Links of Note, Linked for Noting

* Jody Amable, The Murder Ballad Was the Original True Crime Podcast

* Richard Yetter Chappell, There's No Such Thing as "Following the Science"

* Christopher J. Austin, Contemporary Hylomorphisms: On the Matter of Form (PDF)

* Alasdair MacIntyre, The Fractured Metaphysics of Protests

* Peter Adamson, Yaḥyā ibn ‘Adī against al-Kindī on the Trinity (PDF)

* Michael Lind, The New National American Elite

* Julian Baggini, Midgley on Murdoch

* Frederick D. Aquino & Logan Paul Gage, On the Epistemic Role of Our Passional Nature (PDF)

* Dominic Green, Oligarchy in America

* John Tasioulas, All in One, discusses the problems with trying to overload terms like 'human rights'

* Peter Eardley, Medieval Theories of Conscience, at the SEP

* Cathy Mason, The Epistemic Demands of Friendship (PDF)

* Błażej Skrzypulec, Common Structure of Vision and Olfaction (PDF)

* Susanne Bobzien, Frege Plagiarized the Stoics (PDF)

* Oliver O'Donovan, Politics and Political Service

Ullr

 One of the major mysteries of Norse mythology is the god Ullr. His name, which is related to an old word for 'glory', shows up quite often in place names, suggesting that he was extremely important. But the literary sources we have hardly mention him. The location of his dwelling is said to be in Ýdalir, Yew Valley; since yews are consistently associated with archery in the ancient world (it was a good tree for bows), this is sometimes thought to indicate his connection with archery. He is associated with an ancient oath-taking ceremony. Saxo Grammaticus, who reads myths as fictionalized history, calls him a wizard, says he had a magic bone that he could use as a boat, and that he ruled for a short time when Odin was unable to do so. Snorri in the Prose Edda says that he was the son of Sif and the step-son of Thor. Snorri also links him to archery, and says that he is good at skiing and is called upon in duels. In poetry, Snorri tells us, he can be called the snowshoe-god, the bow-god, the hunting-god, and the shield-god; shields are called Ullr's ships. And in other poems we find him used in kennings for warriors: Ullr-of-sword, Ullr-of-shield, Ullr-of-bowstring, Ullr-of-combat. He is a bit like Tyr -- once extremely important, from all that we can tell (his name is just a version of the word for 'god'), Tyr has faded somewhat into the background by the time our literary sources really get going, although his association with battle seems to have kept something of his memory alive. But a few stories about Tyr still remained and were recorded; we have none explicitly about Ullr.

Jackson Crawford had an interesting video a few years back looking at the evidence and wondering -- but only wondering, since the evidence is pretty limited -- whether he could be an earlier version of Heimdallr (who is an important god in the stories but hardly if ever shows up in place names):

Music on My Mind

Brian Crain, "Song for Sienna". A bit of instrumental music for the day.

Fortnightly Book, January 31

 The greatest name in all of Scandinavian literature is, without any doubt, Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241). Born in Hvamm, Iceland, his father Sturla arranged to have him fostered by Jon Loftsson, the most influential Icelandic politician of the day. His foster father made sure he had an excellent education. The boy grew up into a talented young man and clever negotiator, but also a quite ruthless and treacherous one, a combination of traits that worked well toward his worldly success. He soon became the wealthiest man in Iceland. In the long Icelandic winters, though, he practiced more literary pursuits. At some point, probably around the age of forty, he traveled to Norway, where he became linked to Earl Skuli, who was acting as a regent for the young Hakon the Fourth; this connection led him to performing errands for the earl all throughout southern Norway, for the next several years. This and a few well-timed dedicated poems made him even wealthier than he had been. It's usually thought (although we do to know) that it was on his return to Iceland that he wrote his major works: the Heimskringla, the Prose Edda, and Egil's Saga. Various troubles at home led him to Norway and back in later years, and eventually his ruthlessness would catch up with him; denying his stepsons a share of their inheritance led to a large band of people surprising him in the night and killing him.

Icelandic literary works were often written anonymously, and Snorri's major works were no exceptions. That the Heimskringla and the Prose Edda are due to the same person is extremely likely on the evidence; that Egil's Saga was written by the same person is very probable; there is no one we know of at the time who is better equipped to have written them than Snorri; the attributions of the Heimskringla and the Prose Edda to him in manuscripts are in later or less reliable manuscripts, although they are consistent; the oral tradition, as far as we can tell, has also consistently attributed the Prose Edda and the Heimskringla to him. It all amounts to less than a proof, but for all that, there is also no reason whatsoever to reject his authorship -- as noted, there is no plausible alternative candidate, what we know of him makes him a very plausible candidate, the whole tradition, patchy though it may be, is consistent in putting him forward.

