Dashed Off XXV

Half of discovery is knowing what you already have.

rhetorical self-repair

naming as causal summation

Everything that can be a sign may become a word in prayer.

Adam in the garden named the animals, making them such that he could pray with them as signs. But he found none who could pray with him as one like himself. Thus from his side God raised a help appropriate to him, one fit to pray with him.

Logical systems are constituted as logical symbolisms by operation orders of precedence.

being and non-being operators in a logic of analogy (cf hume)

Aristotle treats syllogistic mood as a combination of premises.

classification-based validity (Socrates is a man; therefore Socrates is an animal)

What is tempting about lust (and makes it intrinsically excessive) is not its pleasures but its desires.

Large-scale corruption is most often driven by political and economic incentives.

The Adam, God's Son (cp Luke 3), named the animals (//created them) but found no help fit for Him. Thus God put a deep sleep on Him (the Cross) and drew from His side (whence flowed saving blood and water) a helpmeet (the Church).

"Grace purifies sin." Ephrem

the spiritual gift of piety as ultimate anti-savagery (ST 2-2.159)

families of argument for external world
(1) sensory causation
(2) intersubjective medium
(3) indirect requirement
(4) involuntary regularity

Prudence requires considering not only the possible but also the impossible, so that what happens in the possible may be better understood.

God as condition of the possibility of semiosis

Loyalty, trustworthiness, and tradition are interrelated.

occasional cause: "an imperfect, and not always an accidental, cause" (ST 2-2.43.1 ad 3)

How does negation function in analogical inference?
- negation in analogical inference would seem to have to be non-infinitizing (more like kind/unkind than man/whatever is not a man)

The right to material goods follows from, and is based on, the right to higher goods.

Securing command of the sea
(1) decisive battle
(2) blockade
Disputing command of the sea
(1) active defensive operations (the fleet in being)
(2) minor counter-attack
Exercising command of the sea
(1) defense against invasions
(2) attack and defense of commerce
(3) attack, defense, and support of military expeditions
[cp Corbett]

"If we assume the maxim that the first duty of our fleet is to seek out the enemy wherever he may be, it means in its nakedness that we merely conform to the enemy's dispositions and movements. It is open to him to lead us wherever he likes." Corbett

opposition to
charity in itself : pride
charity in its act of love : hatred
charity in its act of joy
:: for neighbor
:::: in spiritual good : envy
:::: in material good : lust
:: for self
:::: in spiritual good : sloth
:::: in material good : gluttony
charity in its act of peace
:: in will : discord
:: in speech : contention
:: in spiritual unity : schism
:: in deed : strife
:: between peoples : war
:: in political unity : sedition
charity in its act of mercy
:: as beneficence : scandal
:: as almsdeed : greed
:: as fraternal correction : wrath

"All succor given to our neighbor is reduced to the precept about honoring our parents." (ST 2-2.32.5 ad 4)

Direct persuasion by argument generally proceeds by exhaustion of discernible options for evasion.

nomen naturam loquitur (Hilary DT 6.14)
nomen naturae significatio (Hilary DT 7.9)

That the devil is frightened of Eastern Catholics is suggested by the sheer vehemence and often systematicity with which people have been driven to put them down.

If baptism is birth into the family of God, confirmation/chrismation is investment with rights and privileges within the household. Note that this applies regardless of the customary timing of the sacrament.

the Athanasian Creed and the conditions of sublimity

Utilitarianism puts the ultimate end of human will in finite good.

common sense as the natural method of selecting leaders

We interact with body as being in a way substance in a way quantity.

lines, surfaces, and bodies as simply limited measurable quantity in various dimensions

act/potency analysis as related to principiation

human naming as part of human evidence-making

universal facial expressions as a template for emotional moods of argument

The first principle in any complete theological account of Tradition would have to be divine missions in Trinitarian theology.

A key part of prudence consists in cultivating the resources for self-discipline. (Note that this links up to remote and proximate occasions of sin.)

the relation between prudence and occasional causation

3 acts of ownership: management, distribution, use

Recognizing that it is possible for anything to be infinite requires already having the idea of the infinite.

One of the major forms of success an argument can have (and one of the most common) is to establish that a dispute or question primarily turns on one or two points.

Kokko, kokoo koko kokko kokoon.

the Reserved Sacrament as relic
- relics as symbols of sacramental presence

One cannot properly love one's neighbor if one despises in oneself what one shares with one's neighbors.

"Free play of chemical processes can only take place in a corpse; in a living body these processes are connected and determined by organic purposes. Similarly, free play of economic factors and laws is only possible in a community that is dead and decomposing, while in a living community that has a future, economic elements are coordinated with and determined by moral ends." Soloviev

The sacrament of matrimony makes generation an instrument of regeneration.

A catechism, being a summary, by its nature presupposes a background to be understood (a background found in community, in liturgy, in authority, and in reason).

vagueness as ostension or demonstration defeat

immersion method approach to philosophy

beautiful vs ugly pleasure-seeking

A correct understanding of bodily integrity as a moral notion requires recognizing chastity as contributing to it.

the advisory power of Rome
the tribunal power of Rome
the council-forming power of Rome
the council-sealing power of Rome

anticipation, extrapolation, analogy, interlinking

disparity as key to interpretation

As a catechism cannot include everything, nor its compilers foresee every question that might arise, nor its readers properly interpret it without the relevant context of the Church, a catechism on its own will sometimes be merely approximate even if accurate to that approximation.

propositions as operating within a background system of classification

memory as a form of classification

hierarchy of constitution: natural law, customary law, contract/statute, political liberty

pooling of ideas, cooperative distribution, hierarchical cascade, persuasion

love as structuring possibilities of reasoning

perverse and nonperverse incentives in ecclesiastical organizations

the constraint of Babel on theological precision
the constraint of original sin on theological precision
the constraint of divine inenerrability on theological precision

traditions as incentive structures

divine hiddenness arguments as requiring a repudiation of Platonism (exemplarity)

The rise in emphasis on the Doctors of the Church seems linked to the expansion of the literate laity.

Sedevacantists generally founder on the necessarily juridical character of deposition.

The role of the bishop as original minister of confirmation establishes that the sacrament concerns in part the unity of the Church.

the charisms of particular churches

theories of times // theories of words

A theory of fallacies is in reality a theory of different kinds of irrelevance.

Authority extends beyond the power to bind.

tradition as trajectory and momentum

fasting as symbol for focus on intelligible (withdrawal from food // withdrawal from sensible)

A representation requires a cause adequate to establish that representation.

construction-reasoning vs maintenance-reasoning

"Being fond of truth, I am an admirer of antiquity." Analects 7.1

fallible magisterium as laying down operational objectives

point-failure sources in rational cascades

the double character of epiclesis: transformation of gifts and transformation of us

It is the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom in particular that forms the basis for the position that it is the epiclesis that consecrates -- Nicephorus et al. argue for that position on the basis of its being what the prayer clearly and explicitly says. But this is not strictly true of the Liturgy of St. Basil, which uses weaker terms in a more nuanced prayer.
The strongest argument for epicletic consecration is that of Cabasilas: the epiclesis is what applies the words of institution to the gifts.
(cp. Isidore of Kieve's analogy that the words of institution are a seed that by epiclesis is made fruit.)
Scholarios explicitly holds for institutional consecration, taking the epiclesis to be an expression of commemoration and a way of referring the whole work to God.

Sanctity must be lived and embodied.

nirvana as a symbol of humility before God (aneantisement)

ritual as shared memory

mercy as overflow of love, joy, and peace