Dashed Off XXI

Kant's postulates as postulates of inquiry: possibility of inquiry (freedom), unified and consistent domain of possible objects (God), possibility of success in inquiry (immortality)

Curie's Principle: Asymmetric result requires asymmetric cause.
Extended Curie Principle (Stewart and Golubitsky); A symmetric cause produces one effect from a symmetrically related set of possible effects. (The idea is that an asymmetric effect might be the result of a symmetric cause if the asymmetric effect is symmetric in its relation to other possible effects.)
- S&G give the example of the milk droplet splash: the crown of the splash is a case of symmetry breaking (circle -> 'clumps' or tines of the crown), with the tines of the crown being located arbitrarily. There are endlessly many variations, equally possible; but only one effect can arise, so we have an asymmetric effect arising from symmetric cause because of the perfect symmetry of the relations of all possible effects. Think coin: two sides are symmetrical,but one comes up, so the actual coin toss explains the breaking of flip symmetry even though it is symmetric with respect to the effect. "the actual breaks the symmetry of the potential"
- But, on the other hand, it seems precision often introduces CP: Why H rather than T? Imperfections in coin, difference in air molecules, divergences in exertion of force, down to quantum fluctuation (cf. Kastner)
- Asymmetric boundary conditions are symmetry breaking.
- Ruth Kastner: "The picture that emerges is the following: symmetrical physical laws describe potentialities, not actualities. In order to have actual events in an actual world, the symmetries of those laws must be broken by the imposition of constraints in the form of boundary conditions. Such boundary conditions may not always specify which actual event or form will exist--often that event will arise from spontaneous symmetry breaking -- but they serve to precipitate that actuality."
- Curie's key points
(1) If certain causes yield known effects, the symmetry elements of the causes should be contained in the generated effects.
(2) If the known effects are missing certain symmetry elements, the dissymmetry should be contained in the causes generating the effects.
(3) The reverse is not true; effects might have higher symmetry than the causes generating them.
- What is the role of the medium in Curie's account of symmetry-breaking?

constitutive blessings and invocative blessings
- baptismal character and invocative blessings ('every baptized person is called...to bless')
- priests, bishops, and even deacons bless some things by making them stable parts of the prayer and liturgy of the Church

approaching one's labor in a spirit of charity

Happiness is happiness-with.

rhetoric as giving an appropriate roundedness to the two-dimensionality of bare logical structure, in order to convey on a page or in words the living work of reason (like artist's impression working with bones and deductions from bones)

traffic systems as loosely cooperative ventures

Every family is a vision of society.

prostitution // bribery

the natural shift of near-future SF to alternate timeline SF

respite as part of the business of the mind

media as vectors of temptation

laws of nature always possibilities of a kind of causation

Articulation is more than just a diagramming; it is itself an expression, as a judgment expresses ideas.
analytic & synthetic articulation
a priori & a posteriori articulation
development as systematic articulation

the carnivalesque character of childhood (cp Le Grand Meaulnes)

Every sacrament is a discourse.

Despite the common view that music expresses emotion, it is noticeable that most songs are emotionally ambiguous.
musical performance as participation in form

movies as snippet narratives

Salvation begins with creation.

procedures of confirmation as safeguards against evidence contamination

Bentham on asceticism & the problem this causes for taste (note, e.g., that it requires evaluation entirely in terms of satisfactory experience, thus leaving nothing to integrity of the work or artistic process itself)

"unpoetical natures are precisely those which require poetic cultivation" Mill

Hume's causal theory is really a theory of evidence.

The declamatory mode of the Creed seems derivative of the interrogatory mode.

Things are always reasonable or unreasonable in light of some good.

customary law as good taste intersecting with social utility

Living the heavenly life on this earth is like trying to play Mozart on a kazoo -- and yet this is not the same as saying it cannot in some way be done.

The past cannot be recaptured, only completed.

Pascalian wagers & universalism

Reliability of communication does not depend wholly on reliability of medium.

Sexual morality begins with our shared responsibility for the tradition of human life.

the sadness of animal stories & the problem of evil (in some cases, e.g., Where the Red Fern Grows, the connection is made explicit)

All scales can be multiplied by a constant without change of function. If constant can be added without change of function, the scale is not ratio; if values can be squared or cubed without change of function, the scale is not interval; if any two values can be interchanged without change of function, the scale is not ordinal but nominal.

relics of saints and the Church as Temple
relics of saints as anticipatory of the resurrection
relics of saints & holy pilgrimage

Arguments properly developed interlace with other arguments. To keep them isolated is to stunt them.