The next fortnightly book will be the Heimskringla. The work gets its title from the first two words of the first saga, which mean something like "the circle of the earth". It traces the history of the kings of Norway from mythic origins up to the death of Magnus V Erlingsson in 1184. The sagas included are:

1. Ynglinga saga
2. Saga of Halfdan the Black
3. Saga of Harald Fairhair
4. Saga of Hakon the Good
5. Saga of Harald Graycloak
6. Saga of Olaf Tryggvason
7. Saint Olaf's Saga
8. Saga of Magnus the Good
9. Saga of Harald Hardruler
10. Saga of Olaf the Gentle
11. Saga of Magnus Barelegs
12. Saga of the Sons of Magnus
13. Saga of Magnus the Blind and Harald Gilli
14. Saga of the Sons of Harald
15. Saga of Hakon the Broadshouldered
16. Saga of Magnus Erlingsson

I'll be reading the translation by Lee M. Hollander. The work is quite large, so this may end up being one of those occasional three week 'fortnights', but I actually don't anticipate that; saga storytelling is generally smooth and easy to follow, and, except for the huge Saint Olaf's Saga (about a third of the work), most of the sagas are of very manageable size.

Completion, Correction, Balancing

I have said that all branches of knowledge are connected together, because the subject-matter of knowledge is intimately united in itself, as being the acts and the work of the Creator. Hence it is that the Sciences, into which our knowledge may be said to be cast, have multiplied bearings one on another, and an internal sympathy, and admit, or rather demand, comparison and adjustment. They complete, correct, balance each other. This consideration, if well-founded, must be taken into account, not only as regards the attainment of truth, which is their common end, but as regards the influence which they exercise upon those whose education consists in the study of them. I have said already, that to give undue prominence to one is to be unjust to another; to neglect or supersede these is to divert those from their proper object. It is to unsettle the boundary lines between science and science, to disturb their action, to destroy the harmony which binds them together. Such a proceeding will have a corresponding effect when introduced into a place of education. There is no science but tells a different tale, when viewed as a portion of a whole, from what it is likely to suggest when taken by itself, without the safeguard, as I may call it, of others.

John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University, Discourse 5.

Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima

Introduction

Opening Passage: 

Ultima came to stay with us the summer I was almost seven. When she came the beauty of the llano unfolded before my eyes, and the gurgling waters of the river sang to the hum of the turning earth. The magical time of childhood stood still, and the pulse of the living earth pressed its mystery into my living blood. She took my hand, and the silent, magic powers she possessed made beauty from the raw, sun-baked llano, the green river valley, and the blue bowl which was the white sun's home. My bare feet felt the throbbing earth and my body trembled with excitement. Time stood still, and it shared with me all that had been, and all that was to come. (p. 1)

Summary: Antonio is growing up in Las Pasturas, a New Mexican town with old roots that is in the process of being torn apart in slow motion by the Second World War. His mother is a Luna, from the founding families of Las Pasturas, an agricultural family living a life of the earth, a life centered on homely hearth and priestly altar, structured in time by the dual clock of the lunar agricultural cycle and the liturgical year. His father is a Márez, a wild vaquero family, a people of the wind whose way is to live free on the grass-sea of the llano. It is a discordant pairing, and creates the first problem that Antonio must navigate as he grows up, how to be a child of both.

Las Pasturas is a Hispanic community, very Catholic in the loosely catechized and purely pragmatic and not always happy way that small Catholic towns often are. Christ and the Virgin hear prayers; in confession sins are forgiven; in communion you join with God; confirmation is the mark of becoming an adult; the priest can exorcise devils with holy water and the Church buries the dead on holy ground that souls might rest; as for anything else, it's left in a murky confusion about which most people are thoroughly incurious.The Church is part of the landscape; it is undeniably important, but it is important almost entirely by being there, like the earth, like the wind, like the unstopping tale of time, something that all have to take into account and that very few try ever to understand beyond what is required for living in the landscape. Antonio, however, we find to have the destiny of a learned man, and he has a thirst for explanation that is not so easily satisfied, and he faces the problem any such person will have in such a community: endless questions and no real answers.

