To recover a tradition requires a greater ability than to preserve it.
Every argument for eliminativism can be tollensed into an argument for inadequacy.
the proper act of the papal office as solicitude for the whole Church
logical possibility as only pro tanto possibility
ruin as the central concept of horror (moral ruin, biological ruin, physical ruins, that which ruins, secret ruin)
Opposition to usury is a bulwark against ethics making consent the primary justification for acts.
description and division as potential parts of definition
causal & genus/species as subjective parts of definition
chemical notations as notations of relatives
Peirce's dynamic/immediate object distinction is a proximate/remote distinction, allowing for the fact that this relates to confusion and clarity when dealing with signs.
immediate object : intention of arrow :: dynamic object : target
Beatific Vision as final interpretant
qualisign, sinsign, & legisign as ways things are present to minds
To consider: A rock or speck of dust is an index of God's existence; a person an icon of it; a revelation a symbol of it. (Any difficulties with this?)
proper names as rhematic indexical legisigns
Wisdom 7:7 -- infused prudence and the gift of wisdom require prayer
Proverbs : being faithful in the world
Ecclesiastes : mortification
Song of Songs : devotion
Wisdom : union with God
Mencius's shoots as four needs of human life in light of which the pursuit of pleasure must be restraint.
Baptism and confirmation are more properly called sacraments of vocation than matrimony and orders are. (1) B & C, like M & O, set up a world of activities, a field of vocation. (2) B & C are such that all have a vocation to them; M & O are not. (3) M & O depend on the consent of others; they are vocationally mediated.
Arguments against various kinds of realism often err by taking realism to require flawless cognition rather than just cognition that is not pervasively flawed.
potential to be developed coherently as a sign of truth
(1) classical theism -> formation of man for beatitude -> fittingness of revelation in general -> fittingness of this revelation
(2) classical theism -> kinds of providence -> fittingness for God to guide human beings with special providence -> fittingness of revelation in general -> fittingness of this revelation
(3) (a) classical theism -> natural providence -> penalty as sign of fault; (b) classical theism -> moral providence; (a&b) -> fittingness of some remedy -> fittingness of this remedy
Even when poetry does not itself teach, it exercises the mind in ways helpful for learning.
Reform requires appeal to common good.
bù jìn zé tui: Not advancing is retreating.
analogies among successes -> methods
(classification of successes)
If truthlikeness is determined by counting truths, it is language-dependent (cp. Miller).
Salmon's mark transmission theory requires concepts of: process, overlap (for processes), mark, time intervals, transmission (understood as at-at), & counterfactual invariance.
Naturalism always requires normativity (it requires that what it considers natural explanations are normative for explanation). So does eliminativism. In general, you get normativity of some kind just by proposing an -ism.
"I suggest that this is a fundamental principle of common law systems: not that the courts make the law, nor even that they discover it, but that they provide a remedy to the person with a just grievance. The law is a kind of reflection on this process, and an attempt to translate specific decisions into universal rules. But it is the remedy that comes first, not the principle that may be derived from it." (Roger Scruton)
Drawing a clear line between public & private is much easier within a system of property than outside or across such systems.
Whitaker's arguments against the deuterocanonicals:
(1) All canonical books of the Old Testament were written by prophets; these are not written by prophets.
(2) The ancient church of the Hebrews received and approved all the books of the Old Testament, that church did not receive these.
(3) These books bear marks that they are not canonical.
(4) Testimonies of councils, fathers, writers (as extrinsic & human evidence).
Whitaker on the offices of the church with respect to Scripture:
(1) witness and guardian of the sacred writings (notary)
(2) to distinguish true, sincere, and genuine Scripture from spurious, false, and suppositious (champion)
(3) to publish, set forth, preach, and promulgate the Scriptures (herald)
(4) to expound and interpret the Scriptures (interpreter)
- in effect, Whitaker accepts all the prophetic office and none of the apostolic office.
In the Holy Spirit, but only in the Holy Spirit does Scripture become perspicuous.
To orbit in an ellipse is like orbiting in a circle that dilates and contracts.
No account of belief based wholly on probabilities can adequately handle the distinctions among possibility, actuality, and necessity.
the problem of converting probabilities to modal operators (epistemic, doxastic, etc.)
