- definition as act vs definition as object
- definition as act is good or bad, definition as object is true or false
philosophical dialogue as "a living being harmonious in all its parts" (Proclus, In Prm 659)
homily, catechesis, and prayer as the natural modes of theology
the link between friendship and wisdom
Much of what is commonly called 'passion' is really just having a mind and will to the task.
Things that affect imputability always affect possible alternatives, and the two are certainly related. (Ignorance, compulsion, passions, etc.)
interwoven aptitudes for friendship
The human mind will ache for story;
glory is a tale well told.
All material being is to human intellectual activity as knife is to cutting.
Philosophy lures more by showing argument than by arguing.
tradition as a method of testing
matter as the principle of measurability
Nothing can be determined about the 'gratuitousness' of particular goods or evils except in light of all relevant ends.
mimesis as the heart of civilization
A philosophy of discovery requires an account of mind-world union.
(1) teaching by insinuation
(a) to make implausible the false
(1) indirectly
(2) directly
(b) to make plausible the true
(1) by exciting to pursuit of wisdom
(2) by assisting the mind in pursuit of wisdom
(2) teaching by explicit instruction
(a) through ratiocination
(1) by resolving effects to causes, conclusions to principles, unknown to known
(2) by drawing general conclusions from particulars
(b) through exercise of authority
(1) of the speaker (magisterial)
(2) of the wise (traditional)
| Mortality of Soul | Immortality of Soul | Metaphysical |
|---|---|
| a priori possibility of thinking matter | a priori impossibility of thinking matter |
| analogy to matter | association with abstract truth |
| parsimony (animals and plants) | gradation of being |
| problems with pre-existence | problems with dissolubility | Moral |
| nonadaptation to immortality | adaptation to eternal |
| a priori impossibility of determining relevant divine intentions | disposition to eternal as part of nature |
moral inaptness of immortality
| moral aptness of immortality
|
| moral nihilism of infinite existence | infinite existence as moral destination | Physical |
| union of mind and body | universality in understanding |
| analogy to plants and animals | disanalogy with plants and animals | Logical |
| unreliability of arguments so far | arbitrariness of cut-off |
| beyond ordinary life | reasoning of ordinary life |
propositional negation as predicate negation (Prior Ana 1.xlvi)
wild quantity & antisymmetry
Ps 50:1 El Elohim YHVH spoke and called it earth.
objectival indifference of intellect -> formal indifference of will -> objectival indifference of will -> formal indifference of intellect
* Everything made is made by another. For a thing that comes to be acquires being; but a thing that makes or produces is supposed to have being. Therefore nothing can make itself.
* Every being is either made or not made; but all beings in totality cannot be made. Therefore some being is not made.
* Everything made is made by another; therefore that other by which it is made is itself made or not. If not made, there is something unmade. If it is also made, it will be necessary for it to be made by another, and so forth. Thus we either stop with an unmade being or proceed to infinity or reason in a circle.
* If something is made by another that has been made by itself, it is at least mediately making itself, which is impossible. Likewise, because existence is supposed in a thing that makes another, if it's made to exist, it is therefore supposed that it has already been made. Therefore we cannot regress circularly.
* It is impossible that the whole collection of beings be dependent in its being and operation. Therefore there must be something independent.
* If every being distributively were dependent and made, the whole would be so, by a collection of dependences.
* Everything made is made by another. Thus everything dependent depends on another. If the whole were dependent it would depend on another. Were the whole dependent it would depend on another. But this is the whole, therefore the whole is not dependent.
the seven Socratic dialogues of Aeschines: Miltiades, Callias, Axiochus, Aspasia, Alcibiades, Jelanges, Rhino
All human goodness occurs within the field laid out by understanding and knowledge.
Passions take their moral quality from the loves of which they are a part.
Note that Timaeus begins with number (eis) and ends with being (on).
the receptacle as the 'imagination' of the universe
(imagination as the receptacle of the human person)
thymos-sublimity and nous-sublimity
romance as built out of clues
Love recognizes the preciousness of little things.