Las Pasturas also has old roots, and the Spanish when they arrived found contact with Indians, Pueblo and Comanche, and the local culture still has memories stretching back to pagan days. The town is in a curious location, surrounded by water, with its one dry side actually stretching over an underground lake, and the local god, a great golden carp, is still remembered. One of the key events of the tale is when Antonio is shown the great golden carp and revels in its beauty; it is what he expects an experience of a god to be, unlike what he seems to have when he takes his first communion. This is the second discordant pairing Antonio must navigate as he matures: his heritage includes the almost overwhelming, and stern, and utterly mysterious, landmark of God's Church but also the beauty and thrill of the god of the waters whom one can see. But between God and god it seems that nothing but a forced choice is possible; Antonio spends much of the book struggling between his admiration of the golden carp and his guilty feeling that it is a sin.

Antonio does not fully manage to come up with a solution to either of these dilemmas -- in a sense, the solution will just be the kind of life he eventually leads, because neither is the sort of problem that can be solved by a young man once and for all -- but he is able to begin his way because of Ultima, the curandera, who understands the local families and who somehow lives in such a way as to bridge some of the gap, preserving old ways but blessing in the name of the Holy Trinity. Antonio sees this play out in a great shamanic battle of good against evil, as Ultima uses her curandería to fight the selfish malice of the local witches, with their brujería. It is a community that has no doubt whatsoever that there are curses and witchcraft and devilry and ghosts; there are too many strange events and it is too easy to find malice that is almost inhuman and, whether it has power or not, has an insatiable thirst for meddling with the ordinary harmony of things. Ultima saves one of Antonio's uncles from a curse by the daughters of Tenorio, and breaks her normal rule of non-involvement to face down Tenorio and his daughters, turning their own cursing against them. As the daughters of Tenorio die, Tenorio himself becomes more and more malicious and willing to commit evil, stirring up a literal mob with torches against Ultima as a witch, trying to get his revenge on anyone he can.

One of the things that the novel does well is capture the New Mexican landscape as a real character of the story. There is a reason New Mexico has as its sobriquet, the Land of Enchantment. The land itself interacts with you. I remember it well, swimming in the Pecos River, looking out the car window at a thunderstorm in the distance, racing and crackling like a thing alive, looking down on the world from the Sandia Mountains. It is a land of beauties and sublimities, which are just one step away from magic and divinity. You are not surprised to hear stories of ghosts and curses and saints and strange mental affinities; take them as tricks of the mind or not, strange things happen in the Land of Enchantment, where mountains and deserts and plains can all come together and lend each other incongruous properties, where the land is not quite like any other in the world.

Ultima does not provide Antonio with answers to all or even most of his doubts and questions, but she does provide one very crucial thing: a clear demonstration that good is in the world and that it can always overcome evil. The world is a world in which soldiers can be so traumatized in the war that they are never again right in the head, in which people can be malicious just for being malicious, in which people decent enough when things are normal can be stirred up as mobs when they no longer understand what is happening, in which sickness and death are around every corner. Good exists, however, and life is worth loving. If it comes to a struggle between evil and good, good can always win. But it is not a minor matter. There is also always a cost.

 Favorite Passage:

"Are you afraid?" she asked in turn. She put her bowl aside and stared into my eyes.

"No," I said.

"I will tell you why," she smiled. "It is because good is always stronger than evil. Always remember that, Antonio. The smallest bit of good can stand against all the powers of evil in the world and it will emerge triumphant. There is no need to fear men like Tenorio." (p. 98)

Recommendation: Recommended.

******

Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima, Grand Central Publishing (New York: 1999).

Dashed Off II

typology as theological diagrammatics

"Christ died, indeed, as the spiritual shepherd of the sheep, but Abel did not die on account of his having literally followed the occupation of a shepherd." (Fairbairn) -- But this is false and in any case assumes (1) that it is not part of the occupation of a shepherd to bring offering of his own flocks to God and (2) that Cain did not kill Abel, in part or in whole, because of the offering.

