drawing the solution from the problem like the sculpture from the block
the problem as the lock that structurally requires a certain sort of key
structural impediments to solution-finding (wrong kind of key) vs combinatorial impediments (size of the field of possible shapes of the right kind of key)
In matters of skill, exercise the skill in such a way as is consistent with a just society.
Every inquiry is a cooperation between practical reason and theoretical reason.
the literary sketch and the metonymies of human life -- seeing the person through his traces
metonymic depth and metaphoric depth in a story
All four gospels refer to Isaiah 40:3 LXX: Mk 1:2-3, Mt 3:3, Lk 3:4-6, Jn 1:23
We are usually most influenced by things we see identifiably but dimly.
guised being
(1) projection/imposition
(2) indirection
(3) translation
(4) perspectivalization
-- (4) is perhaps a version of (2)
guising with text, guising with model
Reasoning is always from understanding to understanding.
syllogistic functions
(1) non-illation (e.g., expository)
(2) subjectively illative (e.g., explicative)
(3) objectively illative (e.g., scientific)
principles of the way-of-tea
(1) wa (harmony)
(2) kei (respect)
(3) sei (purity)
(4) jaku (tranquillity)
truth as thing, truth as object, truth as value
The more personal something is, the more it seems to involve something of simplicity, immutability, eternity, and infinity; the personal suggests transcendence of measure and limitation, just as part of what it is.
'Be' may be a sign of identity, of predication, and of existence, and this is not mere historical account; and any account that does not make sense of how it can be all three is defective metaphysics.
'fact' as always about objects (perhaps a fact is a relationship of objects, itself taken as an object and recognized as corresponding to the relations of the things objectified -- or perhaps more simpy, true relation of objects, itself made or taken as objects)
justice as the virtue of social order
"In distributive justice, something is given to a person insofar as what belongs to the whole is due to the part...." Aquinas
"To govern is to bring the thing governed in a suitable way to its proper end."
It is pointless to talk about distributive justice until one has established something to be distributed.
Our concept of 'event' presupposes our concept of 'cause'.
Christ's humanity as perpetual memorial
the choralization (integration into heavenly choir and liturgy) of humanity
Satisfaction differs from retributive punishment in that the proper amends is not imposed externally.
Often one of the most important things you can do toward reform is to stop pretending that it is easy.
the giver, the gift, the spirit of the gift
Unlike secular citienship, which is developmental & often piecemal, heaveny citizenship comes altogether and at once.
Grace opposes guilt as a formal rather than an efficient cause (by internal exclusion/resistance rather than removal).
Even Christ had to prepare for His burdens.
A recurring problem of the modern age is the fictionalization of love, the repeated attempt to replace love with fantasies of it.
Where God does not require reparation, no human can have the right to demand it.
To love others well requires loving one's love of them.
the intelligible splendor of Christ
Kant regularly attributes to the intelligible features that belong to the superintelligible; but this helps him to explore the traces of the intelligible in the empirical itself.
ST 3.22.2ad3 is not in the manuscripts; it was added in the late sixteenth century by editors and perhaps presupposes a Suarezian view of Christ's holiness. (See Legge, Christology 140, referring to Rohof.)
Christ's human holiness is the same holiness that he shares with us. (Note that Peter in Acts 10:38 describes Christ's anointing in terms used elsewhere of His followers.)
Wisdom is the state of the intellect appropriate to the fullness of genuine love.
Habitual grace is instrumentality for divine purposes.
"The Holy Spirit, as we are taught by Scripture, is the cause of every perfection of the human mind." Aquinas, SCG 4.18
The minister works as minister, the soldier as a soldier, the servant as a servant, by a habitus.
"The Son, as the Word, gives us his teaching, but the Holy Spirit makes us capable of receiving that teaching." Aquinas In Ioan. 14.6
disposition to an act vs disposition within an act
Part of prudential action is to apply natura law, and part to situate ourselves within a broader natural lawfulness.
We knwo things in themselves, just not things in themselves apart from what we can know about them.
Truth is not the sole property of the speculative intellect; the practical intellect involves truth for action.
speculative intellect : truth of being :: practical intellect : truth of goodness
Learning is said in many ways.
"The wrath of God against sin is as changeless as His Love, of which indeed it is but one side or aspect." Hastings Rashdall
"To believe in the Son makes it so much easier to believe in the Father."
"Humanity is capable of, and (if any teleological assumption is justified) seems made for a good so much higher than any that is actually attainable in this life."
Imitations of realistic fiction drift farther and farther from reality the longer the chain of imitation extends.
Leclerq's division of charisms
(1) pertaining to instruction of the faithful: apostle, prophets, doctor, evangelist, exhortation, word of wisdom, word of knowledge, discernment of spirits, glossolalia, interpretation of tongues
(2) pertaining to corporal aid: alms, hospitality, assistance, faith, charisms of healing, operations of miracles
(3) pertaining to government: pastor, presiding, deacon, charism of government
the artifact as a medium of cognition
-- note that to understand something, we might try our hand at making it, or, if that is not possible, a model of it, or, if that is not possible, a discourse about it
-- the artifact as such as medium vs the artifact as sign as medium
"Beauty has an infinite amplitude, like being." Maritain
For as far back as we can trace any evidence of poetry, poetry has suggested the supernatural or divine.
The imitations of fine art affect the spectators because they are assimilations to the things; we are drawn to things *through* the works of art.
In the fine arts, we are the supreme imitators, even the angels cannot best us, for it is our own field, oru connatural domain.
All genuine appreciation of art is a form of learning; who is not taught by the work of art cannot appreciate the work itself.
Sacraments are often doubly composed: word and thing, which makes the material sign, which is composed with the signification.
Artifacts have a double genus, one in the order of nature and one in the order of will or art.
