Dashed Off IV

man as "the creature of the universe, who has the most ardent desire of society, and is fitted for it by the most advantages" Hume T.363 (2.2.5)

Causation is necessary for an account of scientific inquiry at the levels of sensation, measurement, experimentation, and construction and confirmation of theory.

"Charity sanctifies the most ordinary actions, pride corrupts the most sublime virtues." Sablière, Christian Maxims 9

Philosophical work is always done with a particular degree of illumination, which varies from person to person and, in one person, from time to time.

doing something solely for pleasure // doing something solely for financial gain

Receiving a literary work from an author, people naturally tend to try to to return it to the author. This movement of egress and regress is shown in the often crude attempts to turn literary works into esoteric autobiographies -- as people tend to return it, they will do so even if they do it badly.

A sedevacantism would require (1) a historical account of vacancy (2) an error theory (3) an account of appropriate action. Of these, (1) tends to be weak, but it is (3) that consistently tends to be the most sloppy.

Every conception of philosophy is a conception of human nature.

The natural tendency of signs is to greater and greater significance and meaning, through more extensive association.

Scripture as (a) a fund of images (b) a fund of doctrines (c) a salvation history

matter : sacrament :: intellect : Beatific Vision

One of the effects of grace is to give new meaning to signs.

the anointing of the sick and the divine lure

It is by Tradition that theology and philosophy are united.

catechesis in the mode of each of the gifts of the Spirit

rational resource collapse of intellectual opinions vs infrastructure collapse

Counting presupposes discreteness and duration. (Note that even when counting successive things, something must be used that endures the entire period of counting -- memory, marks, etc.)

fidelity tending to fecundity

You cannot get 'did' from 'could', but you can get it from 'could' and 'couldn't'.

proprioception -> causal powers (Reid)

philosophy as virtue (love of wisdom)
philosophy : wisdom :: charity : God
- but in many ways, and unsurprisingly, it seems more like friendship than a virtue

nl-implication : truth table allows MP and MP, but other rows undefined

miracles : extraordinary mission :: almsgiving : ordinary mission

salvation propter sacramenti fidem vs salvation propter fidei sacramentum

No one is properly a heretic who has the appropriate concern and respect for the finding of truth. (ST 2-2.11.2ad3)

to think about: the physical size and shape of money as a constraint on prices

the relation of philosophy and theology
(1) by causation: theology explaining metaphysical principles, at least in part
(2) by remotion: philosophy refuting objections to theology
(3) by eminence: theology going beyond philosophy in such a way as to put it in new light

commutative vs noncommutative relations among philosophers, positions, and schools

thematic HoP and interactional HoP

Scientists are remarkably cavalier about the histories of their fields given that these histories are the fundamental condition for scientific progress, and the thing that must be known to determine that one is actually progressing rather than wandering.

It is in light of the sublime that fragile beauty is most perfectly seen, as violets in the sun.

Truth obligates.

True docility is directed towards experience and prudence, not to rank or credential. Indeed, the latter should require the greatest docility.

plot and episode in history-writing

implicit vs explicit soliloquy/dialogue in history writing.
- Thucydides obv. example of latter. but even direst history above annal writing will have at least some of the former -- it's how human beings think narratively (annals avoid it only to the extent that they are snapshots/frames rather than connected narratives)
- generality is prob. a factor as well

questions conditional on other questions (branching futures)

prediction as a condition for rational application of power

In philosophical interpretation, we are interested in maximal consistency because the upper bound is what we do not know, and what has to be determined differently for each thing. The lower bound -- contradiction -- is trivially given by the logic of consistency. Careful interpretation requires knowing the other bound as well.

Matrimonium gaudet favore iuris.

Scripture as the milieu of the sacraments

problem-solving // prediction
(but in prediction you don't get to stipulate the problem -- you have to discover it and characterize it correctly, and thi sis the difficulty)

modality qua way of being, modality qua way of thinking, modality qua way of being thought

quantum uncertainty and the impossibility of strict experimental repeatability

objection-response networks

HoP: If one were to know the ideal course of an argument, one could study the causes of its deviations. Likewise, if one were to know the symmetry of possible positions, one could study asymmetries of actual positions. Think about this.

