Sonnet on September
by William Mann
Amidst the songs of morn, and harvest mirth,
Soft-eye'd December on our plains descends;
Rejoicing Nature gladdens at her birth,
And sweet serenity her steps attends.
Rich magazines of plenty round her rise,
Creation sings the bounties of her Lord;
Fields, orchards, gardens, teem with full supplies,
And earth appears like paradise restor'd.
O plenteous scenes! I'd have ye always last,
O prospects grand! I'd have ye always stay;
Oh! how I wish that troublous times were past,
Oh ! how I long for the millenial day.
Father of mercies, paradise restore,
Let wars, and wants, and woes be known no more.
Saturday, September 09, 2017
Fields, Orchards, Gardens
Friday, September 08, 2017
Dashed Off XIX
"For propaganda to succeed, a society must first have two complementary qualities: it must be both an individualist and a mass society." Jacques Ellul
stages of argument use: entertainment, consolidation, acceptance, diffusion
agent intellect as (ground of) intrinsic potential of philosophy
process of ideation: to sketch, to purify, to glorify
"Each emotion obeys a logic of its own, and makes deductions which no other logic can draw." William James
consecrated religious as signs representing the Church in its devotion (this makes considerable sense of many private revelations to saints)
enlightenment, purification, and transcendence as the characteristics of high philosophical contemplation
Note that James has a correct summary of arguments ex consensu gentium.
"The truth is that any state of things whatever that can be named is logically susceptible of teleological explanation." James
Belief is not thought at rest.
The ordinary magisterium is the Church's natural resistance to discordant innovations.
Private property is a ius sanctum by participation in, and protection of, human dignity.
the ethics that guide science as the ethics of civic life with scientific ends
the ethics required by scientific inquiry (esse) vs that required by good scientific inquiry (bene esse)
"The Church is essentially a popular institution, defending the cause and encouraging the talents of the lower classes, and interposing an external barrier in favour of high or low against the ambition and the rapacity of the temporal power." Newman
Intellectual work is like investment in its effects; sometimes it is sunk, or lost by accident, sometimes it stagnates or slowly declines, and sometimes it expands with a kind of compound interest.
betrothal // catechumenate
-more attention needs to be directed to the study of how arguments are extracted from contexts
Justice makes important the exclusive, the reformative, and the impersonal.
Matrimony "resumit et perficit" the sanctifying grace of baptism (Familiaris Consortio sect. 56).
solidarity: a firm and constant will to care for common good
subsidiarity & curation of common good
baptism : affective catholicity :: confirmation : effective catholicity
the notes of the Church as the standard for episcopal acction
To recognize an independent, continually existing world is to recognize in oneself a potential that can be made actual by an active power other than oneself. The independence and externality are recognized by reflecting on sameness and difference in one's being moved.
loyalty (Royce): thoroughgoing and loving devotion of an individual to a community = willing and thoroughgoing devotion of a self to a cause when the cause unites many selves in one and is therefore the interest of a community
Thoughts that are not thought together are incomplete.
(1) We find in nature things that exist from another, in the sense that we say that they are made to be.
(2) If everything together existed from another, there would be something beyond everything together, which is a contradiction; so some things must not exist from another.
(3) If everything together is not from another, something must not be from another.
(4) Therefore there must be something that is not from another.
Knowledge is not something produced so much as it is something grown into.
The human mind experiences the world around itself as question-raising.
"Consciousness of the body is comparable to the consciousness of a sign." Sartre
Everything Sartre says about freedom is ambiguous between freedom and craving.
Craving is the nothings made to be in the human heart, which forces man to try to make himself rather than to be; it makes human reality seem to be a grasping after oneself.
pride & the tendency to identify self with craving (cp. wrathful Buddhas)
plans as schemes of presumptive possibilities
"Man is an animal that interprets; and therefore man lives in communities, and depends upon them for insight and for salvation." Royce
Mere repetition does not make things more probable; only eliminating alternatives does.
Helen Wodehouse: 'ought' as 'This is what is needed'.
the narrative unity of human civilization
liturgy & Royce's communities of interpretation
Sidgwick seems consistently to underestimate the boldness of Bentham. (He is far from being alone in this.) he also falls back too loosely and lazily on hints and accusations of tautology, as if tautology were not another name for "necessary structure of consistent of reasoning" and as if tautologies and identities were not the sort of thing you need in order to clarify reasoning.
the intelligible structure, the rhetorical utility, and the moral character of an argument
the impossibility of an infinite regress in moral responsibility
ordained priests as sylleitourgoi of the angels
Each angelic order reflects an aspect of liturgy.
Human beings are not capable of infinite precision in their use of terms.
The very notion of an experiment implies that potential can deliberately be made actual in light of preselected ends.
All true devotion is a kind of learning.
We begin our assessments of truth not from single cases but from what usually happens. (This lets us clarify what is actually going on in single cases.)
Suggestions of what is good, drawn together and subjected to immense rational pressure, crystallize into obligations.
In an appropriate rational context, law forms itself like a crystal.
hypotheses as quasi-metaphorical
Any education more than merely casual relies on some notion of authority-to-teach.
The most impressively effective secularization has not been political but the secularization of sexual desire.
Politics is a negotiation of debts.
definitive, constitutive, and exhortative modes of doctrine
HoP and the exemplar causation of arguments
the Cantorian df. of a set: A set is a gathering together into a whole of definite, distinct objects of perception or thought, which are called the elements of the set.
status rationales
- conjecturalis (an sit)
- definitionis (quid sit)
- qualitatis (quale sit)
status legales
- scriptum et voluntas
- leges contrariae
- ambiguitas
Note that status legales deal with possible inconsistencies of law: with originating intent, with other laws, and with itself.
ciphers & analogies; codes & allusions
Aristotle's Rhetoric as a theory of inference from sign
A character in a narrative is constituted by revealed and suggested moral purposes.
Note that Aristotle explicitly allows deus ex machina for contextualizing (knowledge of what is otherwise unknowable).
the dignity of the bench as essential to the effectiveness of courts
unity + apostolicity -- papacy
unity + sanctity -- consensus of Church Fathers
unity + catholicity -- ecumenical Councils
sanctity + catholicity -- sacramental tradition
apostolicity + catholicity -- communion of episcopate
sanctity + apostolicity -- Scripture
-- But, of course, all these things must in some sense bear all four notes.
"The study of history shows us that grave external calamities often release internal dissensions and party quarrels." Ludwig von Pastor
vagueness & indistinguishability of things in other ways distinguishable
Aristotle on the utility of rhetoric
(1) Truth and justice have a natural tendency to prevail; thus lapses tend to be rhetorical lapses
(2) Some cannot be instructed, but something must even so be done toward conviction.
(3) By employing rhetoric on both sides of a question, we may see more clearly what is the case.
(4) As rational creatures we should be ashamed of not being able to defend ourselves by word and reason.
One needs a doxastic logic with tracks-of-belief (potentially multiple for any single believer). This would allow regimentation of beliefs where inconsistency is involved -- inconsistent beliefs lie along different tracks. Which would allow Bp -> ~B~p as being intrinsic to belief, which would be handy, without ignoring the problem of inconsistency. Moreover, this seems to be reasonably connected with explanations of how we can have inconsistent beliefs to begin with -- we don't generally just have B(P&~P), but rather we get to one by one route and to the other by another, and only recognize the contradiction when we compare across routes, not when we are considering a single route.
For any active power, one may distinguish Box and Diamond, as that which is beyond the power or its conditions (i.e., must be presupposed by it) and that which is within its scope. This raises the interesting question of whether every modal Box and Diamond can be taken to imply an active power of some kind.
curation of the museum of thought
collection, conservation, display, and education about historical arguments
respect des fonds as a light-fingerprint approach to archival curation (the archivist is avoiding creating a new fonds)
- this perhaps suggests that it is more important as the fonds is more fragile and more difficult to reconstitute (and less as the reverse).
- respect des fonds also serves as a natural default where there is no agreement on classification - minimal irreversible actions.
archival work as a possible humanitarian tradition
A society needs reasonable hortators more than it needs experts, not because the latter are unimportant, but because a society needs noncoercive reasonableness in ways going well beyond its need for expertise.
the Sitz im Leben of an argument
Allegorization of metaphor arises naturally out of reflecting on the meaning and implications of the metaphor.
Jn 14:12 and the sacraments
miracles associated with Peter's boat: two catches of fish, two calmings of storm, walking on water
- note that discourses involving Peter himself are found in close association with each case
Rhetoric is more naturally seen as dealing with persuasion (and being effective at dealing with it) at the level of audience rather than at the level of the individual.
"The basic pattern of legal reasoning is reasoning by example." Edward Levi
D axiom and infinition
G implies F: no end
H implies P: no beginning
Box implies Diamond: no exception
O implies P: no qualification
- it is the seriality, of course, that we are seeing here. [But note that D axiom does not on its own yield seriality.)
computerization as part of the miniaturization of fabrication
Every active power can be ab alio or non ab alio.
Thus: if we assume for the moment that Diamond and Box imply an active power,
(1) For such-and-such Box [or Diamond], there is an active power.
(2) This active power may be derivative or nonderivative.
(3) If nonderivative, there is a first active power in this line.
(4) If derivative, there is another active power for it.
(5) This cannot regress infinitely.
(6) Therefore there is a first active power in this line.
For instance:
(1) For there to be obligation, there must be an obligating power or powers. Pick one.
(2) This power is from another or not.
(3) If not, there is a first obligating power.
(4) If derivative, there must be an active power activating this obligating power.
(5) This cannot infinite regress.
(6) Therefore there is a first active power serving as principle of obligation in this line.
- A complication arises because one kind of active power may derive from a different kind.
a possible classification of theistic arguments
(1) active power arguments
(2) pure perfection arguments
(3) global-skepticism-blocking arguments
(4) practical requirement arguments
Highly confirmed anticipatory models allow one to identify causes based on deviations from the model. (This is related to Newton's First Law.)
the Golden Rule and commons-building
Things do not consistently replicate without a teleology.
ecclesial design arguments
Lady Susan as the World
upholding the dignity of work
(1) respect for labor
(2) moderation of labor
(3) days for rest and worship (formal recognition of human and divine dignity)
(4) protection from exploitation
the importance of legislative representation for corporate bodies, whether direct or indirect
The proper use of language is service to truth.
stability of adherence to truth, of communication of truth, of cultivation of inquiry
True discursive reasoning is an oscillation of simplicity and complexity.
topics : true :: rhetoric : good :: poetics : beautiful
Always to muse much and ponder deeply.
sources of intellectual authority
(1) clear possession of truth
(2) history of preserving truth
(3) history of protecting inquiry
(4) conventional deference
(5) certified accomplishment
(6) charismatic presentation
peace, exchange, mutual aid
Human perversity is (indirect) adaptive; reason, when enslaved by it, builds defenses for it.
sacrament of confirmation and growing in favor with God and man
Justice &c are right unconditionally, without regard for ulterior results -- but not without regard for ulterior ends.
We regard as right the adoption of certain ends because they are subordinate to other ends.
the Church's capacity to express divine things as a sign of its incorruptibility
wisdom as a thing not seen nor yet in hand, but nonetheless loved
the three intrinsic laws of the liturgical commonwealth
(1) The sacraments must be upheld.
(2) The sacramental system must be handed down.
(3) Sacramental responsibilities must be fulfilled.
- These arise from sacraments as received common good.
Primacy of honor calls for a certain deference and loyalty.
The goodness of virtue and the badness of vice must be communicated or a society becomes corrupted.
"Divine power is not circumscribed by any place and neither is the inexhaustible goodness of the Mother of God. For if the graces were restricted only to her tomb, only a few people would gain them. Now her graces are poured out in every place throughout the world." John Damascene (Hom in Dorm 2.19)
Ontological arguments seem to require an intellectual clarity that is generally beyond human beings to achieve.
power : authority of the Church :: wisdom : infallibility :: goodness : indefectibility
the Incarnation as symbolic theology; the sacraments as symbolic theology
"All speaking of God presupposes God speaking." Edith Stein
stages of argument use: entertainment, consolidation, acceptance, diffusion
agent intellect as (ground of) intrinsic potential of philosophy
process of ideation: to sketch, to purify, to glorify
"Each emotion obeys a logic of its own, and makes deductions which no other logic can draw." William James
consecrated religious as signs representing the Church in its devotion (this makes considerable sense of many private revelations to saints)
enlightenment, purification, and transcendence as the characteristics of high philosophical contemplation
Note that James has a correct summary of arguments ex consensu gentium.
"The truth is that any state of things whatever that can be named is logically susceptible of teleological explanation." James
Belief is not thought at rest.
The ordinary magisterium is the Church's natural resistance to discordant innovations.
Private property is a ius sanctum by participation in, and protection of, human dignity.
the ethics that guide science as the ethics of civic life with scientific ends
the ethics required by scientific inquiry (esse) vs that required by good scientific inquiry (bene esse)
"The Church is essentially a popular institution, defending the cause and encouraging the talents of the lower classes, and interposing an external barrier in favour of high or low against the ambition and the rapacity of the temporal power." Newman
Intellectual work is like investment in its effects; sometimes it is sunk, or lost by accident, sometimes it stagnates or slowly declines, and sometimes it expands with a kind of compound interest.
betrothal // catechumenate
-more attention needs to be directed to the study of how arguments are extracted from contexts
Justice makes important the exclusive, the reformative, and the impersonal.
Matrimony "resumit et perficit" the sanctifying grace of baptism (Familiaris Consortio sect. 56).
solidarity: a firm and constant will to care for common good
subsidiarity & curation of common good
baptism : affective catholicity :: confirmation : effective catholicity
the notes of the Church as the standard for episcopal acction
To recognize an independent, continually existing world is to recognize in oneself a potential that can be made actual by an active power other than oneself. The independence and externality are recognized by reflecting on sameness and difference in one's being moved.
loyalty (Royce): thoroughgoing and loving devotion of an individual to a community = willing and thoroughgoing devotion of a self to a cause when the cause unites many selves in one and is therefore the interest of a community
Thoughts that are not thought together are incomplete.
(1) We find in nature things that exist from another, in the sense that we say that they are made to be.
