To write poetry, you have to be willing to go down rabbit holes.
When we consent to things, we are often not only consenting on our own behalf, but on behalf of everyone else for certain aspects of that to which we consent.
The brain is a theater of rituals.
All sciences, as such, are beautiful.
Gn 3:12 as Marian prophecy
Christianity is the life of Christ made shareable.
Archeological attestation of Kings of Judea and Israel:
(1) Kurkh Monolith: Ahab (I)
(2) Mesha Steele: Omri (I)
(3) Tel Dan Steele: Ahaziah 'of the House of David' (I)
(4) Summary Inscription 7: Johahaz [Ahaz] (J)
(5) Black Obelisk: Jehus 'son of Omri' (I)
(6) Tell al-Rimah Steele: Johoash [Joash] (I)
(7) Shema Seal: Jeroboam II (I)
(8) Iran Steele: Menahem (I)
(9) Summary Inscription 4: Pekah & Hoshea (I)
(10) Jeconiah Rations Tablet: Jeconiah (J)
(11) Hezekiah Birka: Hezekiah 'son of Ahaz' (J)
(12) Esarhaddon Prism: Manasseh (J)
The power structure of David's Israel, as given in Scripture, seems to be:
(1) a general power base in Hebron and the tribe of Judah
(2) some support from the religion network centered at Shiloh
(3) possession of Jerusalem from defeat of Jebusites
(4) slow and incomplete religious centralization at Jerusalem
(5) (mostly) broadly friendly relations and support from Philistines and Gath
(6) some authority over Saul's power base, arising from defeat of Eshbaal (Ishbosheth)
(7) success at playing off surrounding powers in military squabbles.
Philosophers of science have repeatedly tried to make experimentalists second-class citizens in the republic of science.
mechanism as that which may be imitated in experimental design
construction in mathematics // experimentation in physics
Different kinds of probability (epistemic, etc.) depend on the teleologies being considered.
the transfer of polytheistic divine epithets to God by triplex via
The tribunal of conscience has authority to:
(1) authorize
(2) order in accordance with obligation
(3) prohibit from exceeding authority
(4) impose conditions
(5) review
(6) act in aid of its own jurisdiction.
Conscience is supreme in its own jurisdiction, but its jurisdiction is not a supreme jurisdiction. Conscience is a tribunal itself subject to judgment.
Measurement requires a causal system capable of reducing possibilities.
Large-scale charitable endeavor requires coordination with the local.
Magic and mystery are parts of everyone's history.
The recording ability of the state is not a machinery but a cooperation. Trying to treat it too much like a machinery always creates failures.
deontic presence (association with what is not-obligatory-not)
"Just as our Redeemer is one person with the congregation of the good, and so is head of the body and we the body of His head, so also the Ancient Enemy is one person with the whole collection of the reprobate since he as head excels them in iniquity while they are servants to his persuasions and cling to him as a body joined to a head." Gregory, Moralia 4.18
"Causal analysis is emphatically not just about data; in causal analysis we must incorporate some understanding of the process that produces the data, and then we get something that was not in the data to begin with." Judea Pearl
given that I know that X --> given that it is true that X --> given that X
Every solution is optimal according to some standard; what is important is the relevant and appropriate standard.
no'am: pleasantness, delightfulness, beauty, favor, grace
-- from na'am, to be pleasant/delightful/lovely
-- translated in LXX as charis
Ps 27:4 the beauty of the Lord
Ps 90:17 beauty/favor of the Lord
Pr 3:17 pleasant way
Pr 15:26 pleasant words
Pr 16:24 pleasant words
Zech 11:7,10 Favor/Beauty
Differences in understanding are handled by wisdom.
Law is part of the human panoply of survival; other animals have fang and claw and swift muscle, but we have law.
the intelligibility of the concept of reliability --> the truth-aptness of induction
(If anything is recognizable as possibly reliable, it can only be because of induction.)
murmurations of kindnesses
Obligation as such becomes available to prudence, and in prudence becomes more than obligation. It suggests preferabilities for what is permissible; it provides inspiration for new options; it connects to other obligations by symbol and by analogy.