Every clause of the Lord's Prayer is a Christology. Jesus the Name of God, Jesus is the Kingdom of God, Jesus is He in Whom the will of God is done. Jesus is the Bread of Life, through Jesus our sins are forgiven, and by Jesus are we delivered from evil. But most of all, Jesus is He through Whom we can call God our Father, and His kingdom and glory and power will have no end.

ecological temperance

the importance of temperance to male/female relations

ritual as a structure of administration

clutter as relative to a teleology

The difference between good literary adaptation and bad is very often the difference between loving a thing and merely using it.

explanation as causal analysis + logical analysis

baptism as a sacrament of friendship

theological virtue : unity :: gifts of the Spirit : holiness :: x : catholicity :: the grace of orders : apostolicity
- one is tempted to set x = the graces of matrimony, since matrimony often functions in a quasi-character way

institutions for slowly pooling insights over centuries

the gifts of the Holy Spirit as facets of freedom

ritual & circumstances (topics)
ritual & deliberate circumstantial signs

chasing from heaven the silver bees / that swarm above the tall fir trees

induction // diagrammatic argument in mathematics

Father : Law of Nature :: Son : End in Itself :: Spirit : Kingdom of Ends

Purgatory is penance after absolution.

It is in the nature of genuine love that acts of love inspire the desire to love.

rising to the challenge as a moral activity and an important element of moral life

the playful collection of conceptions

What God teaches us in law is worked in us by grace.

the savoring of knowledge

the juridical aspect of teaching

the playfulness of insight

sacraments as communications
instrumental use of signs for uniting persons

arguments like stars in the philosophical heaven

Wisdom clarifies the ends of charity.

The Eucharist remits temporal punishment due to sin by inciting charity and devotion.

the Christian philosopher as sign of divine silence

asceticism // remotion

temeprance and the principle of hierarchy of goods

the courtliness of angels

Through faith we hold to the love God has for us; through hope we yearn for union in love with God.

To receive tradition completely is to hand it on.

Matrimony is a school of charity in showing how every good action can be an act of love, and also in showing how love can be both dutiful and free.

Deism has never been a stable intellectual position -- historically, it is always easily upset by just a slight shift in what arguments one is willing to consider as at least promising.

A distinction needs to be made between unclear theism and deism.

on compatibilism -- the Diamond of freedom is clearly compatible with some Boxes (deontic or temporal, for instance). The question is what Diamonds the Box of physical necessity (or whatever necessity the compatibilist uses) is compatible with, and whether any of these can actually fulfill the functions which we attribute to freedom

being, living, and thinking as end-endowing activities (you can analogize entelechy on both sides)
- obv being would be the most controversial member of the list on many views
- conditions for existing, conditions for living, conditions for thinking
- in each case one can consider the esse and the bene esse

aptness for beginning to be, aptness for continuing to be, aptness for completing one's being

progressive aspect of tense // perpendicularity

weak since: X was true at some point since a time when Y was true.
strong since: X has been true since a time when Y was true.
- the same can be done with until
strong since & until // relative Box

since & until in suppositional reasoning (e.g., subproofs, reductios, etc.)

more-or-less operators (seem to work like ∃)

Note that Basel seems to divide the ecumenical councils into the eight holy ecumenical councils (Nicaea to IV Const) and additional general councils (Lateran, Lyons, Vienne, Constance, Basel).
Constance divides the council into eight universal and three general (Lateran, Lyons, and Vienne).

the implicit role of the concept of health in evolutionary theory

Marital consent is not a consent to sexual intercourse but to a consortium or societas involving mutual power over bodies.

liturgical charisms (e.g., the Roman Rite its simplicity even in complexity, the Byzantine Rite its celestial semblance, the Maronite its doctrinal richness)

containing parts and contained parts in Harvey's account of the heart

"For God, indeed, is especially wonderful in His saints; but the impress of His divine virtue also appears in those who shine with excellent power of mind and spirit, since high intellect and greatness of spirit can be the property of men only through their parent and creator, God." Leo XIII

Honesty sometimes requires shutting up and listening.

endoxa as quasi-phenomena (like phenomena, they are part of what must be accounted for)

Who does not speak wisely is wiser when silent.

the building of argumentative resources as part of argumentative strategy

The natural response to arguments based on hypotheticals is to seek more information about the hypotheticals.