(2) If everything together existed from another, there would be something beyond everything together, which is a contradiction; so some things must not exist from another.
(3) If everything together is not from another, something must not be from another.
(4) Therefore there must be something that is not from another.
Knowledge is not something produced so much as it is something grown into.
The human mind experiences the world around itself as question-raising.
"Consciousness of the body is comparable to the consciousness of a sign." Sartre
Everything Sartre says about freedom is ambiguous between freedom and craving.
Craving is the nothings made to be in the human heart, which forces man to try to make himself rather than to be; it makes human reality seem to be a grasping after oneself.
pride & the tendency to identify self with craving (cp. wrathful Buddhas)
plans as schemes of presumptive possibilities
"Man is an animal that interprets; and therefore man lives in communities, and depends upon them for insight and for salvation." Royce
Mere repetition does not make things more probable; only eliminating alternatives does.
Helen Wodehouse: 'ought' as 'This is what is needed'.
the narrative unity of human civilization
liturgy & Royce's communities of interpretation
Sidgwick seems consistently to underestimate the boldness of Bentham. (He is far from being alone in this.) he also falls back too loosely and lazily on hints and accusations of tautology, as if tautology were not another name for "necessary structure of consistent of reasoning" and as if tautologies and identities were not the sort of thing you need in order to clarify reasoning.
the intelligible structure, the rhetorical utility, and the moral character of an argument
the impossibility of an infinite regress in moral responsibility
ordained priests as sylleitourgoi of the angels
Each angelic order reflects an aspect of liturgy.
Human beings are not capable of infinite precision in their use of terms.
The very notion of an experiment implies that potential can deliberately be made actual in light of preselected ends.
All true devotion is a kind of learning.
We begin our assessments of truth not from single cases but from what usually happens. (This lets us clarify what is actually going on in single cases.)
Suggestions of what is good, drawn together and subjected to immense rational pressure, crystallize into obligations.
In an appropriate rational context, law forms itself like a crystal.
hypotheses as quasi-metaphorical
Any education more than merely casual relies on some notion of authority-to-teach.
The most impressively effective secularization has not been political but the secularization of sexual desire.
Politics is a negotiation of debts.
definitive, constitutive, and exhortative modes of doctrine
HoP and the exemplar causation of arguments
the Cantorian df. of a set: A set is a gathering together into a whole of definite, distinct objects of perception or thought, which are called the elements of the set.
status rationales
- conjecturalis (an sit)
- definitionis (quid sit)
- qualitatis (quale sit)
status legales
- scriptum et voluntas
- leges contrariae
- ambiguitas
Note that status legales deal with possible inconsistencies of law: with originating intent, with other laws, and with itself.
ciphers & analogies; codes & allusions
Aristotle's Rhetoric as a theory of inference from sign
A character in a narrative is constituted by revealed and suggested moral purposes.
Note that Aristotle explicitly allows deus ex machina for contextualizing (knowledge of what is otherwise unknowable).
the dignity of the bench as essential to the effectiveness of courts
unity + apostolicity -- papacy
unity + sanctity -- consensus of Church Fathers
unity + catholicity -- ecumenical Councils
sanctity + catholicity -- sacramental tradition
apostolicity + catholicity -- communion of episcopate
sanctity + apostolicity -- Scripture
-- But, of course, all these things must in some sense bear all four notes.
"The study of history shows us that grave external calamities often release internal dissensions and party quarrels." Ludwig von Pastor
vagueness & indistinguishability of things in other ways distinguishable
Aristotle on the utility of rhetoric
(1) Truth and justice have a natural tendency to prevail; thus lapses tend to be rhetorical lapses
(2) Some cannot be instructed, but something must even so be done toward conviction.
(3) By employing rhetoric on both sides of a question, we may see more clearly what is the case.
(4) As rational creatures we should be ashamed of not being able to defend ourselves by word and reason.
One needs a doxastic logic with tracks-of-belief (potentially multiple for any single believer). This would allow regimentation of beliefs where inconsistency is involved -- inconsistent beliefs lie along different tracks. Which would allow Bp -> ~B~p as being intrinsic to belief, which would be handy, without ignoring the problem of inconsistency. Moreover, this seems to be reasonably connected with explanations of how we can have inconsistent beliefs to begin with -- we don't generally just have B(P&~P), but rather we get to one by one route and to the other by another, and only recognize the contradiction when we compare across routes, not when we are considering a single route.
For any active power, one may distinguish Box and Diamond, as that which is beyond the power or its conditions (i.e., must be presupposed by it) and that which is within its scope. This raises the interesting question of whether every modal Box and Diamond can be taken to imply an active power of some kind.
curation of the museum of thought
collection, conservation, display, and education about historical arguments
respect des fonds as a light-fingerprint approach to archival curation (the archivist is avoiding creating a new fonds)
- this perhaps suggests that it is more important as the fonds is more fragile and more difficult to reconstitute (and less as the reverse).
- respect des fonds also serves as a natural default where there is no agreement on classification - minimal irreversible actions.
archival work as a possible humanitarian tradition
A society needs reasonable hortators more than it needs experts, not because the latter are unimportant, but because a society needs noncoercive reasonableness in ways going well beyond its need for expertise.
the Sitz im Leben of an argument
Allegorization of metaphor arises naturally out of reflecting on the meaning and implications of the metaphor.
Jn 14:12 and the sacraments
miracles associated with Peter's boat: two catches of fish, two calmings of storm, walking on water
- note that discourses involving Peter himself are found in close association with each case
Rhetoric is more naturally seen as dealing with persuasion (and being effective at dealing with it) at the level of audience rather than at the level of the individual.
"The basic pattern of legal reasoning is reasoning by example." Edward Levi
D axiom and infinition
G implies F: no end
H implies P: no beginning
Box implies Diamond: no exception
O implies P: no qualification
- it is the seriality, of course, that we are seeing here. [But note that D axiom does not on its own yield seriality.)
computerization as part of the miniaturization of fabrication
Every active power can be ab alio or non ab alio.
Thus: if we assume for the moment that Diamond and Box imply an active power,
(1) For such-and-such Box [or Diamond], there is an active power.
(2) This active power may be derivative or nonderivative.
(3) If nonderivative, there is a first active power in this line.
(4) If derivative, there is another active power for it.
(5) This cannot regress infinitely.
(6) Therefore there is a first active power in this line.
For instance:
(1) For there to be obligation, there must be an obligating power or powers. Pick one.
(2) This power is from another or not.
(3) If not, there is a first obligating power.
(4) If derivative, there must be an active power activating this obligating power.
(5) This cannot infinite regress.
(6) Therefore there is a first active power serving as principle of obligation in this line.
- A complication arises because one kind of active power may derive from a different kind.
a possible classification of theistic arguments
(1) active power arguments
(2) pure perfection arguments
(3) global-skepticism-blocking arguments
(4) practical requirement arguments
Highly confirmed anticipatory models allow one to identify causes based on deviations from the model. (This is related to Newton's First Law.)
the Golden Rule and commons-building
Things do not consistently replicate without a teleology.
ecclesial design arguments
Lady Susan as the World
upholding the dignity of work
(1) respect for labor
(2) moderation of labor
(3) days for rest and worship (formal recognition of human and divine dignity)
(4) protection from exploitation
the importance of legislative representation for corporate bodies, whether direct or indirect
The proper use of language is service to truth.
stability of adherence to truth, of communication of truth, of cultivation of inquiry
True discursive reasoning is an oscillation of simplicity and complexity.
topics : true :: rhetoric : good :: poetics : beautiful
Always to muse much and ponder deeply.
sources of intellectual authority
(1) clear possession of truth
(2) history of preserving truth
(3) history of protecting inquiry
(4) conventional deference
(5) certified accomplishment
(6) charismatic presentation
peace, exchange, mutual aid
Human perversity is (indirect) adaptive; reason, when enslaved by it, builds defenses for it.
sacrament of confirmation and growing in favor with God and man
Justice &c are right unconditionally, without regard for ulterior results -- but not without regard for ulterior ends.
We regard as right the adoption of certain ends because they are subordinate to other ends.
the Church's capacity to express divine things as a sign of its incorruptibility
wisdom as a thing not seen nor yet in hand, but nonetheless loved
the three intrinsic laws of the liturgical commonwealth
(1) The sacraments must be upheld.
(2) The sacramental system must be handed down.
(3) Sacramental responsibilities must be fulfilled.
- These arise from sacraments as received common good.
Primacy of honor calls for a certain deference and loyalty.
The goodness of virtue and the badness of vice must be communicated or a society becomes corrupted.
"Divine power is not circumscribed by any place and neither is the inexhaustible goodness of the Mother of God. For if the graces were restricted only to her tomb, only a few people would gain them. Now her graces are poured out in every place throughout the world." John Damascene (Hom in Dorm 2.19)
Ontological arguments seem to require an intellectual clarity that is generally beyond human beings to achieve.
power : authority of the Church :: wisdom : infallibility :: goodness : indefectibility
the Incarnation as symbolic theology; the sacraments as symbolic theology
"All speaking of God presupposes God speaking." Edith Stein
Thursday, September 07, 2017
Wednesday, September 06, 2017
Evening Note for Wednesday, September 6
Thought for the Evening: Psycho-Pass
I finally got around to watching Psycho-Pass, an anime science fiction crime thriller, and can highly recommend it. In the future, Japan is governed by the Sybil System, a supercomputer with a ubiquitous network of psychometric scanners. The entire society is organized so as to reduce stress and mental disorders. Every citizen is continually scanned by the Sybil System and issued a Psycho-Pass, which includes a Crime Coefficient indicating the likelihood of criminal behavior. Anyone whose Crime Coefficient rises too high is hunted down by the Public Safety Bureau and neutralized, either by being stunned and sent to therapy, or by being executed on the spot if they are an imminent or irreversible threat. The means of doing this are guns called Dominators that are part of the Sibyl System. The enforcement work is itself stressful, so it is done by Enforcers who are actually latent criminals themselves - that is, they have the kind of psychological profile that have stably high Criminal Coefficients; they are overseen by Inspectors, with low Criminal Coefficients, who have authority to shoot them at any moment that they deem them to become a threat.
The series follows Akane Tsunemori, a rookie Inspector who is assigned to Division 1 of the Criminal Investigation Bureau, the Enforcer, Shinya Kogami. Akane, who has a natural temperament for accepting things as they are, has an unusually low, and unusually stably low, Criminal Coefficient; she and Kogami work together to solve am unusual series of grisly and ghastly crimes, committed by very different people who seem largely unconnected, but as things proceed, it becomes clear that there is an orchestrator behind the scenes, not dirtying his hands with the details but providing others means to do terrible things. What is more, the villain, Shogo Makashima, is an anomaly -- he is not bothered by his crimes, so his Crime Coefficient stays low, no matter what he does. No matter what other evidence there might be, the Sibyl System reads him as non-criminal, and therefore locks the Dominators.
Makashima is a compelling villain -- he is well read and cultured, soft-spoken and charming. Even more, the criticisms of the Sibyl System underlying his crimes are legitimate. The Sibyl System keeps society safe, for the most part, but the universal surveillance has stolen something from them, and the Sibyl System is not exactly trustworthy. A true villain, but with a legitimate complaint, capable of terrible evil and highly rational: it's a perfect combination to drop into an ordered dystopia.
The second season faced a number of problems, and received some rather severe criticisms from critics. The criticisms were well founded. The first season, while exceptionally good, had some pacing problems, which were carried over. In addition, there was insufficient continuity of characters -- too much change, one might say. The villain was inevitably going to be less impressive than Makashima. The series also occasionally lost sight of the fact that it was a psychological crime thriller, and became much more violent. However, it did have a number of interesting ideas -- in particular, introducing the idea of whether a collective group could have a high tendency to criminality even though all of its members had a low tendency. And it ends up being OK, not great like the first season, but OK.
The series as a whole is a deliberate mixing pot of philosophical puzzles and ideas: the Panopticon, the omnipotence paradox, deterrence theories of punishment, brains in vats, gestalt personalities, the nature of just judgment, human experimentation, and more. Quite enjoyable.
Various Links of Interest
* The word 'fascism' has been thrown around a lot recently, so it's worthwhile to re-read George Orwell's 1944 essay, "What Is Fascism?", because nothing has fundamentally changed.
* Philip Pilkington, Utilitarian Economics and the Corruption of Conservatism
* Timothy Hsiao, The Perverted Faculty Argument
* David Hershenov, Ten (Bad, but Popular) Arguments for Abortion
* Philip W. Magness, Houston Flooding in Historical Perspective
* Regan Penaluna, Sexism Killed My Love for Philosophy Then Mary Astell Brought It Back
* Christopher Bartel, Rock as a Three-Value Tradition
* If you are planning on donating for hurricane relief, either for Harvey or upcoming Irma, it's best to avoid the Red Cross. Red Cross does some things well, but they are notoriously bad at disaster relief; they are simply not flexible enough. Both the Salvation Army and Catholic Charities, on the other hand, have very good reputations for being able to improvise in a way that increases the chances of people getting the actual help they need, when they need it and in the way they need it.
Currently Reading
Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji
Edith Stein, Philosophy of Psychology and the Humanities
Ludwig Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity
C. S. Lewis, The World's Last Night and Other Essays
I finally got around to watching Psycho-Pass, an anime science fiction crime thriller, and can highly recommend it. In the future, Japan is governed by the Sybil System, a supercomputer with a ubiquitous network of psychometric scanners. The entire society is organized so as to reduce stress and mental disorders. Every citizen is continually scanned by the Sybil System and issued a Psycho-Pass, which includes a Crime Coefficient indicating the likelihood of criminal behavior. Anyone whose Crime Coefficient rises too high is hunted down by the Public Safety Bureau and neutralized, either by being stunned and sent to therapy, or by being executed on the spot if they are an imminent or irreversible threat. The means of doing this are guns called Dominators that are part of the Sibyl System. The enforcement work is itself stressful, so it is done by Enforcers who are actually latent criminals themselves - that is, they have the kind of psychological profile that have stably high Criminal Coefficients; they are overseen by Inspectors, with low Criminal Coefficients, who have authority to shoot them at any moment that they deem them to become a threat.