"Every type necessarily possesses a prophetical character, and differs from what is commonly termed prophecy only in this, that it prefigures, while they foretell, coming realities." Fairbairn

likening oneself to God, living according to nature, following reason

bodily goods, goods of soul, external goods
Plato, Euthydemus 279ab; Philebus 48e; Laws 631bc, 743e
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1.7 1098b

the Clitophon as an attack on Antisthenes (Brunnecke, Kester, Souilhe) -- this has an attraction, despite a certain implausibility
Thrasyllus links Clitophon with the Republic trilogy; Grube thought it a fragmentary preface to Part I of the Republic, a reaction to Republic I, with the rest of the Republic in answer

Human life is built out of layers of final causes.
(1) imminent physical & biological
(2) rational function in the rational community of the human race
(3) volitional

"Every muse is indeed beautiful, but the use is not similar in all." Maximus of Tyre

boulesis (wishing for good), chara (delighting in good) and eulabeia (turning from bad) as found in some form in every virtue

"daimones are in species animate, rational in nature, passional in soul, airy of body, and everlasting in time." Apuleius, God of Socrates

"The person who never made a blunder never made a discovery." Samuel Drew

Romantic love is sexual affection doing good to the one for whom the affection is held.

Romantic love is a valuable thing; but it is less eternal, less holy, and less rich in value than the conjugal bond itself.

There is no revolution that can cure general rot.

self-policing as an essential pillar of free society -- the idea that formal police should be aiding the citizens themselves

The autarchy of eudaimonia is inherently social.

virtues that have a special role in training of virtue: prudence (obviously), filial piety, friendliness, religion

In being a sage, one sage is by nature friend to another sage.

"Our whole kind is naturally inclined toward association, and the first and most elemental form of community is that instantiated in marriage." Hierocles, in Stobaeus, Flor. 4.22.21

Studiositas imitates divine love of truth.

prudence : providence :: justice : moral order :: fortitude : divine forbearance :: temperance : Supreme Ultimate

An essential component for a meaningful life is hope; because we cannot simply force ourselves to hope, but must find reasons to hope, we cannot in any strict sense 'give our own lives meaning'.

The mere fact of changing style or structure of governance does not get rid of sociopaths.

Divine providence is prior to heaven and earth, but is not ancient; it is senior to high antiquity, but is not old.

Good businesses do not so much have stakeholders as make them.

virtue	consortium
friendliness	friendship
liberality/gratitude	beneficium
religion	co-religion
justice	exchange
studiositas	schola

Even if they marry young and live a hundred years, spouses only have each other a little while.

rule of law as precondition for self-governance

Typological reading is a skill of faith, not a method, although as with any skill or art, various methods can be articulated within it by looking at patterns in how the skill fulfills certain purposes.

reading the OT as typology vs. reading the OT as providential history vs. reading the OT as example

The view that the Tabernacle represents the universe is too widespread to be dismissed lightly, found in Philo, Josephus, some of the rabbis, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Chrysostom, and Theodoret.

A common error of accommodationism in interpreting OT symbolism is assuming that if something is an accommodation it can be nothing else. But there still must be a reason why this and not that is accommodated, and this reason may make it also a type, or a key link in a providential sequence. Accommodation is just adaptation of an existing vocabulary for one's purposes, and those purposes may be manifold.

The reference point for the identification of sexes is the procreative structure of the species.

There is no single art of interpretation, but many interpretational arts.

'Interpret agreeably to Reason' as a general maxim of hermeneutics (Seiler)

Whether it's true that reason enjoins the rule "always use the same words in the same connection in the same sense" depends on what reason is doing. Likewise, whether an intelligent writer employs according to common usage depends on what the writer is doing. A discourse does, however, have to be in some way unified and intelligible to be successful.

dogmatic, polemic, and prophetic functions of parables

conscientious objection a block against persecutory schemes

Discovering the mind of a writer is an exercise in hypothesizing.

The difficulties Calvin consistently has with NT citation of OT texts shows clearly enough that his approach to exegesis of the OT is not adequate; it results in the NT authors repeatedly appearing, by 'pious deflection', to twist and modify as to equivocate with a foreign sense. He does not do as he should and learn from apostles how to read the OT in light of Christ.

the aspects of good kingship
(1) equitable (epieikes)
(2) clement (eugnomon)
(3) unoppressive (abares)

phronesis as including enkrateia and autarkeia

polis = "a plurality of human beings dwelling in the same place, governed by law" (Dio Chrysostom)

rights as just dues

Rights require discernment; they cannot substitute for it.

Societies in the modern world protect the powerful by selectively enforcing deontology and oppress the weak by selectively enforcing consequentialism.

OT is to NT
as providential context (NT as end)
as type (NT as exemplar)
as sharing principles (conformity)
as material condition

People complaining about Aristotle's 'metaphysical biology' always substitute one of their own, and not ever a better supported one.

