(1) If nothing is actual, nothing is possible.
(2) It is impossible that nothing be possible.
(3) Therefore it is necessary that there is something actual.
(4) For it to be necessary that there is something actual, there must be at least one thing that is necessary.
(5) Therefore, etc.
doxastic necessity as licensing theoretical postulation
Kant's table of Nothing
Nothing as:
(1) empty concept without object -- ens rationis
(2) empty object of a concept -- nihil privatum
(3) empty intuition without object -- ens imaginarium
(4) empty object without concept -- nihil negativum
-- It's odd for two kinds of nothing to be being; 'nothing' is here really the opposite of 'real being'.
-- It's unclear how (1) and (4) are really being distinguished.
-- Placing it in a table suggests (1) corresponds to quantity; (2) to quality; (3) to relation; and (4) to modality. And Kant is attempting this. But it seems impossible to make this work. (1) as none, rather than all, many, or one, e.g., 'noumena'. This makes Kant's account of ens rationis very peculiar (it includes soul, world, God, freedom, because these are not given in intuition). (2) as opposed to reality as something (but what of negation and limitation? Thus, perhaps, privation -- privation as such is neither negation or limitation). (3) is mere form of intuition, the merely formal condition of an object "like pure space and pure time" -- thus no inherence, causality, or community. (This is perhaps the greatest stretch.) (4) is the object of a self-contradictory concept -- but note that this seems to give it the modality of impossibility, which makes it *not* nothing in that category. One really should have something not even impossible, providing no modality to judgment.
-- note (3)'s odd shift to intuition and the lack of an empty object without an intuition.
Much of Kant's philosophy is tied to taking 'object in general' rather than 'being' as the prime principle of metaphysics.
software as a description of a final cause
manipulating semiotic being to explore abstract being
paperwork pollution
opnions vs private-good beliefs vs common-good beliefs
(private-good and common-good here are neutral adjectives -- beliefs held as good for oneself or as part of shared good, regardless of whether it actually is)
Etiology is a subdiscipline of teleology.
Positive law is not reducible to nothing but positive law.
elements of incorruptibility of soul
(1) The human soul as such is not decomposable.
(2) The human soul does not wholly depend on what is decomposable.
(3) The human soul is not naturally subject to annihilation.
Kant's attempt to refute Mendelssohn on immortality requires that existence be a predicate; otherwise it does not admit of diminution, at least in any way that seems to make sense in Kantian philosophy.
Music is a shape for thinking in, while language is a frame for thinking through.
All human beings become disabled eventually; we are mortal beings.
NB that Feser argues that the disembodied soul is a whole reduced to a single proper part (i.e., weak supplementation does not apply).
To be a plant or an animal is to be a teleology.
Becoming good at doing something requires developing good taste with respect to its means.
We assess equivocation in arguments by assessing whether the propositions are co-supportable in a relevant context.
"No collection of experts will add up to a wise man." Josiah Royce
"When the philosopher wishes to know what will happen when this theory is proposed or that line of reasoning pursued, he does not have to speculate. He can delve into the history of philosophy and find recorded there the accumulated experiences of the human mind in dealing with these problems over the centuries."
self -> recognition of others -> recognition of self as relative to and other than other selves -> recognitino of self qua self in distinction of self qua other -> self-personation to others -> structured personas in the moral ambit of a person (in the form of one's honor, one's love, one's self-branding, etc.)
In modern advertising, the ads often present products and services as persona-tools.
Politics is structured by the relation between the more local community (ultimately the household) and the more general community (ultimately humanity).
*Surprised by Joy* as a study of how a thoughtful man changes his mind on a fundamental matter
Tradition is a training in the good, and the quality of the tradition is related to both the quality of the training and the quality of the good.
invoking forms and banishing forms of symbols
summarizing arguments using other arguments (the argument-summarizing function of arguments is not sufficiently studied, and has not progressed much beyond Aristotle's recognition of the enthymeme)
argumetns constructed to be paradigmatic types in a family of arguments
simplified approximations of arguments
leading-idea-and-conclusion summaries of arguments
property law and the justly acquired
Lk 22:35-38 and the temporal power of the Church (money purse, food pouch, defensive sword as teh gear for journeying in dangerous environments)
immediate vs mediate acquisition
ministerial causation and the deontic
design argument + impssibility of infinite regress in designers (having design as such does not exclude infinity in this way, so the latter has to be based on making causes, i.e., being made to have design)
Things are imagined under appearances and the same thing may be imagined under very different appearances.
intention overlap, intention underlap, intention convergence
(1) The President is an office established by the Constitution;
(2) George Washington is not an office established by the Constitution;
(3) George Washington is the President.
Much of fantasy works by literalizing the overplus of metaphorical achievement over literal achievement. The literal difference between a competent but average graduate and Albert Einstein in physics is impressive, but less than one might expect; however, Einstein's achievements metaphorically expressed massively outstrip anything the graduate student might expect to achieve; they are semi-divine, world-shaking, caught glimpses of the mind of God, as physicists themselves cannot help saying. In a science fantasy tale, however, one might have a physicist who literally catches a glimpse of something like the mind of God.
3 modes of participating in a game: play, spectation, reflection
Society runs on a ritual infrastructure.
Declarations of rights establish a shared vocabulary of assessment and justification.