Intelligence not ordered to common good is intrinsically disordered.

What is living is more stable than what is dead.

the market function of an artifact

"And children seem to be a bond of union." Aristotle

Bayesian epistemology cannot capture the pragmatic, anticipatory aspect of belief

As my thoughts in hours steep,
here I lie, too bored to sleep;
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
for at that I have failed.

Gal 1:1 and the divine authority of Jesus

Mill & dystopia in speech to Parliament March 1868

categorical imperative formulations (or naturalized versions) adapted and applied to Church catholicity, dignity, autonomy of the Church

to treat Christ always as an end in Himself and never as a means

to increase what tends to the salvation of souls and the attainment of the Beatific Vision

the virtue ethics of divinization (which is exactly what infused virtue is)

the body as composed of natural signs (both selfward and otherward)

There are no nonmodal facts; even distinguishing something as a fact presupposes modalities. Truth and falsehood are themselves modalities. Quantifiers are modal operators. 'Fact' itself seems to be an implicitly modalized term.

the post-medieval er as an era of studied dissimulation

the mereology of partial confirmation

mutualistic symbiosis of churches of different rites
- this is facultative rather than obligate
- ectosymbiotic and endosymbiotic versions; conjunctive and disjunctive versions

the freeborn Church vs the church as handmaiden of the state

the grace of integrity

things philosophy studies as properly necessary vs things philosophy studies as subalternately necessary vs things philosophy studies as conditionally necessary

"An unsuccessful conspiracy always strengthens the power against which it has been directed." Ludwig von Pastor

history as an art of relevance

A religion placing strong emphasis on history will also emphasize reenactment.

Aristotle's advice about the mean applied to reasonable judgment (avoid more opposed extremes, avoid easier extreme, beware of bias)
- the notion of the more opposed extreme is particularly interesting in this context

participatory vs nonparticipatory autonomy

retrospective vs anticipatory introspection

richness of a character in fiction as related to predictability (anticipative richness) and to memorability

Ask of every theory of metaphor: "How would this adapt to a theory of fiction?"

All wisdom has something of the infinite in it.

Sometimes by 'doubt' we mean active doubt and sometimes we mean temptation to doubt.

The Anointing of the Sick is the sign of the victory of repentance.

The inviolability of conscience springs from the inviolability of truth.

God gives us bad popes to remind us of what popes are actually supposed to be doing.

the mother in 2 Maccabees as a type of the Church

Ecclesiastical reform is something that only ever succeeds through many small actions.

Acts of mind dispose it to other acts.

The sensus fidei is only properly known in confidelity.

The primary goal in the liturgy of the Mass or Divine Liturgy is not to be beautiful but to be courtly, to greet the Lamb upon His Throne; its beauty should follow from this.

the aspiration to common good as intrinsic to the nature of charity

the relation between radication of virtue and gradations of virtuous activity

People invest in their anticipations.

Horror as a genre requires an unusual degree of participation by its audience.

prayer as the principal instrument of ecclesial tradition (Bossuet)

faith, hope, and love as super-prudence, super-resolution, and super-friendship

Probable inferences in real life tangle up with each other; considering a few such inferences in isolation is always a toy-modeling of real probable inference.

Formulations of abstract ideas combine with empirical information to specify probabilities; it is impossible to get probabilities from empirical particulars alone.

supererogations // miracles

global skepticism // total war

baptism & faith -> creed
baptism & hope -> spirituality (working out one's salvation), evangelization
baptism & love -> Church