I'm both grading and fighting off some kind of sickness, so things are likely to be slow around here for a while.
Even if Bayesianism is the proper account for coming to believe, it would not follow that it is the proper account for drawing a conclusion in a specific kind of inquiry, since all specific inquiry operates under constraints.
A Bayesian theory of evidence detaches evidence from explanation.
It is more fruitful to consider kinds of evidential support than degrees of evidential support.
Curie's principle should perhaps be regarded as a feature of natural classification in causal situations.
Curie's principle & the formation of general causal propositions
not-presence of evidence vs. evidence of not-presence
The Qur'an involves history only by allusion; it subsumes it as a supplement to command and exhortation, and an often incidental supplement, at that.
joy as a precondition of prophecy (Maimonides)
moral angst (as distinguished from moral guilt)
moral alarm, moral dread, moral terror (alarm + dread)
Sometimes the parts of evidence are only evidence in that kind of composition with its co-parts.
Some conclusions are not merely certain but hypercertain.
testimonial knowledge // sensory knowledge
testifiers as quasi sensory organs
Note that the major Buddhist arguments against substance fall into roughly two groups: change-based and composition-based.
A basic principle behind the notion of karma is that what we do in acting goes well beyond what we immediately experience.
The handing down of sacred Tradition is a handing down of a way of being in the world.
the role of mulling in inquiry
"The resurrection cannot be explained without the Holy Trinity." Staniloae
Time becomes a grace by being transfigured into an opportunity for repentance.
original sin and humanity's lack of union with a Head
"The lips are offered as spirit, but they respond as flesh." Scruton
There are only two routes to wisdom, prayer and virtue, and modern education selects for neither.
Without repentance, there is no progress.
support of the Church as part of one's responsibility for the education of children
natural responsibility // ecclesial responsibility
survival // participation
reproduction & education // support of Church and its missions
social // active life
truth // contemplative life
One of the greatest talents in philosophy and science is to be able to recognize as evidence what other eyes pass over, blind to the implications.
An action may be objectively wrong and yet not everyone in a position to see this clearly -- for that it could be seen does not mean nothing can impede or confuse, nor does it mean it is always easy to see.
Descriptive terms in the sciences depend heavily on testimony (shared perceptions, shared methods, shared experiments, shared inferences). It is only when testimonially grounded in this way that descriptive terms are used scientifically, and only to the extent they involve this testimonially shared aspect do they matter for scientific purposes.
cause, manner of causation, invariance through causation
aesthetic regard as synoptic
considering an idea in the guise of another idea
A command decision is mostly tactical compulsion.
rise, spread, twist, inflow, outflow
Stained glass allows inflow without outflow (light clearly comes in, sight does not go out)
Church architecture should use its form (rise, spread, flow of light, flow of sight, curl) to direct to the sacred (the consecrated).
the link between spread and flow of sight
The difficulty with inwardly radial flow of sight is that the flow of sight is unstructured and thus unguided. This is not a problem for sitting around a campfire, because the flow of light is outward; in church architecture, one must do more to creat a non-bland result, like a raised platform, creating a rise. A semicircular set-up has the same problem. And in both cases, solutions are limited. Rectangular halls (naves), on the other hand, allow the flow of sight to be structured by wall, pillar, rise, flow of light, shared orientation, and so forth.
intrinsic vs extrinsic title for making public (e.g., in journalistic reporting)
- one sees a loose approximation to this in the recognition that some matters concern public interest and some do not.
In terms of voluntariness, opinion is more like breath than like heartbeat.
An air force is an artillery with minimal terrain-dependence.
Bulgakov's pretensions of understanding the Incarnation (not some detail, not some particular expression, but essential elements of the doctrine) more fully than St. John Damascene get very tiring very quickly.