The series follows Akane Tsunemori, a rookie Inspector who is assigned to Division 1 of the Criminal Investigation Bureau, the Enforcer, Shinya Kogami. Akane, who has a natural temperament for accepting things as they are, has an unusually low, and unusually stably low, Criminal Coefficient; she and Kogami work together to solve am unusual series of grisly and ghastly crimes, committed by very different people who seem largely unconnected, but as things proceed, it becomes clear that there is an orchestrator behind the scenes, not dirtying his hands with the details but providing others means to do terrible things. What is more, the villain, Shogo Makashima, is an anomaly -- he is not bothered by his crimes, so his Crime Coefficient stays low, no matter what he does. No matter what other evidence there might be, the Sibyl System reads him as non-criminal, and therefore locks the Dominators.
Makashima is a compelling villain -- he is well read and cultured, soft-spoken and charming. Even more, the criticisms of the Sibyl System underlying his crimes are legitimate. The Sibyl System keeps society safe, for the most part, but the universal surveillance has stolen something from them, and the Sibyl System is not exactly trustworthy. A true villain, but with a legitimate complaint, capable of terrible evil and highly rational: it's a perfect combination to drop into an ordered dystopia.
The second season faced a number of problems, and received some rather severe criticisms from critics. The criticisms were well founded. The first season, while exceptionally good, had some pacing problems, which were carried over. In addition, there was insufficient continuity of characters -- too much change, one might say. The villain was inevitably going to be less impressive than Makashima. The series also occasionally lost sight of the fact that it was a psychological crime thriller, and became much more violent. However, it did have a number of interesting ideas -- in particular, introducing the idea of whether a collective group could have a high tendency to criminality even though all of its members had a low tendency. And it ends up being OK, not great like the first season, but OK.
The series as a whole is a deliberate mixing pot of philosophical puzzles and ideas: the Panopticon, the omnipotence paradox, deterrence theories of punishment, brains in vats, gestalt personalities, the nature of just judgment, human experimentation, and more. Quite enjoyable.
Various Links of Interest
* The word 'fascism' has been thrown around a lot recently, so it's worthwhile to re-read George Orwell's 1944 essay, "What Is Fascism?", because nothing has fundamentally changed.
* Philip Pilkington, Utilitarian Economics and the Corruption of Conservatism
* Timothy Hsiao, The Perverted Faculty Argument
* David Hershenov, Ten (Bad, but Popular) Arguments for Abortion
* Philip W. Magness, Houston Flooding in Historical Perspective
* Regan Penaluna, Sexism Killed My Love for Philosophy Then Mary Astell Brought It Back
* Christopher Bartel, Rock as a Three-Value Tradition
* If you are planning on donating for hurricane relief, either for Harvey or upcoming Irma, it's best to avoid the Red Cross. Red Cross does some things well, but they are notoriously bad at disaster relief; they are simply not flexible enough. Both the Salvation Army and Catholic Charities, on the other hand, have very good reputations for being able to improvise in a way that increases the chances of people getting the actual help they need, when they need it and in the way they need it.
Currently Reading
Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji
Edith Stein, Philosophy of Psychology and the Humanities
Ludwig Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity
C. S. Lewis, The World's Last Night and Other Essays
Fairyland
By the Babe Unborn
by G. K. Chesterton
If trees were tall and grasses short,
As in some crazy tale,
If here and there a sea were blue
Beyond the breaking pale,
If a fixed fire hung in the air
To warm me one day through,
If deep green hair grew on great hills,
I know what I should do.
In dark I lie; dreaming that there
Are great eyes cold or kind,
And twisted streets and silent doors,
And living men behind.
Let storm clouds come: better an hour,
And leave to weep and fight,
Than all the ages I have ruled
The empires of the night.
I think that if they gave me leave
Within the world to stand,
I would be good through all the day
I spent in fairyland.
They should not hear a word from me
Of selfishness or scorn,
If only I could find the door,
If only I were born.
Monday, September 04, 2017
Theoretic Festivals
Even the objects which are the most remote from man, because they are objects to him, and to the extent to which they are so, are revelations of human nature. Even the moon, the sun, the stars, call to man Γνῶθι σεαυτόν. that he sees them, and so sees them, is an evidence of his own nature. The animal is sensible only of the beam which immediately affects life; while man perceives the ray, to him physically indifferent, of the remotest star. Man alone has purely intellectual, disinterested joys and passions; the eye of man alone keeps theoretic festivals. The eye which looks into the starry heavens, which gazes at that light, alike useless and harmless, having nothing in common with the earth and its necessities--this eye sees in that light its own nature, its own origin. The eye is heavenly in its nature. Hence man elevates himself above the earth only with the eye; hence theory begins with the contemplation of the heavens. The first philosophers were astronomers. It is the heavens that admonish man of his destination, and remind him that he is destined not merely to action, but also to contemplation.
Ludwig Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity, George Eliot, tr., Harper (New York: 1957), p. 5. Feuerbach is playing, of course, with the root meaning of the word 'theory', which derives from words for contemplation and sight, and was often linked to festivals (i.e., spectacles, shows). Feuerbach's description here is also consistent with Kant's account of the experience of sublimity, of which Kant himself famously gives the example of the starry heavens.
Sunday, September 03, 2017
Servus Servorum Dei
Today is the Memorial of Pope St. Gregory the Great, Doctor of the Church. From the Moralia in Iob, Book XXXV:
For the less a person sees himself, the less is he displeased with himself; and the more he discerns the light of greater grace, the more blameworthy does he acknowledge himself to be. For when he is elevated within, by all that he is, he endeavours to agree with that standard which he beholds above him. And because human weakness still impedes him, he perceives that he differs therefrom in no slight degree, and every thing within him is burdensome, which does not agree with that inward standard. This standard blessed Job more fully beholds, as he was making progress after his suffering, and with great self-reproach is at variance with himself, saying; Therefore I reproach myself. But because there is no knowledge of reproach, if the lamentations of penitence do not also follow, it is rightly added, after the reproach, And do penance in dust and ashes.
Saturday, September 02, 2017
Dashed Off XVIII
Suppose a contingent being exists. Then it is a contingent state of affairs that it exists. Suppose a contingent being that could exist does not. Then it is a contingent state of affairs that it does not. Since for any contingent being, it exists or does not, if contingent beings are possible it is necessary that there are contingent states of affairs.
Tiresias as figure of the philosopher
eucharist & angelic sacrifice (cf. Albertus Magnus on Mass, and also Honorius)
the rhetoric of televised politics as concerned with prediction and gaffe
- someone should do a study of scientific rediscoveries
foraging, farming, fabrication
3D printing as the miniaturization of fabrication
negotiation with one's self (discursive reason, esp. in practical matters, often has this aspect)
appropriateness of actions to immortality
the being-in-God and the being-in-human-life of the Chruch
being-in-God, being-with-God, being-for-God
Our sympathy with the human will of Christ in its submission to His divine will unites us with the latter
Jn 6:38 on monothelitism
Orthopraxis is the theological virtues working outwardly. Orthodoxy is the theological virtues working inwardly.
∀ and ∃ as modal operators for counting operations
Envy often mimics righteous indignation.
Basics of Schleiermacher: The sense of freedom and the sense of dependence are common to all experiences of acting and being acted upon, respectively, that belong to self-consciousness. The sense of absolute dependence accompanies our activity as a whole and is simultaneously a sense of not being absolutely free. God is the other term of the sense of absolute dependence and our consciousness of this sense becomes consciousness of relation to God, especially as this sense becomes articulated and expressed in reflective self-awareness during devotional moments of life. God is not given in experience; rather, what is given is our utter dependence on another.
A 'truthmaker', to fulfill its function, must be a union of being and possibility of being understood. that is to say, talk of truthmakers is just a way to talk about being insofar as it can be understood.
sense of dependence
sense of comparative insignificance
sense of inability to grasp
Crucifixion of the understanding is pointless unless there is a resurrection in greater glory.
sense of wonder -> notion of wisdom itself
Translation is a stretched elastic cord.
Some scientific ethics are conducive to progress toward truth and some are not. This is straightforward fact; honesty and reasonableness are non-negotiables of inquiry. But this has implications few have traced.
The most convenient units of a field arise from its practice, not directly from nature. Since its practice is inquiring practice, this does not imply that they are fictional (although the units themselves could be, considered solely on their own). But even with units carving up the real world in real ways, to which science tends, it is the practices of scientists that make these in particular salient.
the scientific practice of physics and the assumption of downward causation
Out of His mercy, we may repent and through repentance receive mercy.
The nine particles of Fraction in the Mozarabic Mass: Incarnation, Birth, Circumcision, Apparition (i.e., Baptism), Passion, Death, Resurrection, Glory, Kingdom.
Note Descartes AT 7:90, 15-16 // PP IV sect 207, VIII-i, 329, 8-9 (see Marion on this)
the intrinsically iconographic character of charity
icons as "the brilliance of the visible" (Marion)
image in a mirror vs image through a window
"Love doesn't pretend to know, it postulates its own giving without restriction." (Marion)
"Theology cannot aim at any other process than its own conversion to the Word."
Ascension removes a lesser presence of Christ for the sake of a higher presence of Christ.
institution : Passion :: epiclesis : Pentecost
"Transubstantiation...has the merit of clearly marking the unbridgeable difference between the divine Other and ourselves." (Marion)
the stupidity-likeness of laziness
Noah's Ark and the family as hope
Spaemann's futurum exactum argument ("Rationality and Faith in God")
(1) To say about something that it is now is at the same time to say that it will have been.
(2) Therefore the present remains as the past of the future present.
(3) The enduring reality of the past must be due to a consciousness taking up all things past and present.
(4) This we call God.
To apologize is to accept a social punishment. There are times one must, morally speaking, apologize, just as there are times you must simply face the consequences of your deeds. But it is baffling when people talk about apologizing as if it did not make your social position worse. To apologize is nothing other than to concede the point that people are right to demand some penalty from you; it is to bow your head for the blow.
[William of Sherwood]
signification: presentation of the form of something to the understand
supposition: ordering of the of something under something else
copulation: ordering of the understanding of something over something else
apellation: that with respect to which what the term signifies can be predicated
◇ | □
possible | necessary
posterior | prior
ab alio | non ab alio
relative | absolute
secundum quid | simpliciter
propter aliud | propter seipsum
by participation | by essence
potential | actual
composite | simple
mutable | immutable
finite | infinite
effect | efficient
exceeded | exceeding
accident | substance
diverse | same
unequal | equal
finitum | finiens
many | one
exemplate | exemplar
-- Each pair may be taken correlatively or oppositively (one would, of course, need generalized versions of some, e.g., not in another / in another for substance/ accident)
-- What are the most basic pairs, and which reduce to others?
-- What modal maxims apply to each pair? What are the analogies? What disanalogies arise, and why?
-- What implications does the above have for various arguments for God's existence?
-- How does all of this reflect on yet other ◇/□ pairs?
-- Does each of the pairs admit of a per se/ per accidens distinction of some kind?
modes of revelation
- according to moving and being moved (cp. inspiration)
- according to causing and being caused (cp. infusion)
- according to participation (cp. theosis)
- according to governing and being governed (cp. law)
--> What kinds of revelation correspond to the Third Way? (mediated, perhaps?)
--> Are there others according to the pattern of other arguments to God?
--> Are there arguments to God corresponding to every theology of revelation, or at least associated modes of such arguments? (natural theology and the abstract structure of revelation)
--> Can an exhaustive list be made for each, i.e., how many specific examples of kinds of revelation correspond to each?
Good books should be read many times in companionship with many different books, for books read in proximity bring out highlights in each other.
actual/potential
participated/participating
same/different
the error of confusing urgency with normativity
faith --> Christ as Truth
hope --> Christ as Way
love --> Christ as Life
diagram: sign that is drawn image of what is signified
testimony: effect that is verbal image of cause
The Church is known in her sacraments.
When people speak of the sacrament of baptism extending beyond the Church, they are speaking in a qualified sense either of baptism or of the Church.
There are many ministries only belonging intrinsically to the character of orders in which others can be involved by instrumental participation. Exactly how this works, or what the instrumental ministry is in its nature, varies according to ministry, but this participation is clearly important to the very nature of sacrament. (It really is a sacrament of ordering and setting in sacramental order.)
The a priori connection between testimony and reality is obviously not rigorous necessity, but it does not follow from this that there is no such connection, nor that there is no indirect or broader necessity involved. (For instance, there may be, by necessity, a limited number of possible links, each with specific conditions.)
To consider: A carefully drawn diagram presumptively establishes what it seems to establish, where there is no specific reason to think this is illusory.
--> Obviously a question here is how the diagram establishes what it does, and the conditions for that.
While it obviously can be important, trustworthiness plays less of a role in actual evaluation of testimony than you would expect from much philosophical discussion of testimony.
Note that in the Letter to a Young Widow, Chrysostom argues that the shining of Moses and the Transfiguration of Christ are both 'tokens and obscure indications' of the glory of the resurrection body.
Austin: In saying, 'I know', we give our word, we give our authority for saying what we do.
verdictives and the sacrament of reconciliation
Outside of verdictives, Austin's classifications of performatives don't seem very helpful.
Austin's infelicities and mishandling of sacraments.
(A1) There must exist an accepted convention.
(A2) The person speaking must be appropriate to the act.
(B1) The procedure must be executed by all participants correctly.
(B2) The procedure must be executed by all participants completely.
(L1) Where procedure involves thoughts and feelings, they must be had.
(L2) The person must conduct themselves appropriately in response.
If not A or B = MISFIRE; if not L = ABUSE; Not A = Misapplication; not B = invalidity and errors
Sacraments are sui generis speech acts; for one thing, they have a performative efficacy entirely different from other performatives.
