Habitude XXXIII

 To the third one proceeds thus. It seems that gifts of the Holy Spirit are not habitudes. For habitude is a quality remaining in the human being, for it is a difficult-to-change quality [qualitas difficile mobile], as is said in the Categories. But it belongs to Christ that the gifts of the Holy Spirit rest in Him, as is said in Isaiah XI. As is said in John I, On Him whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, He is who baptizes, of which Gregory, expositing, says, The Holy Spirit comes on all the faithful, but, uniquely, He dwells always in the Mediator.

Further, gifts of the Holy Spirit complete a man inasmuch as he is activated by the Spirit of God, as was said. But inasmuch as a human being is activated by the Spirit of God, he has himself [se habet] somewhat like an instrument with respect to Him. But it is appropriate to an instrument to be completed by not by habitude, but by the principal agent. Therefore the gifts of the Holy Spirit are not habitudes.

Further, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are from divine inspiration, as is the gift of prophecy. But prophecy is not habitude, for the spirit of prophecy is not always present to the prophet, as Gregory says, in Homily I on Ezekiel. Neither, therefore, are the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

But contrariwise is that the Lord said to the disciples, speaking of the Holy Spirit, John XIV, He shall remain with you and be in you. But the Holy Spirit is not in the human being without His gifts.

I reply that it must be said that, as was said, gifts are sorts of completions of the human being by which he is disposed to follow well the instigation of the Holy Spirit. But it is clear from what was said above that moral virtues complete striving impulse inasmuch as it participates in some way reason, to wit, inasmuch as it is born to to be changed through command of reason. In this way, therefore, gifts of the Holy Spirit have themselves [se habent] with respect to the human being in relation to the Holy Spirit, as moral virtues have themselves [se habent] with respect to the striving impulse in relation to reason. Now moral virtues are sorts of habitudes by which striving impulses are disposed to obeying reason promptly. Thus also gifts of the Holy Spirit are are sorts of habitudes by which a human being is completed to for promptly obeying the Holy Spirit.

To the first therefore it must be said that Gregory answers it there, saying that in those gifts without which one is not able to reach life, the Holy Spirit always remains in the chosen, but in others He does not remain. Now the seven gifts are necessary for salvation, as has been said. Thus, regarding them, the Holy Spirit always remains in the holy.

To the second it must be said that the reason proceeds from an instrument that is not for acting but only for being acted upon. But a human being is not such an instrument, but he is activated by the Holy Spirit, who also acts, inasmuch as he has free choice. Thus he needs habitude.

To the third it must be said that prophecy is among the gifts that are for the manifestation of the Spirit, but not for the necessity of salvation. Therefore it is not similar.

[Thomas Aquinas, ST 2-1.68.3. The Latin is here, the Dominican Fathers translation is here.]

I skipped article 2, on the necessity of the Gifts for salvation; it is useful for understanding why they are important, but less so for understanding how they work as habitudes, although, of course, it is relevant to the second and third objections here.

Links of Note

 * The children's books that shaped me, at "The Library Ladder"; a lot of overlap with what I read as a child, although I never come across any of the Hitchcock books.

* Giulia Schirripa, Social groups and classical extensional mereology (PDF)

* Owen Cyclops, Folk Religion and Alt-Christian Cosmology

* Austin Suggs, Augustine's Unusual Theodicy

* A. R. J. Fisher, Making Time: An Ontology of Temporal Fiat Objects (PDF)

* Virginia Karnstein, The Truth about Frankism, discussing the early modern Jewish messianic movement, at "Overlong Memories"

* Venanzio Raspa, Kant and the Debate on Aristotle's Categories in the Nineteenth Century (PDF)

* Matthew Minerd, Monastic Stories as a Method of Ascetical Casuistry, at "To Be a Thomist"

* Emmanuel Rutten, Atomism, Causalism, and the Existence of God (PDF)

* Mark K. Spencer, Taking Polytheism Seriously, reviews Travis Dumsday's Alternative Conceptions of the Spiritual, at "Living with Lady Philosophy"

* Alexandre Declos, Toy stories: a metaphysics of playthings

* Daniel Weidner, Gershom Scholem, at the SEP

The Imaginative Charge of Words

 But even among the synonyms of our own tongue we cannot ignore the imaginative charge of words without being monstrous. You might, for example, be excused for declining an invitation to dinner when the menu that was offered was dead calf with fungus in heated dough, scorched ground tubers, and cabbage stalks, all swilled down with rotten German grape juice, and topped off with the dust of burnt berries in scalding water diluted with the oozings from the udders of a cow. You might well decline such a bill of fare, but you would miss an excellent meal of veal and mushroom pie, roast potatoes and spring greens, chased by a bottle of hock, and finished with a steaming cup of coffee and cream. What's in a name? Just about everything. 

