rites that recognize vs rites that cause
co-ritualization as the threading together of society
solutions to the problem of being a fallible people with a divine revelation:
A: fallibility is restricted in some respect
--- (1) divine illumination
--- --- (a) prophet (some cults and sects)
--- --- (b) spiritual illumination of each heart (some forms of Protestantism)
--- (2) divine constraint
--- --- (a) part or all of community has authority protected from some error (Catholicism & Orthodoxy)
--- --- (b) community can err but over time receives providential correction without infallible magisterium or prophet (some kinds of liberal Protestantism)
B: full fallibility
--- (3) build a fence out using tradition (Judaism & Islam)
--- (4) reject direct divinity of the revelation (some kinds of liberal Protestantism)
the Church itself as the primary unwritten tradition
The Bible is an intrinsically translatable sacred book because it has a spiritual sense.
prudence as the completion of moral maturity
States designate enemies in order to expand powers.
All legal systems have to presuppose a normal and reasonable way of doing things.
"Revolutions are diseases of rich people." Donoso Cortes
possession of right by immediate title vs by participatory title
The proper counterpart of the Church is not the State but the Civil Society. The counterpart of the State is the Clergy.
human rights as the image of the rights of God (human beings as juridically to the image of God)
"The first axiom and precept in democracy is to trust the people." Maritain
the Mohist account of sacrifice: to make clear that Heaven governs even the Son of Heaven (Mozi 26)
The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in God; this sovereignty alone is wholly one, indivisible, inalienable, and imprescriptible.
social contract as crude substitute for customary law
Customary laws are established by the people, although they may also b given explicit recognition by the state.
'constituent parts of the national sovereignty' (Federalist 32; cp 34)
Chisholm v Georgia (1792): The US is sovereign as to powers of government surrendered, States are sovereign as to powers reserved.
Ware v Hylton (1796): States retain internal sovereignty, Congress has rights of external sovereignty.
C. E. Merriam's division of the senses of 'sovereignty'
(1) the position of constitutional superiority held by a monarch in a State
(2) a relation of State to individuals and associations in its territory
--- (a) either as a power with no governmental or constitutional superior in a constitutional order
--- (b) or as a power to determine the constitutional order
--- (c) or as that power the will of which is ultimately obeyed
(2) a relation of State to State, involving independence or self-sufficiency, international autonomy
When people talk about the sacramentality of creation, they generally mean its liturgiesque aesthetic character.
the text as lectional person
Given a text, we posit a person.
reading as an integration of signs into coherence
past counterfactual -- alt history
far past -- historical fiction
near past -- realist recent
present counterfactual -- realist present
near future -- tomorrow fiction
far future -- standard science fiction
future counterfactual -- space opera
Our sense of what counts as evidence is always affected by what we think will be good for the life of the mind.
archeology fantasy as a genre
holidays as customary signs vs. as imposed signs
"The phenomenon always appears in itself as something more than a mere sensible given. The sound that is just heard appears intuitively as a car horn; what is seen outside the window appears as a pine tree." Hiromatsu
X appears as Y to S qua A
a thing is an object relative to a cognitive power
Note Vermigli's attempt (Eth. Nic 1.10) to reduce instrumental causes to material causes, albeit allowing for differences.
obediential potency as complete capacity for being an instrument
unit of account, mode of payment, medium of exchange
money as a symbol of rule
One's conception of syntax is entirely a matter of one's conception of 'well-formed structure', which is an abstraction out of semantics and implies semantics as an end: it is well-formed for actual meaning.
"Potentiality can be understood only from the viewpoint of actuality." Stein
To have accountability, you must first form community.
A. science fiction of society
--- 1. scientists as society
--- 2. scientists in society
--- 3. society affected by technology
--- 4. history of society in light of technology
B. science fiction as philosophy fiction
--- 1. the sublimity, mystery, or terror of the unknown universe
--- 2. the unknown universe as a realm of intellectual adventure and discovery
C. science fiction of the alien
--- 1. how to kill a strange alien
--- 2. how to avoid being killed by a strange alien
--- 3. how to make common cause with a strange alien
--- 4. how a strange alien becomes human
--- 5. how a human becomes strangely alien
No matter how brilliant you are, there are some things you can do only with vast amounts of information.
the Church as the etimasia of Christ (visible sign of His invisible presence)
jargon // notation
Technical terminology and notation are pedagogical devices, and should be held to pedagogical standards.
Much of theoretical progress in the sciences arises from the attempt to teach the thing better.
Languages, as such, do not encode things; encoding is something done within a language or between languages already existent.
The lex nata is discussed ex intima philosophia.
"In fact we can perceive the difference between good laws and bad by referring them to no other standard than nature." Cicero
"Historians of philosophy, unfortunately, sometimes mistake emphasis for novelty." Rommen
elative vs delative principiation
illative vs allative inference
natural human impulses to institution: religion, family, property, marriage, courtesy, funerals
(all where the practical need for stability and recognizability intersects natural law)
The status civilis occurs within the status naturalis.
State is prior to contract and promise is prior to both.
God alone is truly lex viva.
two common assumptions that interfere with natural theology: all action is incomplete act; all actual being is composite being
"The law of purpose is: *no volition*, or, which is the same thing, *no action, without purpose*." von Jhering
"An act without a purpose is just as much an impossibility as an effect without a cause."
"Nature herself has shown man the way he must follow in order to gain another for his purposes: *it is that of connecting one's own purpose with the other man's interest*. Upon this principle rests all our human life: the State, society, commerce, and intercourse."
"Exchange may be defined as *economic providence*, which brings everything (object, labor, power) to the place of its destination."
"The institution of succession is the condition of all human progress; succession, in the history of culture, signifies that the successor works with the experiences, with the spiritual and ethical capital, of his predecessor -- history is the right of inheritance in the life of humanity."
"A calling which brings only honor but no bread is closed to the man of no means."
"Coercion is effective only so long as the whip is in sight; remuneration works continually."
The ancient principle of the lawgiver (Solon, Lycrugus, etc.) recognizes human law itself as a sort of gift.
Natural law is law in itself; positive law is law-in-gift.
Private organizations and corporate entities that become sufficiently powerful and integral to society drift upward into the state.
Force without law expands; law without force deteriorates.
In a broad sense of law, no force is without law, and the question is just one of the quality, source, etc. of that law. (Force is not accidental shock but a rational thing in some sense.
"Modern totalitarianism is an end product; it is not the opening period of a new era. It is indeed the final outcome of positivism as a general philosophy, as an intellectual atmosphere, as a scientific method raised to the level of the absolute and divine." Rommen
Rule of law is a goal, not a system.
"Human rights are *means*, the minimal conditions for the pursuit of the common good." Michael A. Smith
rights : justice :: values : temperance
Oppression historically is generally grounded on claims about what is safe, not on claims about what is normal.
Naval warfare is a warfare of the hunt.
Nothing is repressive except relative to human nature.
finite capacity to be as the root of entropy?
Determinism is always and only within a boundary.
mutual interaction as a sign of a higher cause of change bringing the interacting things together
PSR as the general form of dialectical maxims.
exchanges (cp. von Jering):
| FOR PAY | GRATIS | |
| OBJECT | purchase, barter | donation |
| USE of object | lease (usufruct, ordinary) | commodatum, precarium |
| USE of capital | loan on interest | loan without interest |
| PERFORMANCE of service | service contract, involuntary servitude | mandatum, negotiarum gestio |
presentation of need: offer (in business contracts), request (in gratuitous contracts), begging (in charitable contracts)