Calvin's metaphor of sacrament as seal seems to overlook (1) the fact that it is the seal that gives the writing authority and (2) seals have in fact worked as expression of authority simply in themselves. (Institutes 4.14.5)
The sacraments "make us more certain of the trustworthiness of God's Word" by attesting God's benevolence and love "more expressly than by word". (Institutes 4.14.6)
emanatio intelligibilis // sacramental emanation
verbum insitum (incomplexum): Christ :: verbum prolatum (complexum) : sensible sign :: verbum intus prolatum : efficacious sacramental form
Each sacrament is an obscure representation of the Incarnation, or, perhaps more accurately, a representation of the Incarnation under some particular aspect.
verbum as knowing with love
a word proceeds and manifests
notitia is essential to the word, amor is concomitant to the word
creatures in the Word // saints in the Book of Life
Philosophical eclecticism is a sign of an immense amount of work to be done and not enough resources to do it, leading to imperfect assimilation, transformation, and integration
Pascendi dominici gregis as an attack on empiricism as a universal position (i.e., not empiricism in a domain but globally)
The good investigated in ethics has always been more than just good attainable in some degree by human effort, for investigating the latter requires contextualizing it.
A teacher doe snot for the most part tell a pupil what he ought to do on the basis of what the pupil wants to do, but on ends appropriate to the problematic of the situation.
HoP is ideal for people of affable temperament and rebellious mind
unordered pair as weakest form of 2-◇
◇ and unordered list
the four forms of comfort in the anointing of the sick: courage, patience, hope, communion
Thebes as symbol of boundary-breaking in Greek tragedy
"While faith provides the basis for works, the strength of faith only comes out in works." Leo
traditions in the mode of cultivation, of renovation, of nostalgia
Plato's myths as defenses of philosophy
Note that Cicero's criticism of divination in De Div is analogous to Platonic criticisms of sophistry.
the perpetual issue of claims of expertise not grounded in understanding
the purgatorial character of love
love as setting boundaries to evil
matrimony : communal :: unction : individual
Tiresias as figure of the philosopher
eucharist & angelic sacrifice (cf. Albertus Magnus on Mass, and also Honorius)
the rhetoric of televised politics as concerned with prediction and gaffe
- someone should do a study of scientific rediscoveries
foraging, farming, fabrication
3D printing as the miniaturization of fabrication
negotiation with one's self (discursive reason, esp. in practical matters, often has this aspect)
appropriateness of actions to immortality
the being-in-God and the being-in-human-life of the Chruch
being-in-God, being-with-God, being-for-God
Our sympathy with the human will of Christ in its submission to His divine will unites us with the latter
Jn 6:38 on monothelitism
Orthopraxis is the theological virtues working outwardly. Orthodoxy is the theological virtues working inwardly.
∀ and ∃ as modal operators for counting operations
Envy often mimics righteous indignation.
Basics of Schleiermacher: The sense of freedom and the sense of dependence are common to all experiences of acting and being acted upon, respectively, that belong to self-consciousness. The sense of absolute dependence accompanies our activity as a whole and is simultaneously a sense of not being absolutely free. God is the other term of the sense of absolute dependence and our consciousness of this sense becomes consciousness of relation to God, especially as this sense becomes articulated and expressed in reflective self-awareness during devotional moments of life. God is not given in experience; rather, what is given is our utter dependence on another.
A 'truthmaker', to fulfill its function, must be a union of being and possibility of being understood. that is to say, talk of truthmakers is just a way to talk about being insofar as it can be understood.
sense of dependence
sense of comparative insignificance
sense of inability to grasp
Crucifixion of the understanding is pointless unless there is a resurrection in greater glory.
sense of wonder -> notion of wisdom itself
Translation is a stretched elastic cord.
Some scientific ethics are conducive to progress toward truth and some are not. This is straightforward fact; honesty and reasonableness are non-negotiables of inquiry. But this has implications few have traced.
The most convenient units of a field arise from its practice, not directly from nature. Since its practice is inquiring practice, this does not imply that they are fictional (although the units themselves could be, considered solely on their own). But even with units carving up the real world in real ways, to which science tends, it is the practices of scientists that make these in particular salient.
the scientific practice of physics and the assumption of downward causation
Out of His mercy, we may repent and through repentance receive mercy.
The nine particles of Fraction in the Mozarabic Mass: Incarnation, Birth, Circumcision, Apparition (i.e., Baptism), Passion, Death, Resurrection, Glory, Kingdom.
Note Descartes AT 7:90, 15-16 // PP IV sect 207, VIII-i, 329, 8-9 (see Marion on this)
the intrinsically iconographic character of charity
icons as "the brilliance of the visible" (Marion)
image in a mirror vs image through a window
"Love doesn't pretend to know, it postulates its own giving without restriction." (Marion)
"Theology cannot aim at any other process than its own conversion to the Word."
Ascension removes a lesser presence of Christ for the sake of a higher presence of Christ.
institution : Passion :: epiclesis : Pentecost
"Transubstantiation...has the merit of clearly marking the unbridgeable difference between the divine Other and ourselves." (Marion)
the stupidity-likeness of laziness
Noah's Ark and the family as hope
Spaemann's futurum exactum argument ("Rationality and Faith in God")
(1) To say about something that it is now is at the same time to say that it will have been.
(2) Therefore the present remains as the past of the future present.
(3) The enduring reality of the past must be due to a consciousness taking up all things past and present.
(4) This we call God.
To apologize is to accept a social punishment. There are times one must, morally speaking, apologize, just as there are times you must simply face the consequences of your deeds. But it is baffling when people talk about apologizing as if it did not make your social position worse. To apologize is nothing other than to concede the point that people are right to demand some penalty from you; it is to bow your head for the blow.
[William of Sherwood]
signification: presentation of the form of something to the understand
supposition: ordering of the of something under something else
copulation: ordering of the understanding of something over something else
apellation: that with respect to which what the term signifies can be predicated
◇ | □
possible | necessary
posterior | prior
ab alio | non ab alio
relative | absolute
secundum quid | simpliciter
propter aliud | propter seipsum
by participation | by essence
potential | actual
composite | simple
mutable | immutable
finite | infinite
effect | efficient
exceeded | exceeding
accident | substance
diverse | same
unequal | equal
finitum | finiens
many | one
exemplate | exemplar
-- Each pair may be taken correlatively or oppositively (one would, of course, need generalized versions of some, e.g., not in another / in another for substance/ accident)
-- What are the most basic pairs, and which reduce to others?
-- What modal maxims apply to each pair? What are the analogies? What disanalogies arise, and why?
-- What implications does the above have for various arguments for God's existence?
-- How does all of this reflect on yet other ◇/□ pairs?
-- Does each of the pairs admit of a per se/ per accidens distinction of some kind?
modes of revelation
- according to moving and being moved (cp. inspiration)
- according to causing and being caused (cp. infusion)
- according to participation (cp. theosis)
- according to governing and being governed (cp. law)
--> What kinds of revelation correspond to the Third Way? (mediated, perhaps?)
--> Are there others according to the pattern of other arguments to God?
--> Are there arguments to God corresponding to every theology of revelation, or at least associated modes of such arguments? (natural theology and the abstract structure of revelation)
--> Can an exhaustive list be made for each, i.e., how many specific examples of kinds of revelation correspond to each?
Good books should be read many times in companionship with many different books, for books read in proximity bring out highlights in each other.
actual/potential
participated/participating
same/different
the error of confusing urgency with normativity
faith --> Christ as Truth
hope --> Christ as Way
love --> Christ as Life
diagram: sign that is drawn image of what is signified
testimony: effect that is verbal image of cause
The Church is known in her sacraments.
When people speak of the sacrament of baptism extending beyond the Church, they are speaking in a qualified sense either of baptism or of the Church.
There are many ministries only belonging intrinsically to the character of orders in which others can be involved by instrumental participation. Exactly how this works, or what the instrumental ministry is in its nature, varies according to ministry, but this participation is clearly important to the very nature of sacrament. (It really is a sacrament of ordering and setting in sacramental order.)
The a priori connection between testimony and reality is obviously not rigorous necessity, but it does not follow from this that there is no such connection, nor that there is no indirect or broader necessity involved. (For instance, there may be, by necessity, a limited number of possible links, each with specific conditions.)
To consider: A carefully drawn diagram presumptively establishes what it seems to establish, where there is no specific reason to think this is illusory.
--> Obviously a question here is how the diagram establishes what it does, and the conditions for that.
While it obviously can be important, trustworthiness plays less of a role in actual evaluation of testimony than you would expect from much philosophical discussion of testimony.
Note that in the Letter to a Young Widow, Chrysostom argues that the shining of Moses and the Transfiguration of Christ are both 'tokens and obscure indications' of the glory of the resurrection body.
Austin: In saying, 'I know', we give our word, we give our authority for saying what we do.
verdictives and the sacrament of reconciliation
Outside of verdictives, Austin's classifications of performatives don't seem very helpful.
Austin's infelicities and mishandling of sacraments.
(A1) There must exist an accepted convention.
(A2) The person speaking must be appropriate to the act.
(B1) The procedure must be executed by all participants correctly.
(B2) The procedure must be executed by all participants completely.
(L1) Where procedure involves thoughts and feelings, they must be had.
(L2) The person must conduct themselves appropriately in response.
If not A or B = MISFIRE; if not L = ABUSE; Not A = Misapplication; not B = invalidity and errors
Sacraments are sui generis speech acts; for one thing, they have a performative efficacy entirely different from other performatives.
Calvin's metaphor of sacrament as seal seems to overlook (1) the fact that it is the seal that gives the writing authority and (2) seals have in fact worked as expression of authority simply in themselves. (Institutes 4.14.5)
The sacraments "make us more certain of the trustworthiness of God's Word" by attesting God's benevolence and love "more expressly than by word". (Institutes 4.14.6)
emanatio intelligibilis // sacramental emanation
verbum insitum (incomplexum): Christ :: verbum prolatum (complexum) : sensible sign :: verbum intus prolatum : efficacious sacramental form
Each sacrament is an obscure representation of the Incarnation, or, perhaps more accurately, a representation of the Incarnation under some particular aspect.
verbum as knowing with love
a word proceeds and manifests
notitia is essential to the word, amor is concomitant to the word
creatures in the Word // saints in the Book of Life
Philosophical eclecticism is a sign of an immense amount of work to be done and not enough resources to do it, leading to imperfect assimilation, transformation, and integration
Pascendi dominici gregis as an attack on empiricism as a universal position (i.e., not empiricism in a domain but globally)
The good investigated in ethics has always been more than just good attainable in some degree by human effort, for investigating the latter requires contextualizing it.
A teacher doe snot for the most part tell a pupil what he ought to do on the basis of what the pupil wants to do, but on ends appropriate to the problematic of the situation.
HoP is ideal for people of affable temperament and rebellious mind
unordered pair as weakest form of 2-◇
◇ and unordered list
the four forms of comfort in the anointing of the sick: courage, patience, hope, communion
Thebes as symbol of boundary-breaking in Greek tragedy
"While faith provides the basis for works, the strength of faith only comes out in works." Leo
traditions in the mode of cultivation, of renovation, of nostalgia
Plato's myths as defenses of philosophy
Note that Cicero's criticism of divination in De Div is analogous to Platonic criticisms of sophistry.
the perpetual issue of claims of expertise not grounded in understanding
the purgatorial character of love
love as setting boundaries to evil
matrimony : communal :: unction : individual
Three Poem Drafts and a Poem Re-Draft
(The fortnightly book will be delayed another week.)
Afterstorm
Flotsam and jetsam are scattered around;
the heavens were pouring, the air full of sound,
the lightning was flashing as bright as the day.
Now moonlight is falling on the crest of the wave.
The world is all water; it rises and rolls,
fishy and briny, bitterly cold.
Rushing in circles, the racing sharks play
as moonlight is falling on the crest of the wave.
The storm has gone quiet except in my soul,
where it rages with violence and still takes its toll.
How long it will fury, no prophet can say,
but moonlight is falling on the crest of the wave.
Rome is Dead
-- Rome is dead; its pillars fall,
they crumble down to blowing dust.
The rabbits bound in ruined hall,
a shell, a long-degrading husk.
A lonely pier into the seas
is stretching boatless, unremarked.
Upon the hills the careless breeze
heeds not things buried by the park.
The temple formed for sacred rite
by gawking tourist's heedless tread
is unrevered, its holy might
a souvenir; yes, Rome is dead.
-- The heart is stirred by Latin word,
the hand inspired by Roman deed.
The names we have in splendor heard;
from press of time they have been freed.
This temple stands, a church now made,
and Christ now rules, a greater king,
where once to Jupiter they prayed
or to Minerva hymns would sing.
All things recall; that power still
constrains the world like earth and sky.
Where Rome has stood, it ever will:
Rome is dead, but does not die.
Providence
The scent of tea,
the sound of rain,
the rose in bloom,
the bursting spray,
the green of spring,
the golden grain,
the soaring gulls,
the children's songs,
the country church,
the quiet lane,
the lover's hope,
the help of grace:
such providential treasures pour
from holy heaven's open door!
Autumn Rain
I did not listen; morning light
and rain had washed my thoughts away;
the night before did not secure
attention for the coming day.
The tea was hot, the bagel good,
the scent of autumn rain was strong;
forgive me for the pointless wrong:
I did not listen as I should.
The words I heard, and understood,
but meanings spaced between the words
were lost; I gazed out on the woods
and memory leaves the rest in blurs.
The tea was hot, the bagel fine,
the scent of autumn rain was strong;
I did not listen; now I long
to hear between the spoken lines.
Afterstorm
Flotsam and jetsam are scattered around;
the heavens were pouring, the air full of sound,
the lightning was flashing as bright as the day.
Now moonlight is falling on the crest of the wave.
The world is all water; it rises and rolls,
fishy and briny, bitterly cold.
Rushing in circles, the racing sharks play
as moonlight is falling on the crest of the wave.
The storm has gone quiet except in my soul,
where it rages with violence and still takes its toll.
How long it will fury, no prophet can say,
but moonlight is falling on the crest of the wave.
Rome is Dead
-- Rome is dead; its pillars fall,
they crumble down to blowing dust.
The rabbits bound in ruined hall,
a shell, a long-degrading husk.
A lonely pier into the seas
is stretching boatless, unremarked.
Upon the hills the careless breeze
heeds not things buried by the park.
The temple formed for sacred rite
by gawking tourist's heedless tread
is unrevered, its holy might
a souvenir; yes, Rome is dead.