Through major sacraments God comes to us, through minor sacraments (sacramentals), He draws us to Him.

tragic pity in Aristotle and the pitiable as linked to philia (esp. familial: we pity that which breaks the ties of home)

solidarity, deference, fair division, negotiation

entanglement as knowing the whole but not being able to know the parts

accuracy tested in light of several guiding concerns: Is it true? Is it error minimizing? Is it consistent with standards? Is it confirmable? Is it appropriate to end?

pleasure as natural reward -> we should avoid it when we do not deserve it (Malebranche LO 308)

the mind-body relation in Malebranche is deontic (LO 309)

prevenient pleasure as anticipatory sign of good.

Rational good must be conceived as capable of including other goods intact; otherwise most goods are irrational.

Every measurement involves a form of test.

central market, circuit market, and periodic market forms of teaching

secularization as an incidental result of intensive centralization and functional specialization in religious institutions

the tendency of all intellectual practitioners toward either metaphysics or parametaphysical evasions

skill as manipulation of probabilities
- a proper account of skill would certainly have to be modal in structure

the ethics of care is based on a particular form of solicitude

the relation between shame and inner chaos

thymos and our need for not mere pleasure but significant victory

If there were nothing at any point, there would be nothing by virtue of which anything would be possible; thus it is not possible for there to be nothing.

analogies as constant through some change to concepts introduced by some intellectual operation

begging the question & temporal loop in temporal modal logic when it is applied to argument
Within a temporal loop, all events are Diamond in both directions (P & F) and dependencies are Box in both directions (G & H)

"Evil always takes advantage of ambiguity." Chesterton

Serious research often requires taking the long way around.

the Turing Test as tending toward panpsychism

the solidarity of creatures: offering creation back to God

nature, procession, completion

Wis 2:23-24 // Rm 5:12
Wis 5:17-20 // Eph 6:13-17

five kinds of self-harm (Marcus Aurelius Med II)
(1) rebellion against God
(2) harm against neighbor
(3) slavery to pleasure and pain
(4) hypocrisy
(5) not directing all to God

unintended consequences in plotting of romance and novel

Mereology requires relations among parts before it can become metric.

Utilitarianism (standard) involves a fairly flat mereology of good. (all parts on a level, one whole consisting of all parts)
Kantianism as monism of obligation

exposition, depiction, critique

The historical-grammatical sense of Scripture is a model of the data, not the data.

gunky, gappy, and atomistic obligations

Every sui juris church in the Catholic communion just is the Catholic Church in a particular mode. Thus, e.g., the Armenian Catholic Church is the Catholic Church itself, in its Armenian style.

lupine and lapine strategy

Modesty is the freedom of beauty.

martyrs coram Deo & martyrs coram Ecclesia

To consider: Environmental conditions can affect the format and even at times the content of philosophical discussion by (1) changing available leisure (2) shifting saliences.

In every sacrament, matter, form, and union of both are all symbolic already.

Prudence & its parts can be communicated; justice & its parts interlock with the justice/parts of others to build systems; fortitude and temperance and their parts model for others.

Prayer is strengthened by fasting and almsdeeds.

Normality is not a purely arbitrary thing; it is constrained by things like health and living together, etc.

The habit of cheerful giving requires practice in giving without expectation of return.

archive as philosophical function/activity (memory for philosophical work)

Other peoples' stories become part of our own story by inspiration (example), commemoration, shared elements (e.g., material continuities), etc.

faith, hope, and charity each a proof of God's activity and existence (but it does not follow that it is easy to see this -- in particular, we need to see things on a larger scale and in a more diverse way than we usually do, to break out of the relevant biases that obscure and mislead in these matters)

Good links to good to form new good.

Christ on cross as sign of Trinity, Incarnation, and grace.

the effectiveness of prayer related to its generosity and appropriateness to God as Light, Life, and Love

intercession of the saints as an expression of the goodness of God

Holy Catherine, pray for me
in mazement of philosophy.

"To know the goodness of God is the highest prayer of all." Julian of Norwich

One of the curious things about wisdom is that when you truly reach wisdom in some matter, the wisdom does not seem like your own; it seems to put itself together, or to rise on its own out of the situation like a mist, or to blow in from elsewhere.

Richness of scene makes characters seem richer. - this is likely related to objective correlates

Marriage is essential to religious community because it is one of the natural restraints on the growth and dominance of self-interest.

the analogue of n-body problems in association of ideas

One of the most important things we must learn from growing up is how to recover from the emotionally damaging; and we must do it without undergoing irrecoverable damage.

(1) diversity of minds
(2) intensity of intellectual activity
(3) communication networks

collapse, stagnation, and mergers of traditions

the consistent tendency of universalist arguments toward claims that really suggest that there is no real sin or moral responsibility at all

Causal necessity in Malebranche's occasionalism is interpreted deontically; but the relevant agent (God) is such that deontic Box implies True.

deontic causation and rational sentiments

algorithm as explanation of something qua result or consequence