All beliefs are at least partly maintained by factors insensitive to the truth of the matter -- things like not having had time to inquire further, the existence of oxygen in the room, pigheadedness, and so forth.
integration of communities by similarity, territorial contiguity, hisotrical connection and instruction
Avoiding the vice of contentiousness requires cultivating respect for evidence.
the sacramental economy as a trellis for devotions
analogy of validity as modality to conditionals: material validity, strict validity, relevant validity, etc.?
NB: von Wright, An Essay in Modal Logic, recognizes existential modalities: universal, existing, and empty
cultural goods as an expression of historical memory, as an essential link in the chain of tradition, as the visible memory of evangelization
archival and curatorial aspects of tradition
The value of a Bessarion, a Canisius, or a Borromeo to the Church is infinitely greater than the value of most men filling the papacy -- but for the Church to receive the full value of a Bessarion, a Canisius, or a Borromeo requires the active leverage of the papacy, and thus requires someone filling it who can at least recognize a portion of their value.
A man may rationally and reasonably take a medicine without knowing its chemistry.
Frequentist interpretations seem directly to imply that the proper number system for probability is rational. Subjective interpretation seems to require an even coarser grain (based on subjective limitations), while some objective interpretations allow real numbers. (Are there interpretations allowing complex numbers? Perhaps with probability amplitudes.) But there are peculiarities created by choice of number system in the context of probability theories.
the difficulty Bayesian epistemologies seem to have with giving a clear account of suspension of judgment
Bayesians cannot generally distinguish among belief, suspicion, and acting-as-if.
Tobit 13:21-22 //Rv 21:18-21; cp also Is 54:11-12
The pursuit of self-interest, if the phrase does not mean 'anything whatsoever, however absurd and detrimental', already presupposes moral principles.
minimizing compromises in favor of solutions without compromise as a goal of negotiation
Hume's argument for moral sense
(1) Judgments concerning moral rectitude and depravity are perceptions.
(2) All perceptions are either impressions or ideas.
(3) Such moral judgments are not ideas.
(4) Therefore they are impressions.
Every virtue informed by prudence cultivates minor skills that assist the virtue but are not in themselves virtues.
1 Macc & preserving the work of the prophets (cf., e.g., 9:54-57)
the impedance interpretation of complex numbers
A hypothesis: It takes 200 to 300 years for the problematic consequences and disputes following an ecumenical council to work themselves out into an appropriate equilibrium solution.
Every sacrament teaches an aspect of true prayer.
Baptism: Liberation from Egypt :: Confirmation : Sinai :: Reconciliation : Mercy in Wilderness :: Unction : Drawing near the Promised Land
Love must rise above fear of loss.
causes of trend failure in technology: game-changing innovation, saturation of technology, exhaustion of resource
hard vs. soft analytic philosophy
Covering law models of explanation require at least four modalities (existential, spatial, temporal, alethic).
- a moral sense theory of logic (Hume's general point of view and the appropriate impression of agreeableness; allows an account of biased reasoning); it seems like this would start looking a lot like a pragmatist account of logic (act-focused, broadly social character)
Locke's design arguments in ECHU:
2.2.3; 2.7; 2.9.12; 2.21.34; 2.23.12-13; 2.32.14; 3.1.1; [3.6.12;] 3.9.23; 4.4.4
Reliability principles turn phenomena into evidence.
truth > verisimilitude > mimetic persuasiveness
Intuitive assessment is ordered to inquiry, not inquiry to intuitive assessment.
the soul in St. Teresa's Interior Castle // Church
Analects 5.27 & confession
All synodality is an integration through a primacy. Primacy is the enduring potential for synodality.
To recognize a primacy of honor is to recognize a duty of deference. (It does not mean that there might not be other deferences, of course, or that the primate should not as a matter of prudence defer at times to those who owe him deference.)
A true primacy must affirm the catholicity of each and every church, and re-affirm it by validating it.
Epikeia or equity is based on the fact that law expresses reason.
confirmation, orders, and matrimony as conferring special grace and responsibility for teaching
Virtue transfigures health by giving it higher ends.
| Internal | External | |
| Anchoring | evidential support | pragmatic vindication |
| Appropriateness | conceptual plausibility | analogical appropriateness |
modal analysis // dimensional analysis
scale measurements as relative to nominal measurements
Modalities in the conclusion must not be stronger than the modal reach of the premises. (That is, than the modalities of the premises or the construction of a modal domain by their combination, e.g., in summation of possibilities.)
Kantian-like approaches to evidence (sub evidence for duty)
character utilitarianism
the aesthetic, policy, and deontic aspects of each virtue
discovery by playful toying with ideas
