Thought for the Evening: Titles in Tradition
We classify things sometimes as 'traditional', and it is perhaps interesting to think of the ways in which something could be so classified. Perhaps we can draw a division of grounds for classifying something as traditional on an analogy with title for a right. Then we might perhaps get something like this:
(1) titulus per se
--- --- (a) recurring presentation in monuments and documents
--- --- (b) widespread at least semi-independent aceptance
(2) titulus per accidens
--- --- (a) occasional notice indicating continual handing down
--- --- (b) probability in light of established doctrines and principles
(3) titulus coloratus
--- --- (a) handed down in defective/distorted/damaged form
--- --- (b) handed down gappily
(4) titulus fictus
--- --- (a) accepted as traditional only because thought traditional
--- --- (b) handed down but in a manner displaced/discontinuous from its necessary & proper conditions
(5) titulus simpliciter nullius
--- --- (a) not handed down at all (invented)
--- --- (b) handed down but garbled into incoherence
If the analogy were to hold, one could say that things are properly traditional if they have per se title or per accidens title; the others are not traditional in the most proper sense. However, things under the color of tradition (colorate title) are sort-of traditional, and can be regarded as such when the title in question is widely accepted, or associated with honest attempts to be traditional, or if it is sufficientally similar to per se title or per accidens title for practical purposes, or if it is 'healed' by reasonable correction or by association with something else that has superior title.
Fictive title and null title give us something that is not really traditional at all, but they might suffice for treating something as traditional in a looser sense if they are the result of what is unavoidable or if they are associated with something that has superior title. An example of null title that allows for classification as traditional in a looser sense would perhaps be the Kirishitan prayers; the Kirishitan community were Catholic Christians who were cut off, without priests, for nearly two centuries. They preserved a number of Christian prayers, but the prayers were all in Latin, which fewer and fewer of them knew anything about as time went on. Therefore the prayers, Latin spoken with Japanese pronunciation by people who for the most part did not understand Latin, became garbled, and were just memorized by people who didn't know what they meant, which allowed for further garbling. The prayers themselves, then, have null title as the traditional prayers, but many Kirishitan practices were in much better shape, and had at least colorate title, so the Kirishitan prayers can be regarded as the traditional Paternoster, etc., in a looser sense of the term.
I'm not sure how well this holds up across the board, but I think it's an interesting first approximation.
Links of Note
* Aron Wall, The Argument from Confusion is Weak, at "Undivided Looking"
* Ian J. Campbell, Zeno of Elea's Arguments Against the One (PDF)
* Susan Pickard, Beauvior on Trans, at "Beauvoirian Feminism"
* Martin Lin, Spinoza on Powers and Abilities (PDF)
* The Julia Wedgwood Site has information about and articles by Julia Wedgwood (1833-1913).
* Matthew Chrisman & Berislav Marušić, Transparency, Self-Knowledge, and the Sociality of Belief (PDF)
* Kailani B., I Tried Reading Brandon Sanderson's Books, at "Damsel in the Library". This is pretty close to my experience with Sanderson's works. If find some of the ideas interesting, and occasionally executed, but I find it very difficult to enjoy them. I occasionally try again, but have difficulty pushing through -- I recently tried The Final Empire in audiobook, but couldn't really get through, and I think a lot of it is that while his stories are sometimes interesting, his language is boring. It manages to be neither gravely dignified nor vigorously colloquial nor quietly self-effacing; it's always in the way and uninteresting.
Currently Reading
In Book
J. K. Huysmans, The Damned
Marc Morris, The Norman Conquest
Oliver O'Donovan, The Disappearance of Ethics
In Audiobook
Robert Jordan, The Eye of the World
Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose
Lois McMaster Bujold, The Warrior's Apprentice