[Paul Roche, "Translator's Preface," Euripides: Ten Plays (Signet, 1998) xvii.]

If I Blame, Be Assur'd I Am Tipsy

 The Modern Tippling Philosophers
by James Hay Beattie

Father Hodge had his pipe and his dram,
And at night, his cloy'd thirst to awaken,
He was served with a rasher of ham,
Which procured him the surname of Bacon.
He has shown that, though logical science
And dry theory oft prove unhandy,
Honest Truth will ne'er set at defiance
Experiment, aided by brandy. 

Des Cartes bore a musket, they tell us,
Ere he wished, or was able, to write,
And was noted among the brave fellows,
Who are bolder to tipple than fight.
Of his system the cause and design
We no more can be pos'd to explain:--
The materia subtilis was wine,
And the vortices whirl'd in his brain. 

Old Hobbes, as his name plainly shows,
At a hob-nob was frequently tried:
That all virtue from selfishness rose
He believ'd, and all laughter from pride.
The truth of his creed he would brag on,
Smoke his pipe, murder Homer, and quaff,
Then staring, as drunk as a dragon,
In the pride of his heart he would laugh. 

Sir Isaac discover'd, it seems,
The nature of colors and light,
In remarking the tremulous beams
That swom on his wandering sight.
Ever sapient, sober though seldom,
From experience attraction he found,
By observing, when no one upheld him,
That his wise head fell souse on the ground. 

As to Berkley's philosophy--he has
Left his poor pupils nought to inherit,
But a swarm of deceitful ideas
Kept like other monsters, in spirit.
Tar-drinkers can't think what's the matter,
That their health does not mend, but decline:
Why, they take but some wine to their water,
He took but some water to wine. 

One Mandeville once, or Man-devil,
(Either name you may give as you please)
By a brain ever brooding on evil,
Hatch'd a monster call'd Fable of Bees,
Vice, said he, aggrandizes a people;
By this light let my conduct be view'd;
I swagger, swear, guzzle, and tipple:
And d----- ye, 'tis all for your good. 

David Hume ate a swinging great dinner,
And grew every day fatter and fatter;
And yet the huge hulk of a sinner
Said there was neither spirit nor matter.
Now there's no sober man in the nation,
Who such nonsense could write, speak, or think:
It follows, by fair demonstration,
That he philosophiz'd in his drink. 

As a smuggler, even Priestley could sin;
Who, in hopes the poor gauger of frightening,
While he fill'd the case-bottles with gin,
Swore he fill'd them with thunder and lightning.
In his cups, (when Locke's laid on the shelf),
Could he speak, he would frankly confess t' ye,
That unable to manage himself,
He puts his whole trust in Necessity. 

If the young in rash folly engage,
How closely continues the evil!
Old Franklin retains, as a sage,
The thirst he acquired when a devil.
That charging drives fire from a phial,
It was natural for him to think,
After finding, from many a trial,
That drought may be kindled by drink. 

A certain high priest could explain,
How the soul is but nerve at the most;
And how Milton had glands in his brain,
That secreted the Paradise Lost.
And sure it is what they deserve,
Of such theories if I aver it,
They are not even dictates of nerve,
But mere muddy suggestions of claret. 

Our Holland Philosophers say,
Gin Is the true philosophical drink,
As it made Doctor Hartley imagine
That to shake is the same as to think.
For, while drunkenness throbb'd in his brain,
The sturdy materialist chose (O fye!)
To believe its vibrations not pain,
But wisdom, and downright philosophy. 

Ye sages, who shine in my verse,
On my labours with gratitude think,
Which condemn not the faults they rehearse,
But impute all your sin to your drink.
In drink, poets, philosophers, mob, err;
Then excuse if my satire e'er nips ye:
When I praise, think me prudent and sober,
If I blame, be assur'd I am tipsy.

James Hay Beattie was the son of the philosopher and poet James Beattie; he was something of an intellectual prodigy but died, around age 22, in 1790. Lots and lots going on here.

Roger Bacon, the Doctor Mirabilis, was a Franciscan (hence 'Father Hodge') who advocated the importance of experience (experimentum) as a form of a knowledge in itself, necessary for all other knowledge. Descartes was indeed a mercenary soldier, although he was probably used as an artillery calculator rather than in any direct fighting; he explained the motion of the body by a subtle fluid (the 'animal spirits', on which Beattie is indirectly punning) and the motion of the cosmos by vortices, little whirling circular motions. 