What is not Catholic/Orthodox slides slowly into opposition to Christianity.
superheroes as knights errant
symbolism as part of human identity
corporate exercise of religion & the scope of human intellect
Peirce's faith, hope, and love, & the pragmatic vindication of tradition
"Beauty alone can confer on man a social character." Schiller
Not men who are kings but kings involved in prudential practices (not necessarily their own) are sovereign.
Tradition as the natural witness of the Church.
virtue of faith : Catholic Orthodoxy :: honor of faith : Reformed tradition :: profit of faith : Evangelicalism :: tolerance of faith : Liberal Christianity
traditional unity by diffusion, traditional unity by convergence
Recognizing that human beings act corporately and not just individually is one of the bulwarks of a free society.
equity as making law a humanitarian tradition
First Amendment rights as community-formation rights
dance as communication of character
fiction // sports
prudence as the luck-improving virtue
thymos-sympathy vs. appetite-sympathy vs. reason sympathy
wisdom as the greater part of good fortune
hortatory argument in practical reasoning
the social kingship of Christ as a protection of human dignity
failure conditions as the measure of a constitution
habitus as strategic disposition
the philosopher as Hercules fighting the Hydra
nidus & vector in propagation of thought
holiness, prayer, testimony, almsgiving
One of the genuine benefits of the Reformed tradition was the generalizing of certain basic ascetic practices.
trust as an economy of testimony and profession
The teleological structure of practical reasoning is Socrates' most important principle. Classification of ends is what makes everything an occasion for philosophy.
the necessity of preludial work in the act of persuasion
justice as vindication of law
3 modes of cultivation or formation of conscience:
(1) synousia with the prudent
(2) study of moral philosophy and theology
(3) acting from infused virtue
The purpose of government is in part to make to possible for the people to do great things.
Rights require practical strategies of protection.
constitutions as interwoven strategies of protection for rights
the rhetorical ethos of giving arguments for positions
affinity in the classification of philosophical positions
A fortiori argumetns are modal arguments. Are slippery slope arguments modal as well?
presential witness and traditional witness
education as playful practice in attaining the ends of humanity
sweet vs bitter mortification
Civilization arises out of the interaction and sharing of skills.
'uniformity of nature' as a 'no anomalies' principle for nomological explanation
comfort as fortification
Love seeks natural symbols to express itself, and understanding requires natural expressive symbols to understand love. Love is symbol-making.
symbolism as part of love's unifying work
Private revelations have public value only when they clarify greater movements initiated by the Holy Spirit.
free society as a conversation between makers of law and receivers of law (active and passive legislation)
The canonical context of Scripture and its ecclesial setting are not separable.
Scriptures are the viva vox Dei insofar as they are proclaimed by the Church whose Head is the Son of God and whose Spirit is the Spirit of God.
By genealogies, real or invented, we participate symbolically in traditions.
the mitigating function of law (as opposed to the remedial or the preventative)
the grace-throne of God
A sharp-minded man must mind truth in word and work.
The modern tendency is to oversaturate narrative with the dramatic.
poetry & the use of linguistic analogies to discover new analogies of thing and meaning
ablaut meanings
Many of the confusions about the matter and form of marriage in history were due to the fact that marriage has many levels (office of nature, legal office, symbol, sacrament, etc.).
human bodies as the materia circa quam of the sacrament of matrimony
deliberation as preludial to law
rationales as instruments of law
maximizing charity in intensity, duration, certainty, immediacy, fecundity, purity, and extent as an aim of the Church
Pleasure and pain do not suffice to fulfill the intellect.
"What really makes the difference in education -- not only of the young but of ourselves -- is not so much the precepts one gives others as the way one exemplifies the precepts one would give to another." Plato Laws 729
All visions and views of the afterlife speak to a kind of incompleteness in human life.
the importance of the Old Testament as a way for converts from paganism to understand their relation to Christ and the New Testament
Hope is haven had beforehand.
'the roll, the rise, the carol, the creation'
existence, coexistence, succession, resemblance
the etiology, deontology, and teleology of human action
Events have probabilities only under description, i.e., intentional understanding.
The seeds of usurpation are almost always themselves legal; seizure of power begins to unfold under technicalities.