-- The heart is stirred by Latin word,
the hand inspired by Roman deed.
The names we have in splendor heard;
from press of time they have been freed.
This temple stands, a church now made,
and Christ now rules, a greater king,
where once to Jupiter they prayed
or to Minerva hymns would sing.
All things recall; that power still
constrains the world like earth and sky.
Where Rome has stood, it ever will:
Rome is dead, but does not die.
Providence
The scent of tea,
the sound of rain,
the rose in bloom,
the bursting spray,
the green of spring,
the golden grain,
the soaring gulls,
the children's songs,
the country church,
the quiet lane,
the lover's hope,
the help of grace:
such providential treasures pour
from holy heaven's open door!
Autumn Rain
I did not listen; morning light
and rain had washed my thoughts away;
the night before did not secure
attention for the coming day.
The tea was hot, the bagel good,
the scent of autumn rain was strong;
forgive me for the pointless wrong:
I did not listen as I should.
The words I heard, and understood,
but meanings spaced between the words
were lost; I gazed out on the woods
and memory leaves the rest in blurs.
The tea was hot, the bagel fine,
the scent of autumn rain was strong;
I did not listen; now I long
to hear between the spoken lines.
Friday, September 01, 2017
Adams on Miracles and the Uniformity of Nature
...experience teacheth us that lead and iron are heavier than water: but a man, by projecting these heavy bodies, may make them swim in water, or fly in air. Should the same be done by any invisible power, it would be a miracle. But the uniformity of nature is no more disturbed in this case than the former: nor is the general experience, which witnesses to the superior gravity of these bodies, any proof that they may not be raised in air and water by some invisible agent, as well as by the power of man.
William Adams, An Essay in Answer to Hume's Essay on Miracles (1767), pp. 17-18. Hume tended to dismiss his critics out of hand, but he seems to have had a certain amount of respect for Adams's criticism, although apparently was not convinced by it. The reason seems to have been Adams's very civil tone and approach. The quality of the critique is also good; it is not as brilliant or rigorous as some of the later criticisms, George Campbell's or Lady Mary Shepherd's, but it is perhaps the earliest critique to identify in a clear way some of the major problems with Hume's essay that will recur in the history of criticism of the work.
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Euphemism
Ares. Hermes
Ar. Did you hear Zeus's threat, Hermes? most complimentary, wasn't it, and most practicable? 'If I choose,' says he, 'I could let down a cord from Heaven, and all of you might hang on to it and do your very best to pull me down; it would be waste labour; you would never move me. On the other hand, if I chose to haul up, I should have you all dangling in mid air, with earth and sea into the bargain' and so on; you heard? Well, I dare say he is too much for any of us individually, but I will never believe he outweighs the whole of us in a body, or that, even with the makeweight of earth and sea, we should not get the better of him.
Her. Mind what you say, Ares; it is not safe to talk like that; we might get paid out for chattering.
Ar. You don't suppose I should say this to every one; I am not afraid of you; I know you can keep a quiet tongue. I must tell you what made me laugh most while he stormed: I remember not so long ago, when Posidon and Hera and Athene rebelled and made a plot for his capture and imprisonment, he was frightened out of his wits; well, there were only three of them, and if Thetis had not taken pity on him and called in the hundred-handed Briareus to the rescue, he would actually have been put in chains, with his thunder and his bolt beside him. When I worked out the sum, I could not help laughing.
Her. Oh, do be quiet; such things are too risky for you to say or me to listen to.
Lucian of Samosata, Dialogues of the Gods, Dialogue XXI. Throughout this work, of course, Lucian is mocking the Homeric presentation of the gods; the comment of Zeus that Ares paraphrases here is from Book VIII of the Iliad, and is, of course, the passage that ultimately gives this blog its name, and from which its motto is taken: Hang from heaven a chain of gold. There seems to be, as in much of Lucian's work, a double blade here; Ares mocks the genuine absurdity of the boast, but comes across as somewhat less than bright in badmouthing Zeus to Zeus's own herald. The 'do be quiet' in Greek is Siopa : euphemei -- Be silent! Speak well! -- but one is tempted to translate it as 'Quiet! Euphemize!'
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
Rene Descartes and the Battle of White Mountain
While out for a walk this evening, I started thinking for some reason about Descartes and the Battle of White Mountain. Descartes, of course, was a mercenary soldier; he had joined and trained with the army of Prince Maurice of Nassau. Baillet, who is generally quite reliable about such things, says that he was at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620 with the Imperial troops. We have, despite occasional skepticism, no serious reason to doubt it, but there are a number of puzzles about this.
The Battle of White Mountain marked the end of what is often called the Bohemian Revolt during the Thirty Years' War. The Protestant princes of Bohemia were more or less attempting to have Bohemia secede from its union with the Holy Roman Empire for religious reasons; they chose as their king Frederick V, the Elector Palatine, in autumn of 1619. Frederick's army was smashed to pieces on November 8, 1620 by Count Tilly just outside of Prague on the plateau of Bílá Hora, which gives the battle its name. Frederick and his family had to flee to the Netherlands. It's not surprising that they'd go there; Prince Maurice of Nassau, who was a Protestant relative (his uncle, I believe) with whom he was on good terms, had encouraged him to accept the crown of Bohemia and had financed and supported them with troops.
And therein is the first puzzle. Descartes, while Catholic, had been a soldier in the army of Prince Maurice. There is good reason to think he had left for a while, but what was he doing with the Imperial troops, given that Prince Maurice was on the other side? We don't know. Descartes never mentions anything about it in any of his surviving works; he tells very little about any of his actual life as a soldier. But Baillet is quite clear that Descartes was with the troops of the Holy Roman Empire at this time; he tells us that Descartes joined them in January of 1619 and that he continued on with them after White Mountain through the campaign into Moravia until he gave up being a soldier in the summer of 1621 -- after which he returned to the Netherlands.
Interestingly, we have no reason to think that he fought in any battles; Baillet doesn't say that he fought at the Battle of White Mountain, as you might expect, but simply that he was there and observed it. He does not tell us what that involved. Indeed, some of what he says suggests to me that he may not have known himself.
A. C. Grayling suggests that he was spying -- in particular, that he had been spying on the Dutch. This would make some sense of the limited evidence, but it's also the case that Descartes being a spy is Grayling's solution for almost every mystery in Descartes's life, so one is wary of falling back on unprovable espionage as a magical key.
Descartes, of course, would later meet (briefly) and then have a famous correspondence with Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia, the daughter of Frederick V. Such a turn of history is so perfect it is difficult to avoid imagining some connection between the two events; in a novel an author would certainly attempt to make such a connection, and if he did not, the reader would tend to do it for him. But such things may be entirely in the mind. The fact of the matter is, we don't know enough about Descartes's military career to say much about how it affected him, beyond the very tiny amount he says himself and the obvious fact that he seems to have used soldiering as a means for visiting places of scientific and philosophical interest. We don't know what he did at White Mountain, when he 'observed' the battle as part of the army that crushed Elisabeth's father's rule and forced her family into exile. We don't know if either of them ever thought of the fact that they were indirectly connected in this way -- after all, given the nature of the Thirty Year's War, the same could be said for a very large portion of the European population. So many unknown, and apparently undiscoverable, things.
The Battle of White Mountain marked the end of what is often called the Bohemian Revolt during the Thirty Years' War. The Protestant princes of Bohemia were more or less attempting to have Bohemia secede from its union with the Holy Roman Empire for religious reasons; they chose as their king Frederick V, the Elector Palatine, in autumn of 1619. Frederick's army was smashed to pieces on November 8, 1620 by Count Tilly just outside of Prague on the plateau of Bílá Hora, which gives the battle its name. Frederick and his family had to flee to the Netherlands. It's not surprising that they'd go there; Prince Maurice of Nassau, who was a Protestant relative (his uncle, I believe) with whom he was on good terms, had encouraged him to accept the crown of Bohemia and had financed and supported them with troops.
And therein is the first puzzle. Descartes, while Catholic, had been a soldier in the army of Prince Maurice. There is good reason to think he had left for a while, but what was he doing with the Imperial troops, given that Prince Maurice was on the other side? We don't know. Descartes never mentions anything about it in any of his surviving works; he tells very little about any of his actual life as a soldier. But Baillet is quite clear that Descartes was with the troops of the Holy Roman Empire at this time; he tells us that Descartes joined them in January of 1619 and that he continued on with them after White Mountain through the campaign into Moravia until he gave up being a soldier in the summer of 1621 -- after which he returned to the Netherlands.
Interestingly, we have no reason to think that he fought in any battles; Baillet doesn't say that he fought at the Battle of White Mountain, as you might expect, but simply that he was there and observed it. He does not tell us what that involved. Indeed, some of what he says suggests to me that he may not have known himself.
A. C. Grayling suggests that he was spying -- in particular, that he had been spying on the Dutch. This would make some sense of the limited evidence, but it's also the case that Descartes being a spy is Grayling's solution for almost every mystery in Descartes's life, so one is wary of falling back on unprovable espionage as a magical key.
Descartes, of course, would later meet (briefly) and then have a famous correspondence with Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia, the daughter of Frederick V. Such a turn of history is so perfect it is difficult to avoid imagining some connection between the two events; in a novel an author would certainly attempt to make such a connection, and if he did not, the reader would tend to do it for him. But such things may be entirely in the mind. The fact of the matter is, we don't know enough about Descartes's military career to say much about how it affected him, beyond the very tiny amount he says himself and the obvious fact that he seems to have used soldiering as a means for visiting places of scientific and philosophical interest. We don't know what he did at White Mountain, when he 'observed' the battle as part of the army that crushed Elisabeth's father's rule and forced her family into exile. We don't know if either of them ever thought of the fact that they were indirectly connected in this way -- after all, given the nature of the Thirty Year's War, the same could be said for a very large portion of the European population. So many unknown, and apparently undiscoverable, things.
Anne Line
Today is the feast of St. Anne Line on at least some calendars (she is also commemorated with the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales).
Born into a Puritan family in the sixteenth century, she became Catholic and was disinherited. The local priest set up a haven for Catholic priests on the run from the Elizabethan persecution, and she became quite involved with this, eventually taking it over after he was arrested, eventually transitioning into other ways to help the persecuted. On the Feast of the Purification in 1601, however, she was hosting a clandestine Mass, and too many people showed up for it; neighbors, noticing the crowd, reported them to the police, and she was arrested, sentenced to death, and died by hanging on a snowy February 27.
Born into a Puritan family in the sixteenth century, she became Catholic and was disinherited. The local priest set up a haven for Catholic priests on the run from the Elizabethan persecution, and she became quite involved with this, eventually taking it over after he was arrested, eventually transitioning into other ways to help the persecuted. On the Feast of the Purification in 1601, however, she was hosting a clandestine Mass, and too many people showed up for it; neighbors, noticing the crowd, reported them to the police, and she was arrested, sentenced to death, and died by hanging on a snowy February 27.
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
More on Hurricane Harvey
Things have been pretty mild in Austin; we did have some flooding, here and there fairly serious, and winds at about what was expected. There was temporary loss of electricity; brownouts kept giving a problem Saturday and Sunday. Other than that, Austin was barely affected; Harvey headed east more directly and quickly than expected; looking at the whorl of rains across Texas on weather maps all weekend, it was very obvious that the whorl was flattened to the northeast, which meant that Austin itself, while getting a lot of rain, was always only at the very outermost edge of everything.
Of course, the big event was that Harvey went fairly quickly to Houston and then sat above it. Houston, of course, is flooded on a scale that is difficult to grasp. The last number I saw was that Harvey had dumped an estimated three hundred billion gallons of water just on the city of Houston proper. If we expand outward, just the urban part of the Greater Houston area is the size of Rhode Island; much of that was under water, and we're not talking a shallow pool. People talk about unprecedented disasters, but in a lot of ways this really was one.
I've seen some people try to use the situation to raise blame in one way or another -- Houston infrastructure, or the slowness to evacuate. This is, in my view, completely ignorant. Houston's infrastructure for flooding is unusually good. To be sure, Houston is so huge that it is very difficult to keep it all up to date, and they are constantly falling behind. But Houston is prone to floods, because the ground doesn't absorb water well, and the bulk of Houston is built with floods in mind. Houston is primarily drained by bayous, which are fairly effective as far as they go; the street system is largely designed to serve as a back-up for this, and while it is still in development, quite a bit of work has been done on this. What people are not grasping is that it is literally impossible to build a city to handle this much rain. Everything worked well nigh perfectly -- but the rain kept coming in massive amounts, without stop, until everything began to be completely filled. There is no possible infrastructure you could have for a city the size of Houston that could handle that. You might as well propose that Houston should have been built on a city-size boat.
Likewise, people claiming that evacuation should have been done earlier or more extensively seem not to grasp that Houston is the one of the largest cities in the United States; its population is huge. This causes problems for evacuations, problems that were made very clear with Hurricane Rita. Something like 3 million people were evacuated, and something like a hundred people died just in the evacuations, before the storm even arrived. Travel from Houston to Austin, usually a three hour trip, took twelve hours; cars were running out of gas just from being in traffic. And what is worse, the sheer number of people coming from Houston clogged up the evacuation attempts of the entire area; places under much more immediate threat had difficulty implementing their evacuation plans. It was a disaster. This was handled immensely better. Instead of trying to evacuate on a large scale, the priority was evacuating the most serious cases first, while letting others assess according to their best evaluation, and also putting an immense amount of effort into rescue of those who were suddenly stranded. And it has worked, to the extent that anything can work in the face of something of this scale. There are probably things that could have been done differently; but most cases are due to the fact that nobody expected anything of this scope to develop at this speed, so it's difficult to argue that any decisions have been wrong given the information that was actually available at the time.
Of course, the great story has been the thousands of people pitching in to help -- first responders working until they literally drop from exhaustion, people in boats going around and rescuing stranded people, people checking cars, people cooperating in every way possible. Neighbors helping neighbors just because they are neighbors. If you want to see what a just society looks like, my friends, there it is.