Hobbes held that laughter was 'sudden glory' arising from a sudden sense of superiority. He also translated Homer, and does indeed seem to have been a smoker. The stanza on Newton alludes both to his work on the refraction of white light into colored light and on gravity (alluding to the old story of the apple). 

Berkeley held that the only things that exist were ideas and minds (spirits), and has a couple of works, including the namesake of this blog, on the medicinal value of tar-water, which he advocated as a substitute for alcohol (and was quite popular for a while as such). Bernard Mandeville, in The Fable of the Bees, famously held that private vices were public benefits; in it, a hive of bees is thriving until they become virtuous, which drives them into poverty. 

David Hume was indeed quite fat (he once broke a sturdy chair just by sitting down too quickly); he doesn't quite say that there was neither spirit nor matter, but he does say that we cannot know the ultimate causes of our impressions; the latter part of his stanza is a parody of his view of induction as based on constant conjunction. Joseph Priestley is most famous today for his experiments in 'dephlogisticated air', i.e., oxygen, but in his own day his work on electricity and simple electrical batteries was often better known; he also held that there was no free will, and that everything was governed by necessary laws of causation.

Benjamin Franklin, the Sage of Philadelphia, well known for his Autobiography discussing his youthful attempts at self-improvement, was as famous then as now for his experiments with electricity; when he was in Britain, he also stayed with Hume and Priestley. David Hartley, a physician and philosopher, held that experience occurred due to vibrations of a subtle ether in the nerves; these vibrations left behind trace-vibrations, 'vibratiuncles', which allowed thinking and memory.

I have no idea who the "certain high priest" is, unfortunately; the description suggests a bishop, but it may, of course, be some kind of pun.

Dashed Off XIII

 The strangest things in the world are stranger the more they are known.

People who think they have reasons to think that A does not exist have ipso facto grounds of resistance to having a relationship with A.

Part of having a relationship is overcoming resistance to the relationship.

Sacrifice does not necessarily prevent self-righteousness, but self-righteousness without sacrifice is extraordinarily contagious.

Retroactive legislation is present causation; it modifies the present's uptake of the past.

memories as re-simulations within a modal tagging structure
memory as enduring self-testimony

While Walton takes pictures to have the function of being props in visual games of make-believe, his actual discussions only really require that they be accessible for such games to give them such use.

We normally distinguish cases of pretendings from (e.g.) watching movies or even acting in plays -- the actor may pretend as part of his approach to acting, and we may pretend in response to it, but these are different.

Few things make people as miserable as utilitarianism.

The rule of law is
(1) a state of law
(2) involving a politically and morally sustainable legal system
(3) in which the laws apply impartially, even to officials,
(4) and enforcement of the law is generally peaceable
(5) and maintained in broad cooperation with the general body of the citizens or subjects,
(6) who are protected from recognized abuses by safeguards.

People often think they are making themselves strong when theya re only making themselves brittle.

persons as principles of classification

"Every perfect thing is threefold." Mahabharata XIV.39.21

"The Father's Intellect said that all things be divided into three." Chaldean Oracles 22

"One who knows Brahman reaches the highest. Satya is Brahman, Jnana is Brahman, Ananta (infinity) is Brahman." Taittiriya Upanishad 21.1

The secular exists because of the sacred that shelters it.

(1) The totality of all contingents is either contingent or necessary.
(2) A given totality of all contingents depends materially on its contingent components.
(3) What depends materially for its existence on what is contingent is not necessary.
(4) As contingent, the totality of all contingents depend efficiently on a cause distinct from itself.
(5) The cause that makes the totality of all contingents a totality must be necessary.
-- All this requires the totality of contingents. Does it require that this be a consistent totality?

Spontaneously coming to exist and coming to exist uncaused are not the same; spontaneity means that the causes are internal in some way to the effect, not wholly external.

Xunzi's criticicisms of the School of Names are broadly teleological: the dialectical paradoxes arise by ignoring the purposes of names/roles/classifications.

Nobility ranks tend to have a kind of sameness the world over, partly by diffusion, but mostly due to the fact that they are historically constrained by the structures of governance, land ownership, and military support.

Christians often err by limiting the ways they can glorify God.

Ens rationis is intellectually needed because attribution is not strictly tied to being an actually or potentially existing thing. It is metaphysically needed for an account of such things because some such attributions are true.

"When everything is made relative to profit-making, all traditions of virtue are dissolved, including that aspect of virtue known as love of country." George Grant

'Reliability' is a term of diachronic assessment.

We conceive before we know we conceive, and believe before we know we believe.