Belief may depend on inquiry, but inquiry does not depend on belief as such.
moments of the Incarnation
(1) divine eternity
(2) creation of the world
(3) creation of humanity
(4) election of Israel
(5) immaculate conception
(6) divine overshadowing
(7) virgin birth
(8) sacramental incorporation
the progression of esse, vivere, sentire, and intelligere in the days of creation
arguments for God's existence based on esse, on vivere, and on intelligere
miracles as God's metaphors
patterns of shaming escalation
Bulgakov's 'docetic' appears to be a label for a fiction.
the spiritual co-crucifixion of Mary
Temptation arises out of the human need to learn obedience and conformity to law.
Civilization is not something had at a time, but something received and passed down.
right to liberty and right to property as natural protections of right to life (cf Mendon MA)
Possibility preservation requires careful attention to the kind of possibility. This complicates giving a general account of it.
Cabasilas on baptism of blood (Life in Christ 4 sect. 14)
concinnitas in philosophical system-building (note that this is stronger than consistency)
"It is the task and aim of concinnitas to compose parts that are quite separate from each other by their nature, according to some precise rule, that they correspond to one another in appearance." Alberti
"Beauty is a form of sympathy and consonance between the parts within a body, according to definite number, outline, and position, as dictated by concinnitas, the absolute and fundamental rule in Nature."
concinnitas as a generalization of decorum
Evaluation of evidence is reflection on our union with our environment.
ornament as adjunct beauty
A theory of evidence that cannot distinguish between testing and not testing is defective.
No state can be adequate to the work of the Church.
As blades of grass trying to conceive the brightness of the sun from single photons reaching them, so is it when we try to conceive the goodness of God from our personal experiences of it.
I knew the dawn; her kiss was sweet.
She danced on mountains, swift of feet.
Found art is made art by the finding, or, rather, by the finding and presenting.
'work of art' used in a metaphorical sense and gray areas (e.g., is this a 'work of art' figuratively or literally?)
People will often prefer an emollient hypocrisy to an ardent charity. The former accomodates with conveniences.
similarity as overlap for practical purposes
Due to its complexity of causes, human testimony only gets us to its source with a certain measure of approximation.
Whewell's argument for the First Law of Motion in An Introduction to Dynamics uses something like PSR:
(1) straight line: if in a curve, there must be sufficient reason to curve one way rather than another, and to curve so much rather than less or more; but ex hyp. no external force to determine;
(2) uniform velocity: removing reasons for slowing removes slowing, without limit; if all external reasons removed, and no internal reason, it will not slow.
In business, dishonesty is often a sign of prior sloppiness.
James Ward's criticism of Whewell on plurality of worlds seems to give up actual evidence for imaginal evidence.
A merely apparent inconsistency is, superficially, an evidence against a position and, properly understood, an evidence for it.
We never experience bare pleasure, but only pleasure at, with, or in something else.
Terrified of the lightning on the mountain, impatient of the return of the prophet, the people made a golden calf. It is ever so in matters of theology.
applying philosophical discussion of works of art to works of research
Temptation at its most basic is not struggle between good and evil but a struggle with difficulty.
Note that in Homer we live in a world of sorrow and suffering because of the gods.
Church Militant : obedientia activa :: Church Patient : obedientia passiva
experiments//works of art
Prophet : Baptism :: King : Transfiguration :: Priest : Ascension
descent of the Spirit on Mary, descent of the Spirit on Christ in Baptism, descent of the Spirit on the Church at Pentecost
It is important for parents to teach their children the parents' own crafts, small though they might be.
An essential part of the skill for research is the ability to seize opportunities provided by chance.
Shame of virtue and pride of vice are the very heart of social degeneration.
respect for the object of inquiry
HoP and respect for fonds in inquiry itself
- inquiry as fonds-making
If someone is Christian, it is because he or she partakes of Christ; if anyone says that so-and-so is Christian because they feel this way or do this thing, that may be set aside as a confusion. Nothing makes anyone Christian except the appearance of Christ, or communion with Christ, or possession by Christ, or generation from Christ; for it is by Christ that Christians are made Christian.
imprudence of anger vs imprudence of negligence
circles of privacy vs circles of confidence
The affection of marriage depends on gratitude and esteem.