I thought this tweet by Justice Willett was particularly notable:
Of course, the big event was that Harvey went fairly quickly to Houston and then sat above it. Houston, of course, is flooded on a scale that is difficult to grasp. The last number I saw was that Harvey had dumped an estimated three hundred billion gallons of water just on the city of Houston proper. If we expand outward, just the urban part of the Greater Houston area is the size of Rhode Island; much of that was under water, and we're not talking a shallow pool. People talk about unprecedented disasters, but in a lot of ways this really was one.
I've seen some people try to use the situation to raise blame in one way or another -- Houston infrastructure, or the slowness to evacuate. This is, in my view, completely ignorant. Houston's infrastructure for flooding is unusually good. To be sure, Houston is so huge that it is very difficult to keep it all up to date, and they are constantly falling behind. But Houston is prone to floods, because the ground doesn't absorb water well, and the bulk of Houston is built with floods in mind. Houston is primarily drained by bayous, which are fairly effective as far as they go; the street system is largely designed to serve as a back-up for this, and while it is still in development, quite a bit of work has been done on this. What people are not grasping is that it is literally impossible to build a city to handle this much rain. Everything worked well nigh perfectly -- but the rain kept coming in massive amounts, without stop, until everything began to be completely filled. There is no possible infrastructure you could have for a city the size of Houston that could handle that. You might as well propose that Houston should have been built on a city-size boat.
Likewise, people claiming that evacuation should have been done earlier or more extensively seem not to grasp that Houston is the one of the largest cities in the United States; its population is huge. This causes problems for evacuations, problems that were made very clear with Hurricane Rita. Something like 3 million people were evacuated, and something like a hundred people died just in the evacuations, before the storm even arrived. Travel from Houston to Austin, usually a three hour trip, took twelve hours; cars were running out of gas just from being in traffic. And what is worse, the sheer number of people coming from Houston clogged up the evacuation attempts of the entire area; places under much more immediate threat had difficulty implementing their evacuation plans. It was a disaster. This was handled immensely better. Instead of trying to evacuate on a large scale, the priority was evacuating the most serious cases first, while letting others assess according to their best evaluation, and also putting an immense amount of effort into rescue of those who were suddenly stranded. And it has worked, to the extent that anything can work in the face of something of this scale. There are probably things that could have been done differently; but most cases are due to the fact that nobody expected anything of this scope to develop at this speed, so it's difficult to argue that any decisions have been wrong given the information that was actually available at the time.
Of course, the great story has been the thousands of people pitching in to help -- first responders working until they literally drop from exhaustion, people in boats going around and rescuing stranded people, people checking cars, people cooperating in every way possible. Neighbors helping neighbors just because they are neighbors. If you want to see what a just society looks like, my friends, there it is.
I thought this tweet by Justice Willett was particularly notable:
OTD 1963—
— Justice Don Willett (@JusticeWillett) August 29, 2017
Dr. King dreamed of a nation where people "will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." pic.twitter.com/5tDisJKjVC
Four Poem Re-Drafts
Mahershalalhashbaz
An angel in heaven was flying
to and fro o'er all the earth;
an angel in loud voice crying,
"How many, O sons of men?"
In starlit skies, bright-shining,
Mars has wandered to work his will;
the wolves on the plain are howling,
carrion-vultures take their fill.
How many men are fallen, sons of men,
how many dead and dying
in great Ascalon and Tyre?
How many widows crying,
where blood flows down like water
from a horse's smashing hoof?
How many youths lie dead, O sons of men?
How many in graves unwed,
where roses grow, and poppies,
on bloody fields of war?
How many, O ye nations?
How many slip to darkness,
each face to be seen no more?
How many men are fallen, sons of men?
The formless hand its word has written;
mene, mene, tekel and parsin,
no longer is it hidden.
With fire you have shown it, sons of men,
branded it on the children's faces
as they laugh and as they play,
new names to them have given, sons of men:
"Quick pickings, easy prey".
An angel in heaven was soaring
o'er sea and all the earth,
an angel in heaven roaring,
"How many, O sons of men?"
Judas
Christ was looking to the heavens,
looking with a sigh and frown,
looking for the time of day;
'Judas, make my way,' he said,
'buy a room in Zion-town.'
Judas said, 'A stately dwelling
I will buy us for the feast --
money rings within the wallet,
bells of silver, thirty piece.'
Judas searched then over, under,
Judas searched then broad and deep.
Nowhere did he find a dwelling,
nowhere was a room for having,
nowhere would his money buy it,
coins of silver, thirty piece.
Tired from his ceaseless searching,
ceased he then to nap a while,
deeply on the lawn he slumbered.
When he woke, the noon-time vanished,
nowhere could he find the wallet,
nowhere could he find the money,
treasured silver, thirty piece.
Judas wept and beat his breast,
crying, 'What can now be done?'
Judas wept for thought of failure,
wept (for what would others say?),
fearing to return to Jesus
without dwelling, without wallet,
without silver, thirty piece.
But a young man near was shouting,
'Have you heard? The priests have posted
prize for word to help them capture
Joshua the Nazorean,
trouble-making, rabble-raising:
prize of silver, thirty piece!'
Straightway Satan spoke to Judas,
'Never has the Lord been caught,
grasping hands he has eluded.
Can they capture one who conquers
blindness, sickness, lameness, death,
walks on water, loaves and fishes
multiplies like grains of sand,
water turns to wedding wine?
Crowds he passes through unharmed!
If he from the temple height
were to fall, the Lord's own angels,
soaring down, would surely save him!
If he were in starving hunger,
stones he'd surely change to bread!
If he wanted all the kingdoms,
kings would fall before his power!'
Judas to the scribes and priests
made a promise to betray,
promised to deliver Jesus,
for reward to fill the wallet,
costly silver, thirty piece.
Judas came again to Jesus,
saying he had found no dwelling,
nowhere taking merely silver.
Christ then looked up to the heavens,
looking with a sigh and frown.
John he called, and also Peter,
gave to them a different mission:
'Silver cannot buy a dwelling,
time is short, too soon too late.
Go now quickly to the city.
When you enter in the gate
you will find a water-bearer;
let him guide you to his home.
Ask the master of the house
"Where is found the special room?
He who asks has pressing need."'
Judas followed, worries lightened,
thinking how he was so clever,
how the priests he had outsmarted,
how he trusted in his Master,
how he had made right the problem,
thinking he would get the money,
shining silver, thirty piece.
The Narcissist
So fair is his existence,
few hearts resist;
a third of heaven would turn traitor
and give up bliss
to catch the lying promise
of his kiss.
His beauty is so great,
his style so nice;
his smile sparkles so,
like starlit ice,
that God might die to make him --
were that the price.
Yes, the Devil is a lovely creature --
and he knows it.
All creation and his smile
show it.
He sits up in the airs,
face like a god,
devoid of heartfelt cares!
(But it is odd
how frozen he is there
with ruler's rod.)
His beauty has no match.
No equal vies
to rival the mighty light
with which he lies;
it is so easy, and so simple,
to despise,
if you lift yourself up higher
than the skies.
Yes, the Devil is a lovely creature --
and he knows it.
Would to God he had the grace
not to show it.
The Harp and the Vine
You ask, and I wonder,
but I still know my mind;
here in the garden the columbine
spirals and curls, begging for rain,
while your words like the thunder
echo from clouds;
I know your pain, but I am proud,
and here in the garden the rosy thorn
still mocks me,
ruthless in its scorn.
You ask, but the iris will pay you no mind
as the wind starts to hum
through the harp and the vine.
An angel in heaven was flying
to and fro o'er all the earth;
an angel in loud voice crying,
"How many, O sons of men?"
In starlit skies, bright-shining,
Mars has wandered to work his will;
the wolves on the plain are howling,
carrion-vultures take their fill.
How many men are fallen, sons of men,
how many dead and dying
in great Ascalon and Tyre?
How many widows crying,
where blood flows down like water
from a horse's smashing hoof?
How many youths lie dead, O sons of men?
How many in graves unwed,
where roses grow, and poppies,
on bloody fields of war?
How many, O ye nations?
How many slip to darkness,
each face to be seen no more?
How many men are fallen, sons of men?
The formless hand its word has written;
mene, mene, tekel and parsin,
no longer is it hidden.
With fire you have shown it, sons of men,
branded it on the children's faces
as they laugh and as they play,
new names to them have given, sons of men:
"Quick pickings, easy prey".
An angel in heaven was soaring
o'er sea and all the earth,
an angel in heaven roaring,
"How many, O sons of men?"
Judas
Christ was looking to the heavens,
looking with a sigh and frown,
looking for the time of day;
'Judas, make my way,' he said,
'buy a room in Zion-town.'
Judas said, 'A stately dwelling
I will buy us for the feast --
money rings within the wallet,
bells of silver, thirty piece.'
Judas searched then over, under,
Judas searched then broad and deep.
Nowhere did he find a dwelling,
nowhere was a room for having,
nowhere would his money buy it,
coins of silver, thirty piece.
Tired from his ceaseless searching,
ceased he then to nap a while,
deeply on the lawn he slumbered.
When he woke, the noon-time vanished,
nowhere could he find the wallet,
nowhere could he find the money,
treasured silver, thirty piece.
Judas wept and beat his breast,
crying, 'What can now be done?'
Judas wept for thought of failure,
wept (for what would others say?),
fearing to return to Jesus
without dwelling, without wallet,
without silver, thirty piece.
But a young man near was shouting,
'Have you heard? The priests have posted
prize for word to help them capture
Joshua the Nazorean,
trouble-making, rabble-raising:
prize of silver, thirty piece!'
Straightway Satan spoke to Judas,
'Never has the Lord been caught,
grasping hands he has eluded.
Can they capture one who conquers
blindness, sickness, lameness, death,
walks on water, loaves and fishes
multiplies like grains of sand,
water turns to wedding wine?
Crowds he passes through unharmed!
If he from the temple height
were to fall, the Lord's own angels,
soaring down, would surely save him!
If he were in starving hunger,
stones he'd surely change to bread!
If he wanted all the kingdoms,
kings would fall before his power!'
Judas to the scribes and priests
made a promise to betray,
promised to deliver Jesus,
for reward to fill the wallet,
costly silver, thirty piece.
Judas came again to Jesus,
saying he had found no dwelling,
nowhere taking merely silver.
Christ then looked up to the heavens,
looking with a sigh and frown.
John he called, and also Peter,
gave to them a different mission:
'Silver cannot buy a dwelling,
time is short, too soon too late.
Go now quickly to the city.
When you enter in the gate
you will find a water-bearer;
let him guide you to his home.
Ask the master of the house
"Where is found the special room?
He who asks has pressing need."'
Judas followed, worries lightened,
thinking how he was so clever,
how the priests he had outsmarted,
how he trusted in his Master,
how he had made right the problem,
thinking he would get the money,
shining silver, thirty piece.
The Narcissist
So fair is his existence,
few hearts resist;
a third of heaven would turn traitor
and give up bliss
to catch the lying promise
of his kiss.
His beauty is so great,
his style so nice;
his smile sparkles so,
like starlit ice,
that God might die to make him --
were that the price.
Yes, the Devil is a lovely creature --
and he knows it.
All creation and his smile
show it.
He sits up in the airs,
face like a god,
devoid of heartfelt cares!
(But it is odd
how frozen he is there
with ruler's rod.)
His beauty has no match.
No equal vies
to rival the mighty light
with which he lies;
it is so easy, and so simple,
to despise,
if you lift yourself up higher
than the skies.
Yes, the Devil is a lovely creature --
and he knows it.
Would to God he had the grace
not to show it.
The Harp and the Vine
You ask, and I wonder,
but I still know my mind;
here in the garden the columbine
spirals and curls, begging for rain,
while your words like the thunder
echo from clouds;
I know your pain, but I am proud,
and here in the garden the rosy thorn
still mocks me,
ruthless in its scorn.
You ask, but the iris will pay you no mind
as the wind starts to hum
through the harp and the vine.
Monday, August 28, 2017
Music on My Mind
Alexandre Poulin, "Couleurs Primaires". Even in a world drowning in contradictions, there are things that all other things share.
Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis
Today is the feast of St. Augustine of Hippo, Doctor of the Church. (The 'Aurelius' that is often given as part of his name was an extremely common way to indicate Roman citizenship in his day.) From his work, On Christian Doctrine (1.7):
Hasse's oratorio, La conversione di Sant'Agostino:
For when the one supreme God of gods is thought of, even by those who believe that there are other gods, and who call them by that name, and worship them as gods, their thought takes the form of an endeavor to reach the conception of a nature, than which nothing more excellent or more exalted exists. And since men are moved by different kinds of pleasures, partly by those which pertain to the bodily senses, partly by those which pertain to the intellect and soul, those of them who are in bondage to sense think that either the heavens, or what appears to be most brilliant in the heavens, or the universe itself, is God of gods: or if they try to get beyond the universe, they picture to themselves something of dazzling brightness, and think of it vaguely as infinite, or of the most beautiful form conceivable; or they represent it in the form of the human body, if they think that superior to all others. Or if they think that there is no one God supreme above the rest, but that there are many or even innumerable gods of equal rank, still these too they conceive as possessed of shape and form, according to what each man thinks the pattern of excellence. Those, on the other hand, who endeavor by an effort of the intelligence to reach a conception of God, place Him above all visible and bodily natures, and even above all intelligent and spiritual natures that are subject to change. All, however, strive emulously to exalt the excellence of God: nor could any one be found to believe that any being to whom there exists a superior is God. And so all concur in believing that God is that which excels in dignity all other objects.
Hasse's oratorio, La conversione di Sant'Agostino:
Sunday, August 27, 2017
Whirling Ocean
The Hurricane
by William Cullen Bryant
Lord of the winds! I feel thee nigh,
I know thy breath in the burning sky!
And I wait, with a thrill in every vein,
For the coming of the hurricane!
And lo! on the wing of the heavy gales,
Through the boundless arch of heaven he sails;
Silent and slow, and terribly strong,
The mighty shadow is borne along,
Like the dark eternity to come;
While the world below, dismayed and dumb,
Through the calm of the thick hot atmosphere
Looks up_at its gloomy folds with fear.