"The very form of a work of art shows its character as *addressed*." Charles Taylor

Democracy overassimilates justice to fairness, aristocracy to order, monarchy to loyalty. The best societies find a way to triangulate justice by means of these three.

bringing the outer world into free play within oneself

mimesis → free play → expression

Morality contributes to human-wholeness.

higher and lower equalities
the hierarchy of equalities
-- We all in fact recognize that some equality is superficial and some substantive, some trivial and some profoundly meaningful, some morally indifferent and some morally significant.

joy at other's joy: compersion; joy at other's grief: Schadenfreude
grief at other's joy: jealousy; grief at other's grief: compassion

Before one can assess probabilities, one must identify relevant possible states; this can only be done by induction.

One cannot give an account of induction without regard for issues of classification.

"There is truth in a symphony, composed to imitate a tempest, when the music of the symphony, its harmony and rhythm, make us hear a noise similar to the tumult of the wind and the roaring waves, which clash with each other or break against the rocks." Du Bos

All claims about relevance are normative.

animals, plants, and environments of thriving
-- it doesn't seem that this can be equated with a right of place, because (1) getting that specific would require a lot of experimentation and trial & error; (2) ecological balance, limitation of noxiousness, etc., clearly have to play a role; (3) this will often not involve a common good relevant to our choices.
-- but clearly we can see that there is often better or worse here, and sometimes (pets, zoos) this clearly intersects with our responsibilities.

advisory, hortatory, consolatory work as the key parts of ministry (taken generally) as a humanitarian tradition

Codes of conduct often extend punitive reach without extending due process, and in practice they often deviate from being used as an instrument of positive exhortation, becoming an instrument of criticism and coercion.

Sacraments are juridical by being sacraments, acts in the Kingdom of God.

lists: ordered vs unordered; filled vs open; finite vs infinite

Human rights are only possible if human nature is itself a participation in a natural juridical system.

"They alone are god-love to whom wrongdoing is hateful." Democritus (B217/D81)

There is a structural difference between not including something in the scope of a law and having mercy on it as a violation of law, one not given adequate account if we assume that sanction makes the law.

Electron spin is the angular momentum of 'flow of energy' in the electron's wave field. It is analogous to a classical circularly polarized wave. (Cf. Hans C Ohanian, "What is spin?")

the artistic phenomenon of excess to the point of mediocrity

Moderation is the better part of skill

analytic : synthetic :: condign : congruous

the Taijitu as a sort of transcendental ecology

The moral teachings of Jesus are not found only in His words, but in His miracles, in His life and death and resurrection, and in His Church.

All love creates deontic structures.

The divine is that for the sake of which wisdom commands.

Facts are norms for reasonings.

"Nothing good or evil is included in the mere use of a name, apart from the actions which are associated with that name." Justin
"Rulers who prefer popular opinion to truth have as much power as robbers in the desert."

Traditions are structured by fides, virtus, and pietas.

A performance is always a completion of something, the finalization of material into actual form.

play in text
play in read-through
play in rehearsal
play in performance

Ethical values are also aesthetic values, but their role and character qua aesthetic is distinct from their role and character qua ethical, and one artistic challenge is coordinating them both in a way appropriate  to each. (Success in this is one of the reason for the greatness of Fra Angelico or Jane Austen.)

Artistic evaluation incorporates aesthetic evaluation, aesthetic evaluation incorporates artistic evaluation -- each imperfectly, yes, but it is the negotiation by which great art is formed.

play-pretend as playing at pretending (If you play-pretend at being a lion, you are not faking being a lion, trying to pass yourself off as a lion, but something much more like playing a game in which you represent yourself as a lion.)

Actors pretend in order to perform, but the performance is not itself adequately characterized as pretending.

"'Pretending' is an intention-dependent concept; one cannot pretend inadvertently." Anscombe

In play-pretending you can pretend to wag a tail you don't have simply by play-pretending (although you could also use a prop). In dissimulation-pretending you would need at least a plausibly tail-like prop.

The key characteristic in Anscombe's notion of consequentialism is *outweighing* (this is why Ross gets counted) such as to rule out *indefeasibility* (this is why Mill is not counted).

When people are being attacked, telling them they cannot ever defend themselves forcefully is in most circumstances not nonviolence but complicity with the violent.

Apologetics must discuss the prophecies because it is part of the faith that Christ was prophesied.

three requirements for partaking the Eucharist (Justin, First Apology, 66)
(1) acknowledged truth of doctrine
(2) cleansed by baptism for remission of sins and regeneration
(3) regulate life upon principles laid down by Christ

"Only bad fortune reveals a great example." Seneca
"Never is the proof of virtue mild."