Prudence transforms the acts and works of other habits, both interpretatively and by incorporating them into a greater plan.
'Democracy' is not the sort of thing that can be defended; what can be defended is the Demos, the People.
It is a common error in many modern societies to think that saying concrete things in abstract words makes it more important.
It is difficult to be moderate and consistent in political contexts.
Modern societies are often intentionally only instrumentally literate.
Despite popular presentations that put the emphasis on belief, the subjectivity of subjective Bayesianism should really be thought of as 'the probabilities can vary from case to case', with belief a figure of speech (and *sometimes* perhaps an example).
principiation, mediation, convergence
Arrogant complacency is death in politics.
Every manifold of modal states derives from a difference-maker.
History consistently indicates that Torah gives the Jewish people an advantage or, perhaps more strictly accurately, Jews following Torah create a community that is highly durable, highly flexible, and, within the constraints of broader causal context, tends toward what makes a community prosper.
Lk 23:43 // Dt 30:18
The Calvinist TULIP should be seen not merely as a list but as a progression: We begin in sin (Total Depravity), but God in grace has chosen us (Unconditional Election) and provided a remedy for those chosen (Limited Atonement), which is granted us not in a way dependent on our weak grasp but on God's mighty strength (Irresistible Grace), so that we have perfect security in Him (Perseverance of the Saints).
"There is no such thing as just being good or bad, there is only being a good or bad so-and-so." Geach
We are more interested in richness or harmonious diversity of pleasures than pleasure as such.
One of the evils of 'utility monsters' is that they are monotonous and boring.
Taxonomies of philosophical theories are inherently interesting.
Effective altruism consistently has difficulties with scale -- it is hard to scale up to both complex things and to many different things, and hard to scale down to fine-grained detail work.
Most people regard general welfare as an important goal but (correctly) recognize that it depends on getting a lot of other things right -- namely particular things in the vicinage that can then be a platform for more.
Very few things contribute more to general welfare than raising children well.
People generally have fewer problems with effective altruism than with the combinations of EA with utilitarianism.
Beneficence requires other virtues to set the stage for it.
Christans as "philosomaton genos" (Celsus)
as "spermologoi" (Acts 17:18)
(note that Luke's comment at v 21 could perhaps be ironic because of this)
Creeds are landmarks.
monuments as standing testimony
Science textbooks are the dissection of the remains of scientific inquiry.
In the Church, the martyrs continue to be witnesses.
The human body is intrinsically liturgical.
The obsolete is often simply what we have forgotten how to use.
To do great things and to do them only well is not something that happens in politics.
To reform successfully, you need to have clear lines of authority.
Two things are more successful than anything else at getting 'engagement': kitsch and provocation.
Tradition at a very small scale we call "studying"; tradition at a very large scale we call "civilization".
A civilized society studies its ways.
The sensible is always explained in terms of the merely intelligible.
The philosophy of nature of any given age is always a system of analogies.
'Spend less than you make' and 'make more than you spend' are different goals,e ven though the means are usually the same; the priorities will at times be different. Likewise with 'be wrong less than you are right' and 'be right more than you are wrong'. Even the means are not always the same, though, because we do not always have equal freedom to affect both sides of the comparison.
that we have an idea of free will --> that we have free will
(the ignorance-of-causes position, depsite its problems accounting for phenomena, keeps recurring in part to block this natural inference)
human rights --> civil rights --> courtesy rights (i.e., aspects of civil rights extended to non-citizens)
price as a causal structure including anticipatory links
proposing a price // causal inquiry
omnipotence as a notwithstanding power
Love celebrates in both bright times and dark times.
What gives life meaning is what death cannot nullify.
Even where local anti-realism makes sense for part of a domain, global anti-realism does not, because the local anti-realism, to be intelligible, requires a framework of facts about the viability, usefulness, and effectiveness of possible constructions. Every anti-realism presupposes some kind of realist framework, and one would have to have a principled reason for classifying the framework itself as being in an entirely different domain from that which it frames.