian (dividing the natures) nor Monophysite (confusing the natures).
punitive, purgatorial, and prophylactic functions of pain.
Charmides as the analysis of a well-ordered life
baptism : armor of God :: confirmation : gifts of the Holy Spirit
(cf. Theodoret Ecc Hist 4.12)
Conservation laws indicate natural genera.
Reference is just talking-about.
DNA & the concept of template
(we also get templates in paleontology)
If Plato is inclined to treat virtue as knowledge, it is because he regards good as in some sense the primary object of intellect.
Everyone recognizes that leisure should be one of the rewards of excellence.
In sexual matters it is difficult to distinguish objects and occasions of desire. This is due, I think to the fact that the object of sexual desire is really quite general; it is the occasion that differentiates and individuates. Sexual desire doesn't take this person, qua person, as object; only acts of will do.
the insinuation of a text in light of other texts
An epistle is a semi-dialogue.
kinds of proverb
(1) feature: X is a feature of Y; e.g., "The wise lay up knowledge but the mouth of the foolish is near to destruction." Builds a template or constructs a profile.
(2) rather: Rather (better) X than Y, e.g., "Open rebuke rather than secret love." Orders priorities.
(3) query: Rhetorical question designed to make the hearer complete the thought, e.g., "Who knows what is good for mortals while they live the few day sof their vain life, which they pass like shadow?" Builds a template or constructs a profile, sometimes by negation.
(4) magisterial: Advice with link to authority, e.g., "My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent."
(5) edifying simile: e.g., "A fair woman without discretion: like a jewel of gold in a pig's mouth." Evokes a template or profile by means of image.
grace as possibility-maker
sentiment as a guide of conjecture
immateriality of intellectual operation
(1) The intellect is self-reflexive.
(2) Identity and individuation conditions for concepts are ineliminably intensional.
(3) Thought is constituted by universal acts.
(4) In thought the intellect has the form of things other than itself, without perishing.
(5) Intentional relations do not require the existence of all terms.
(6) Thought exhibits rational order in itself.
(7) Deliberative thought involves foresight and purpose.
Hume's account of education could be adapted to tradition.
Motives of credibility are signs.
demonology as a representation of temptation
"History, the great mistress of wisdom, furnishes examples of all kinds; and every prudential as well as moral precept, may be authorized, by those events which her enlarged mirror is able to present to us." Hume
An account of causation for theoretical reason is itself an explanatory strategy for practical reason.
infinite regress arguments using diminution principles in finite contexts
Tendentious rhetoric inevitably arises in political contexts because the primary forms of political reasoning are classificatory.
"The detective is a prophet looking backwards." Ellery Queen
sacrament of marriage as inherently epiclesis-like
matrimony as eucharist-by-sign
Matrimony shares with Confirmation that both receive the Holy Spirit as seal, although in very different ways.
set/class distinction as a distinction between collection & extension of predicate
Note Bernays: a class is not a fixed domain of individuals but an open universe
Suarez: sacraments are instruments separated secundum esse but conjoined secundum causalitatem of Christ's ascended human nature
sagacity in the modes of dialogue, address, epistle, song, allegory, proverb
comparative philosophy as an instrument of balanced reasoning
Figurative language is as much a matter of fleeing indications as of definite words.
To say things in juxtaposition is to suggest possible lines of analogy and contrast.
historical novels as speculative studies of practices
microdeviations in inference
the external heritage of a tradition
societies as structured by privacy constraints & publicity expectations
'Similar cause, similar causata' is rigorously true for constitutive causes.
St. Rafqa and the consistency of flourishing with suffering
docilitas as an essential economic virtue
logical fallacies have counterparts in measurement -- equivocation, irrelevance, illicit presumption, circularity
Berkeley Siris #160: connection between secondary causes (instrumental causes) and regular course of nature
popular piety as an ecosystem in constant motion
It requires conservation and reclamation, and, where clergy have been negligent, or extrinsic factors have massively interfered with their work, active restoration, and cultivation under carefully guided conditions.
the gifts of the Holy Spirit as superprudence
There needs to be recognition of the fact that names have a universe of discourse.
love of what you do, excellence in what you do, benefit from what you do
promise to Abraham -> beatitudes
humility as a motivation for excellence
Technological advance is filtered through social expectation.
superpositions of speculations
reasoned freedom in a harmonious balance with the world around one
Sacrifice gets its sublimity solely from the sublimity of common good.
Every generation is part of the good of the whole prior generation.
"God only has union with creation through His Son in His Spirit." Cyril of Alexandria (Commentary on John)
individual good as uplifted into common good
good as missive
Avoidance of the bad is not a good reason for action except in light of some positive good, because bad can only be understood in light of some positive good.
That a good is destructible does not make it an evil to be avoided.
Eulogy has a nasty habit of replacing rational account in politics.
"A monistic tendency of thought, gathering momentum, creates a meltdown in a polytheistic mythology." Thomas McEvilley, The Shape of Ancient Thought
silence as a kind of logos
Empiricism collapses logical relations to analogy.
first person Socratic dialogues: Lovers, Lysis, Charmides, Republic
first person Socratic after introduction: Protagoras, Euthydemus
first person non-Socratic: Parmenides, Symposium, Phaedo
undated: Hipparchus, Minos, Lovers, Philebus
abrupt beginning: Hipparchus, Minos
Socrates does not appear: Laws, Epinomis
abrupt ending, Socrates breaks off discussion: Meno, Theatetus
abrupt ending, Socrates goes silent: Clitophon
abrupt ending, dialogue unfinished: Critias
Indo-Greek philosophical intersection
(1) Pyrrho (see Diogenes Laertius)
(2) Onesicratus (see Strabo)
(3) the Milinda Panha
(4) Aristoxenus fragment 53
libertas ecclesiae is to religious liberty & other liberty of conscience as baptismal character to natural imago Dei
work as able to occur within prayer (in the same way it is able to occur within conscience)
Platonic scholarship as built out of insinuations of the text
heresies
that confuse the distinct
that divide the unified
that deny the necessary
that misplace authority
that abuse the sign
deduction : geometrical mind :: classification : esprit de finesse