They darken fast; and the golden blaze
Of the sun is quenched in the lurid haze,
And he sends through the shade a funeral ray --
A glare that is neither night nor day,
A beam that touches, with hues of death,
The clouds above and the earth beneath.
To its covert glides the silent bird,
While the hurricane’s distant voice is heard,
Uplifted among the mountains round,
And the forests hear and answer the sound.
He is come! he is come! do ye not behold
His ample robes on the wind unrolled?
Giant of air! we bid thee hail! —-
How his gray skirts toss in the whirling gale;
How his huge and writhing arms are bent,
To clasp the zone of the firmament,
And fold at length, in their dark embrace,
From mountain to mountain the visible space.
Darker — still darker! the whirlwinds bear
The dust of the plains to the middle air:
And hark to the crashing, long and loud,
Of the chariot of God in the thunder-cloud!
You may trace its path by the flashes that start
From the rapid wheels where’er they dart,
As the fire-bolts leap to the world below,
And flood the skies with a lurid glow.
What roar is that? — ’tis the rain that breaks
In torrents away from the airy lakes,
Heavily poured on the shuddering ground,
And shedding a nameless horror round.
Ah! well known woods, and mountains, and skies,
With the very clouds! — ye are lost to my eyes.
I seek ye vainly, and see in your place
The shadowy tempest that sweeps through space,
A whirling ocean that fills the wall
Of the crystal heaven, and buries all.
And I, cut off from the world, remain
Alone with the terrible hurricane.
Saturday, August 26, 2017
Dashed Off XVII
This ends the notebook that was finished May 2, 2016.
Note the occasional Byzantine tendency to see the sacraments as genera (e.g., Chrismation as covering both chrismation proper and dedication of a church; communion as covering communion proper and consecration of chrism; hagion schema as including orders and consecrated virginity; baptism as including baptism and holy water rites; penance as including penance and unction). There seems to be no standard classification, which is additional reason not to take it strictly literally; but it conveys something genuine and important.
rites and subjective parts of sacraments
chrismation as giving a vesture of incorruption and a seal of perfection
as confirmation against impure and evil spirits
Ps 31 and the sacraments of the initiation
catechesis: confirmation :: spiritual direction : confession
1 John and chrismation
Baptism tends toward Beatific Vision.
The resurrection of the children of God is not a mere physical renovation but a mode of union with God.
Baptism - Beatific Vision
Confirmation - Theosis
Eucharist - Membership in Christ
Matrimony - Marriage of the Lamb
Orders - New Jerusalem
Reconciliation - ?
Unction - Resurrection
The Church is a Temple made of temples.
monastic consecration as an intensification of baptismal responsibility
Unction anticipates our roles as prophets, priests, and kings in the world to come.
Arguments are linked to truth by way of accounts of universe of discourse.
"All Truth is Antient, as being from Eternity in the Divine Ideas" (Astell)
Whether something is well defined is always relative to an end of inquiry.
the role of philosophical system rediscovery in new discovery
the role of patience in inquiry (e.g., in archeology or geology)
counsel//testimony
Everyone in the Church is benefited by anyone receiving communion, assuming they do so worthily; it is not a matter of receiving benefits only from one's own communion.
Charity transfigures reciprocity, makes it more proactive, turns it into something suitable for the sons of God, and makes it reflect the Trinity itself.
Law tends by nature to unification.
thought-trials decomposing conjectures into subconjectures
The testing of teaching against Scripture is something that must be done together. (II Constantinople)
degenerating problem-shift in the history of philosophical problems
counterexamples
global & not local: problem for conclusion, not premises
local & not global: problem for premise, not conclusion
global & local: problem for premise and conclusion both
weeping and gnashing of teeth & the end of hypocrisy (Mt 24:51)
While people take opposing views in discussion, it is commentary that solidifies people into schools.
indulgences & the exponentiation of merit
Indulgences work on the principle of the unity of the Church (thus the Pope's relevance to them).
Ontological arguments for God's existence can be transformed into ontological arguments for an actual world by a slight shift.
The probability that lottery ticket T will win the lottery is not the same as the probability that Jane, who has T, will win the lottery, because the latter introduces additional causal structure. Consider (1) Jane gives T away just before the drawing; (2) Jane gives T away right after the drawing without knowing T won; (3) Jane loses T before she can claim the prize; (4) Jane is disqualified for independent reasons; (5) Jane dies before the drawing's end; (6) Jane decides to treat T as belonging to someone else before T has won; (7) jane forgets about T and never learns it has won.
sedevacantism as cafeteria Traditionalism
the wariness that naturally grows from honesty
the irascible as yang, the concupiscible as yin
Victory, like pleasure, can easily pall when light or very common.
memory storage requirements for civilization -- A large population is better able to preserve skills because (1) division of memory labor -- there is only so much one person can learn and recall; (2) increased chance of redundancy, thus reducing skill loss through death; (3) availability of those who can learn this or that skill in particular, thus reducing skill loss through nonteaching.
- This does not, of course, consider externalization of memory storage (libraries, etc.). This can be significant, but mostly by intensifying (2); it can't compensate much for limits in (1) or (3).
- the 'primitive' life in fact is just the small, scattered population life, in which survival skills have to be prioritized over other skills in a limited, high-competition memory state. Thus the 'primitive' life is often found among nomads, tiny villages in isolation, etc.; the opposite arises by linking population in stable and systematic ways.
Since the formal structure of utilitarianism has little to do with ethics (one could talk about greatest torture of the greatest number, the most sales most widely distributed, etc.), the quality of utilitarianism depends entirely on the correctness of its account of the good.
the intrinsically utilitarian structure of most universalisms (utilitarianism // universalism in itself, but in many cases the general arguments for the latter are just nonhedonistic nonpreferentialistic versions of arguments for the former; the universalist tends to argue that moral providence must be governed on the principle of the greatest happiness for the greatest number, with the happiness including heaven and the resources of omnipotent omniscience; this is a theological utilitarianism
expected foiling of expectation as part of the joy of story
All sacrifice is human sacrifice, although some is by symbol or by proxy, by metonymy or by metaphor.
Kant's moral arguments for theism require God to be extrinsic to happiness, etc. The real tendency he is misdescribing is to the Beatific Vision and the union with God it involves.
Plausibility as broadly causal (fitting things into a causal context).
We identify contiguities by causal inference (movement into and from, etc.).
We believe men because what they say tends to be true, or to be at least close enough for practical purposes, under most conditions; we believe God because He is Truth.
"without hell there is no consequence to concupiscence that is proportionate to concupiscence itself" (Chastek)
confirmation
(1) prophet, priest, and king
guarantee of the kingdom of God
(2) whole armor of God
to tread on serpents and scorpions and on all the power of the enemy
(3) gifts of the Spirit
participation in eternal life
kinds of sacramentalia in relation to sacraments
(1) material instruments for the sacraments
(2) adjunct facilitators for the sacraments
(3) potential parts of sacraments
(4) symbols of the sacraments
potential parts of
(1) baptism: signing with holy water, sign of the cross
(2) confirmation: anointing for reception of converts, blessing with holy oil
(3) reconciliation: nonsacramental confession
(4) matrimony: formal betrothal, reaffirmation of vows, consecration of widows
(5) holy orders: minor orders, liturgical ministers
(6) unction: funerary rites
(7) eucharist: blessed bread
the problem of counterexamples in the context of the sui generis
ontological arguments as revelation arguments
Note that Anselm (Pros 1) and Malebranche make them explicitly so.
Dialogue with Trypho 106 possibly identifies Mark under the description 'memoirs of Peter'; 103 also attributes a claim in Luke to 'the memoirs which I say were drawn up by His apostles as those who followed them' (Cp Apology 66 on the bread -- cup prob. from Mark, although possibly from Matthew).
Irenaeus Adv Haer (3.1.1) "while Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome, and laying the foundations of the church"
humility to others as the root of genuine compassion
Pleasure, considered solely as such, is incapable of being any kind of common good, for it is the most private good of all.
An argument that the words of institution are more essential than the epiclesis: the Holy Spirit is not mentioned in the Institution Narratives themselves.
Judas Iscariot as type of unworthy communion (cf. Vianney)
(1) Suppose we consider whether to join the Church and receive its authority;
(2) What is lost if we do? I am imposed upon, but in no way that I might not be any way.
(3) What is gained, even if it is a merely human institution? I am enriched by the participation; if there is a future state, I am prepared for it, and if there is none, my life now is made greater and more exalted.
(4) What is lost, if it is the divine community and I reject it? What could be a greater affront to divine majesty, and how could one appear in His presence having abused the divine goodness? Moreover, is it not absurd to run the risk of eternal opposition to the Good simply to avoid being imposed upon.
- (cp. Mary Astell, CR sect 41)
- like all Wager arguments, it (1) assumes context for the division and (2) is more properly seen as an argument for inquiry, driving with practical reasons toward the attempt to discover speculative reasons.
freedom, immortality, and God as regulative ideas of politics
"really one should write philosophy only as one writes a poem" Wittgenstein
The four notes of the Church are all clearly discernible in the first Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descends on the Apostles united together in prayer, who then speak with universal tongue.
ST 3.68.11ad1 on God's grace to children in the womb
St 3.68.11ad2 and children as parts of their mothers
Note Aquinas's harsh assessment of the Protevangelium of James -- ST 3.35.6ad3
HoP & philosophy as human tradition
the bold humility of hope
the softening of anger into humor
Religion is constituted not just by states of mind but also by states of society.
A society always suggests a larger order within which it is intelligible.
Attributing a 'principle of causational synonymy' to Aristotle seems clearly to be overreaching -- when he says things like it, it is always either of particular examples or in a highly restricted and limited discussion; or it is taken so broadly and generally as to indicate only that causes cause effects because their forms make such effects possible.
baptism : confirmation : ordination
Baptism : Transfiguration : Ascension
Resurrection : Pentecost : Last Judgment
Beyond physiological reflex and the tendency to favor the part that has it, pain is actually not much of a motivator. Fear motivates, grief motivates, joy motivates; they have more distinct focus. Pain and pleasure are indistinct motivators, to the extent that they are even motivators.
"No nation remains civilized without the constant presence and activity of the powers that originally civilized it, any more than creatures continue to exist without the immanence of the creative act which produces them from nothing." Brownson
"Art, in the hands of the saint, ministers to virtue; in the hands of the sinner, to vice." Brownson
Good fortune often begins with trouble.
"And how could we ever love, unless we ourselves were loved first?"
Love is a fire burning away impurity.
Love of neighbor does not necessarily aim at 'a conscious and reciprocal relationship that is positively meaningful, allowing for deep sharing'. It does require acting in such a way that is at least consistent with friendship of virtue; but it does not necessarily require even that we be open to such a thing a tthe moment.
All human beings are at least partially resistant to divine love -- i.e., we, attached to lesser goods and tending to pride, tend to want to do our own thing. Original sin is a tendency to resist union with God -- or, rather, in the strict sense it is the privation of the effective tendency to be as we should be in order not to resist God.
All genuine prayer is a seeking for light.
Moral certitude without virtue is the source of some terrible things; but one must be careful, for there are many different kinds of moral certitude, which do not all work the same way.
Note Peirce's (late) sign classification in respect to Immediate Interpretant: Ejaculative (suggestive), Imperative, Significative (indicative, cognitative).
gray areas between interjection and command (Shoo!)
The interpretant proceeds from the sign and dwells in the sign.
The object of the sign that is marriage is Christ's union with His Church; the interpretant is the prayer, practice, and teaching of the Church on marriage. (Or is the latter rather the grace, with prayer, practice, and preaching bein gthe collateral information? But arguably grace is the object of the sign, sacraments effecting what they signify. -- The effects of marriage in the Church, however, are surely interpretant effects -- devotion and reverence for sacred things, further actions & practices, deeper understanding.)
sacramental character as dynamical interpretant
"anything that the sign, as such, effects may be considered as the Interpretant." (Peirce to Paul Carus)
union with God as the final interpretant of all sacraments
sensible appearance : immediate :: grace received/ sacramental character : dynamical :: union with God : final
A scientific specimen is not given but educed from a material for it.
The seven philosophical works of mercy
(1) to enlighten the ignorant
(2) to reflect on the thoughts of others
(3) to counsel the doubtful
(4) to correct those in error
(5) to endure correction well
(6) to put truth above glory and pride
(7) to solve problems that need solving
the utilitarian structure of divine hiddenness arguments (maximizing relationship)
overdetermination & overlap
speculative grammar: what is true of signs that they may mean (i.e., be signs)
logic proper: what is true of signs that they may be true (hold of an object)
speculative rhetoric: the laws by which one sign leads to another
"It is not sufficient to say that testimony is not true, it is our business to explain how it came to be such as it is." Peirce
(1) To function as law, purported law must be consistent as a directive and reasonably feasible.
(2) Consistency and feasibility are assessible only on principles of practical reason.
(3) Consistency as directive and feasibility are rationally assessible and concern means-eand reasoning.
(4) Whether a purported law functions as a law depends on its relation to principles of practical reason, not just the sources of law.
The vice of obstinacy and the vice of laziness both have forms that mimic the virtue of faith.
travel and 'sentiment recollected in tranquillity'
the capacity of storytelling to turn evil to good, by embedding it in a greater context
The martyrs refusing to sacrifice to the emperor were the ultimate repudiation of 'Believe as you will, but obey,' which underlies all modern government.
the liturgical commonwealth & the obediences of the Western Schism
the fourfold aspect of the Kingdom of God: Christ, Scripture, Church, Heaven
the baptism of John as a figure of catechesis
No one can rightly recognize the goodness of God who does not also recognize the power and wisdom of God.
"the sense is essential to our knowledge of the truth, but the words indifferent" Augustine, on divergences in wording among the Gospels
Claims about the roles of moral principles are moral principles.