We criticize people for being bad, but criticize them more harshly for being worse; we take it to be the case that people should at least make the effort to be reasonably decent by the standards of their age and land. Part of the difference in harshness, I think, is that we recognize that we ourselves are biased in several ways, and take ourselves to be at least trying to make a reasonable effort in light of what is available to us, and to be doing, with all our efforts, at least as good as people in our land and age can usually be. If we are reasonably honest, we recognize that criticizing people for not being vastly better than others of the time would make us look like hypocrites; it is safer to criticize people for not reaching a basic minimum.

Without the breath of fiction there is no civilization.

Scientific theorizing is filled with fictional makeshifts and crutches, because all inquiry into difficult matters is.

All words that express sensible ideas also express immaterial conceptions.

Everywhere in law that there is legal fiction is a point at which the law is recognizing something beyond itself, which requires that something be fit into the legal account.

The removal of legal fictions from law is often a process of legal solipsizing.

Hume T 3.2.3 as an indirect discussion of juridical personhood in terms of occupation, prescription, accession, and succession; see also 3.2.10. (A weakness of Hume's account of allegiance is that he fails to recognize that 'public interest' itself has to be explained -- what makes there to be a public at all, such that we can attribute the relevant things at all? Allegiance grows up with the development of public interest, not after it.)

It is easiest to motivate oneself by pleasure, but we have motivations not necessarily linked to the pleasant -- e.g., the depressed can motivate themselves for duty or doing good to others even when it is clear that pleasure is out of their reach.

Many philosophers suffer from the intellectual malnutrition of exposure to too few kinds of philosophy.

You should not reason as if you were randomly selected but as if you were caused under specific conditions in a particular context.

We think of infinite series not by successive adding but by sweeping over all possible successive addings of a kind.

A firm is first and foremost an accounting system for a specific purpose in exchange.

The meaning of myth expands outward by suggestion, association, and allegorization.

Pleasures are often different in such a way that pleasures exclude pleasures.

We are given not merely miracles and laws but providential coincidences; that is to say, providence has set up the world so as to provide coincidences and chance events that may provide both windfall and challenge, and remind us of the world and the possibilities beyond our expectation but within our reach.

For much of ethics we need not a template but a method of discovery.

People often feel themselves indebted for the world itself.

LLMs draw texts with rational order from relationships between rationally ordered texts.

the key as symbolic title and title as symbolic key

Every narrative suggests further narratives.

To understand explanations, we embed them in narratives of how they were reached and how they are applied.

We have a reason that draws from our passions. It is precisely this that occasionally leads to conflict.

Holy Scripture is a shared inheritance that must be received as such.

When we look at technological progress closely, it often is much slower than it seems at superficial glance; innovations have to be developed, refined, diffused, usually across many different people and markets. Part of the reason for the difference is that some technologies that are very obvious (e.g., for entertainment) spread more quickly than the rest.

We often have to learn how things resemble each other; that is, resemblances are often not obvious and we need to learn how to recognize them.

We legislate for hypotheticals.

Bayesianism models cognition like stimulus-response models actions; it crudely approximates it with highly restrictive assumptions under limited conditions.

"Our visual perceptions sometimes contradict our tactile perceptions, for example, in teh case of a rod immersed in water, but nobody in his right mind will conclude from this fact that the outer world does not exist." Godel

the hatred of the natural as a recurring pathology of modernity

All loneliness presupposes some form of non-loneliness; loneliness lies in the contrast.

And All the Dread Magnificence of Heaven

 Nature
by James Beattie 

O how canst thou renounce the boundless store
Of charms which Nature to her votary yields!
The warbling woodland, the resounding shore,
The pomp of groves, and garniture of fields;
All that the genial ray of morning gilds,
And all that echoes to the song of even,
All that the mountain's sheltering bosom shields,
And all the dread magnificence of heaven,
O how canst thou renounce and hope to be forgiven!

How It Is Produced

 A competent teacher must go to school with God and himself if he wishes to exercise his office with wisdom. He must imitate him as he reveals himself in nature and in sacred Scripture, and be able to teach both equally in our souls. Almighty God, for whom it costs nothing, for whom nothing is too expensive for human beings, is the thriftiest, slowest God. His rule for agriculture, and the time that he waits patiently for its fruits, should be our guide. It is not a matter of what fruit, or how much fruit, but it is all about how it is produced. Both children and we too know that! He tells his disciples that, in that hour when you need to speak, it will be given to you first and foremost how to speak and then what to say. This order seems to be back to front for us human beings; yet it is to some extent proper to God and sanctified through his own ways.

[Johann Georg Hamann, The Complete London Writings, Kleinig, tr., Lexham Academic (Bellingham: 2025), pp. 330-331, from "Thoughts on the Course of My Life".]