"For every sin, and more particularly impurity, pride, and worldly interest, is a prejudice that shuts out the light of truth, keeps men obstinate in error, and hardens their minds against conviction." Astell (CR 258)
People do not revolt because things are bad; they do not even revolt because things are continually bad. They revolt because amid bad things, it seemed that improvement was begun, but that promise of better things was taken away. People revolt not at present bad, however bad, but out of the frustration of a future good, apparently in hand, that is suddenly denied.
omnipresence and providence and the antecedent credibility of the Incarnation (cp. some of Athanasius' arguments against the Gentiles)
evasion of miracles by feigning hypotheses
Much of contemporary Biblical scholarship is merely an exercise in historical epistemology masquerading as an exercise in investigation of historical events. That is to say, it never gets beyond (often muddled and weakly considered) epistemological questions except by a leap that is never justified, or justified entirely by unsupported hypotheses, or justified in a dubious and patchwork way.
Science fiction more properly involves representations of science than science itself.
Note the occasional Byzantine tendency to see the sacraments as genera (e.g., Chrismation as covering both chrismation proper and dedication of a church; communion as covering communion proper and consecration of chrism; hagion schema as including orders and consecrated virginity; baptism as including baptism and holy water rites; penance as including penance and unction). There seems to be no standard classification, which is additional reason not to take it strictly literally; but it conveys something genuine and important.
rites and subjective parts of sacraments
chrismation as giving a vesture of incorruption and a seal of perfection
as confirmation against impure and evil spirits
Ps 31 and the sacraments of the initiation
catechesis: confirmation :: spiritual direction : confession
1 John and chrismation
Baptism tends toward Beatific Vision.
The resurrection of the children of God is not a mere physical renovation but a mode of union with God.
Baptism - Beatific Vision
Confirmation - Theosis
Eucharist - Membership in Christ
Matrimony - Marriage of the Lamb
Orders - New Jerusalem
Reconciliation - ?
Unction - Resurrection
The Church is a Temple made of temples.
monastic consecration as an intensification of baptismal responsibility
Unction anticipates our roles as prophets, priests, and kings in the world to come.
Arguments are linked to truth by way of accounts of universe of discourse.
"All Truth is Antient, as being from Eternity in the Divine Ideas" (Astell)
Whether something is well defined is always relative to an end of inquiry.
the role of philosophical system rediscovery in new discovery
the role of patience in inquiry (e.g., in archeology or geology)
counsel//testimony
Everyone in the Church is benefited by anyone receiving communion, assuming they do so worthily; it is not a matter of receiving benefits only from one's own communion.
Charity transfigures reciprocity, makes it more proactive, turns it into something suitable for the sons of God, and makes it reflect the Trinity itself.
Law tends by nature to unification.
thought-trials decomposing conjectures into subconjectures
The testing of teaching against Scripture is something that must be done together. (II Constantinople)
degenerating problem-shift in the history of philosophical problems
counterexamples
global & not local: problem for conclusion, not premises
local & not global: problem for premise, not conclusion
global & local: problem for premise and conclusion both
weeping and gnashing of teeth & the end of hypocrisy (Mt 24:51)
While people take opposing views in discussion, it is commentary that solidifies people into schools.
indulgences & the exponentiation of merit
Indulgences work on the principle of the unity of the Church (thus the Pope's relevance to them).
Ontological arguments for God's existence can be transformed into ontological arguments for an actual world by a slight shift.
The probability that lottery ticket T will win the lottery is not the same as the probability that Jane, who has T, will win the lottery, because the latter introduces additional causal structure. Consider (1) Jane gives T away just before the drawing; (2) Jane gives T away right after the drawing without knowing T won; (3) Jane loses T before she can claim the prize; (4) Jane is disqualified for independent reasons; (5) Jane dies before the drawing's end; (6) Jane decides to treat T as belonging to someone else before T has won; (7) jane forgets about T and never learns it has won.
sedevacantism as cafeteria Traditionalism
the wariness that naturally grows from honesty
the irascible as yang, the concupiscible as yin
Victory, like pleasure, can easily pall when light or very common.
memory storage requirements for civilization -- A large population is better able to preserve skills because (1) division of memory labor -- there is only so much one person can learn and recall; (2) increased chance of redundancy, thus reducing skill loss through death; (3) availability of those who can learn this or that skill in particular, thus reducing skill loss through nonteaching.
- This does not, of course, consider externalization of memory storage (libraries, etc.). This can be significant, but mostly by intensifying (2); it can't compensate much for limits in (1) or (3).
- the 'primitive' life in fact is just the small, scattered population life, in which survival skills have to be prioritized over other skills in a limited, high-competition memory state. Thus the 'primitive' life is often found among nomads, tiny villages in isolation, etc.; the opposite arises by linking population in stable and systematic ways.
Since the formal structure of utilitarianism has little to do with ethics (one could talk about greatest torture of the greatest number, the most sales most widely distributed, etc.), the quality of utilitarianism depends entirely on the correctness of its account of the good.
the intrinsically utilitarian structure of most universalisms (utilitarianism // universalism in itself, but in many cases the general arguments for the latter are just nonhedonistic nonpreferentialistic versions of arguments for the former; the universalist tends to argue that moral providence must be governed on the principle of the greatest happiness for the greatest number, with the happiness including heaven and the resources of omnipotent omniscience; this is a theological utilitarianism
expected foiling of expectation as part of the joy of story
All sacrifice is human sacrifice, although some is by symbol or by proxy, by metonymy or by metaphor.
Kant's moral arguments for theism require God to be extrinsic to happiness, etc. The real tendency he is misdescribing is to the Beatific Vision and the union with God it involves.
Plausibility as broadly causal (fitting things into a causal context).
We identify contiguities by causal inference (movement into and from, etc.).
We believe men because what they say tends to be true, or to be at least close enough for practical purposes, under most conditions; we believe God because He is Truth.
"without hell there is no consequence to concupiscence that is proportionate to concupiscence itself" (Chastek)
confirmation
(1) prophet, priest, and king
guarantee of the kingdom of God
(2) whole armor of God
to tread on serpents and scorpions and on all the power of the enemy
(3) gifts of the Spirit
participation in eternal life
kinds of sacramentalia in relation to sacraments
(1) material instruments for the sacraments
(2) adjunct facilitators for the sacraments
(3) potential parts of sacraments
(4) symbols of the sacraments
potential parts of
(1) baptism: signing with holy water, sign of the cross
(2) confirmation: anointing for reception of converts, blessing with holy oil
(3) reconciliation: nonsacramental confession
(4) matrimony: formal betrothal, reaffirmation of vows, consecration of widows
(5) holy orders: minor orders, liturgical ministers
(6) unction: funerary rites
(7) eucharist: blessed bread
the problem of counterexamples in the context of the sui generis
ontological arguments as revelation arguments
Note that Anselm (Pros 1) and Malebranche make them explicitly so.
Dialogue with Trypho 106 possibly identifies Mark under the description 'memoirs of Peter'; 103 also attributes a claim in Luke to 'the memoirs which I say were drawn up by His apostles as those who followed them' (Cp Apology 66 on the bread -- cup prob. from Mark, although possibly from Matthew).
Irenaeus Adv Haer (3.1.1) "while Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome, and laying the foundations of the church"
humility to others as the root of genuine compassion
Pleasure, considered solely as such, is incapable of being any kind of common good, for it is the most private good of all.
An argument that the words of institution are more essential than the epiclesis: the Holy Spirit is not mentioned in the Institution Narratives themselves.
Judas Iscariot as type of unworthy communion (cf. Vianney)
(1) Suppose we consider whether to join the Church and receive its authority;
(2) What is lost if we do? I am imposed upon, but in no way that I might not be any way.
(3) What is gained, even if it is a merely human institution? I am enriched by the participation; if there is a future state, I am prepared for it, and if there is none, my life now is made greater and more exalted.
(4) What is lost, if it is the divine community and I reject it? What could be a greater affront to divine majesty, and how could one appear in His presence having abused the divine goodness? Moreover, is it not absurd to run the risk of eternal opposition to the Good simply to avoid being imposed upon.
- (cp. Mary Astell, CR sect 41)
- like all Wager arguments, it (1) assumes context for the division and (2) is more properly seen as an argument for inquiry, driving with practical reasons toward the attempt to discover speculative reasons.
freedom, immortality, and God as regulative ideas of politics
"really one should write philosophy only as one writes a poem" Wittgenstein
The four notes of the Church are all clearly discernible in the first Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descends on the Apostles united together in prayer, who then speak with universal tongue.
ST 3.68.11ad1 on God's grace to children in the womb
St 3.68.11ad2 and children as parts of their mothers
Note Aquinas's harsh assessment of the Protevangelium of James -- ST 3.35.6ad3
HoP & philosophy as human tradition
the bold humility of hope
the softening of anger into humor
Religion is constituted not just by states of mind but also by states of society.
A society always suggests a larger order within which it is intelligible.
Attributing a 'principle of causational synonymy' to Aristotle seems clearly to be overreaching -- when he says things like it, it is always either of particular examples or in a highly restricted and limited discussion; or it is taken so broadly and generally as to indicate only that causes cause effects because their forms make such effects possible.
baptism : confirmation : ordination
Baptism : Transfiguration : Ascension
Resurrection : Pentecost : Last Judgment
Beyond physiological reflex and the tendency to favor the part that has it, pain is actually not much of a motivator. Fear motivates, grief motivates, joy motivates; they have more distinct focus. Pain and pleasure are indistinct motivators, to the extent that they are even motivators.
"No nation remains civilized without the constant presence and activity of the powers that originally civilized it, any more than creatures continue to exist without the immanence of the creative act which produces them from nothing." Brownson
"Art, in the hands of the saint, ministers to virtue; in the hands of the sinner, to vice." Brownson
Good fortune often begins with trouble.
"And how could we ever love, unless we ourselves were loved first?"
Love is a fire burning away impurity.
Love of neighbor does not necessarily aim at 'a conscious and reciprocal relationship that is positively meaningful, allowing for deep sharing'. It does require acting in such a way that is at least consistent with friendship of virtue; but it does not necessarily require even that we be open to such a thing a tthe moment.
All human beings are at least partially resistant to divine love -- i.e., we, attached to lesser goods and tending to pride, tend to want to do our own thing. Original sin is a tendency to resist union with God -- or, rather, in the strict sense it is the privation of the effective tendency to be as we should be in order not to resist God.
All genuine prayer is a seeking for light.
Moral certitude without virtue is the source of some terrible things; but one must be careful, for there are many different kinds of moral certitude, which do not all work the same way.
Note Peirce's (late) sign classification in respect to Immediate Interpretant: Ejaculative (suggestive), Imperative, Significative (indicative, cognitative).
gray areas between interjection and command (Shoo!)
The interpretant proceeds from the sign and dwells in the sign.
The object of the sign that is marriage is Christ's union with His Church; the interpretant is the prayer, practice, and teaching of the Church on marriage. (Or is the latter rather the grace, with prayer, practice, and preaching bein gthe collateral information? But arguably grace is the object of the sign, sacraments effecting what they signify. -- The effects of marriage in the Church, however, are surely interpretant effects -- devotion and reverence for sacred things, further actions & practices, deeper understanding.)
sacramental character as dynamical interpretant
"anything that the sign, as such, effects may be considered as the Interpretant." (Peirce to Paul Carus)
union with God as the final interpretant of all sacraments
sensible appearance : immediate :: grace received/ sacramental character : dynamical :: union with God : final
A scientific specimen is not given but educed from a material for it.
The seven philosophical works of mercy
(1) to enlighten the ignorant
(2) to reflect on the thoughts of others
(3) to counsel the doubtful
(4) to correct those in error
(5) to endure correction well
(6) to put truth above glory and pride
(7) to solve problems that need solving
the utilitarian structure of divine hiddenness arguments (maximizing relationship)
overdetermination & overlap
speculative grammar: what is true of signs that they may mean (i.e., be signs)
logic proper: what is true of signs that they may be true (hold of an object)
speculative rhetoric: the laws by which one sign leads to another
"It is not sufficient to say that testimony is not true, it is our business to explain how it came to be such as it is." Peirce
(1) To function as law, purported law must be consistent as a directive and reasonably feasible.
(2) Consistency and feasibility are assessible only on principles of practical reason.
(3) Consistency as directive and feasibility are rationally assessible and concern means-eand reasoning.
(4) Whether a purported law functions as a law depends on its relation to principles of practical reason, not just the sources of law.
The vice of obstinacy and the vice of laziness both have forms that mimic the virtue of faith.
travel and 'sentiment recollected in tranquillity'
the capacity of storytelling to turn evil to good, by embedding it in a greater context
The martyrs refusing to sacrifice to the emperor were the ultimate repudiation of 'Believe as you will, but obey,' which underlies all modern government.
the liturgical commonwealth & the obediences of the Western Schism
the fourfold aspect of the Kingdom of God: Christ, Scripture, Church, Heaven
the baptism of John as a figure of catechesis
No one can rightly recognize the goodness of God who does not also recognize the power and wisdom of God.
"the sense is essential to our knowledge of the truth, but the words indifferent" Augustine, on divergences in wording among the Gospels
Claims about the roles of moral principles are moral principles.
"For every sin, and more particularly impurity, pride, and worldly interest, is a prejudice that shuts out the light of truth, keeps men obstinate in error, and hardens their minds against conviction." Astell (CR 258)
People do not revolt because things are bad; they do not even revolt because things are continually bad. They revolt because amid bad things, it seemed that improvement was begun, but that promise of better things was taken away. People revolt not at present bad, however bad, but out of the frustration of a future good, apparently in hand, that is suddenly denied.
omnipresence and providence and the antecedent credibility of the Incarnation (cp. some of Athanasius' arguments against the Gentiles)
evasion of miracles by feigning hypotheses
Much of contemporary Biblical scholarship is merely an exercise in historical epistemology masquerading as an exercise in investigation of historical events. That is to say, it never gets beyond (often muddled and weakly considered) epistemological questions except by a leap that is never justified, or justified entirely by unsupported hypotheses, or justified in a dubious and patchwork way.
Science fiction more properly involves representations of science than science itself.
Music on My Mind
Chisu, "Yksinäisen keijun tarina". A keiju is a fairy; the song's title is something like "Tale of the Lonely Fairy". The basic plot of the story is that the fairy has had difficult times; but when she tries to express her sorrow, she's dismissed -- she can fly, she has it good, how can there possibly be a miserable fairy? So she dies, and other mythical creatures regret not having been more neighborly. It's very upbeat for a Finnish story, actually.
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