As always, dashed off notes, to be taken with a grain of salt
decency, honor, and interest
the right to free speech as a protection for the virtue of honesty (and thus honest communication in society)
fear, hope, and the nature of conjecture
matrimony : defensive :: consecrated virginity : offensive
concept formation by negating a prior concept, by inducing the idea of cause, by abstraction of resemblance, by limitation or illimitation, by distinction of gradation, by composition of concepts
Naturalism posits true-in-physics as a transcendental.
assessing evidence by profile
being : possible :: true : intelligible :: good : desirable :: beautiful : enjoyable
Constant lies about the respected may unsettle respect, though known to be lies, for our assessments of things consider the views other people have of them.
To base morality on consent is to treat everything as having a price.
Justice requires the possibility of mercy if it is to continue to exist.
We can only assess our own reason's strength and quality by causation, eminence, and remotion.
Words often have, in addition to their sense proper, an etymological sense-root, which affects how they are applied. This sense-root is always in varying degrees of atrophy, depending on how aware people are of the etymology of the word. In addition, words may acquire new sense-roots (in folk etymology).
the Burning Bush as type of the Church (theosis)
Sometimes in prayer the chief things is to come to the point; we often avoid what most needs our attention.
That memory has a causal structure is seen from cases of misremembering.
In the kingdom of God, justice itself is a kind of mercy.
Sirach 50:1-21 and the book of Revelation
Relevance is often nontrivial to determine, but relevance is always of a specific, identifiable kind. Nothing is relevant for no particular reason.
relevance
(1) self-relevance
(2) adjunct
(3) evidence for
(4) evidence against
subjective, integral, and potential parts of evidence
claims such that a single instance suffice to establish the claim
(1) necessary truths
(2) singular truths
(3) particular truths
(4) diamondized versions of above
resemblance as state vs as act (the latter is direct/asymmetric)
the modes of ecclesial magisterium on matters of morals
(1) baptismal (general and remote, what is required for Christian life generally)
(2) penitential (specific and proximate, what is specifically required for participation in sacraments)
(3) chrismatic (in light of common good of Church)
(4) eucharistic (in light of love of God and neighbor)
(5) unctional (what is required for preparation for glory)
forensic account of personhood as a narrative account of personhood
devotion in religion | conjugal fidelity:
adoration : esteem/respect of spouse
thanksgiving : gratitude to spouse
contrition : contrition
supplication : deferential loyalty to spouse
the 'psychosis of resemblances' and the construction of political ideology
A clear implication of Pride and Prejudice is that prejudices about people are not avoidable, but may be treated in more and less reasonable ways. As there is so much more to people than we already know, our interaction with other people will be heavily influence by (1) social expectation (2) prior experiences with them and our reaction to those experiences (3) the testimony of others (4) extrapolation from ourselves and from our imaginings.
love of language as an aid to love of others
The history of language links up with genealogy and with miggration-history.
"The preaching of the Resurrected Lord is a necessary part of His ministry as a whole." Bulgakov
Bettting is not an expression of belief but of motivation.
causative vs concessive binary modal operators
Assigning numbers to 'degrees of belief' requires a measurement structure, which can only be developed on the basis of studying identifiable interactions involving belief change. Any other numeration is entirely fictional.
everywhere (= not somewhere not), nowhere(= everywhere not), somewhere (= not everywhere not), not everywhere (=somewhere not)
still, not yet, already, no longer
mental economy and the relation between belief and evidence
The same evidence may suggest many theories of differing fruitfulness, simplicity, historical salience, practical utility, and conformity to necessary principles.
If I glance at the night sky and see a nova, that is evidence there is a nova in the universe. If I glance at the night sky and do not see a nova, that is only evidence that there is no nova in the scope of my glance, and it is absurd to call it evidence of no novas in the entire universe.
'no evidence' vs 'no evidence yet'
'evidence' vs 'evidence still'
'no evidence' vs 'evidence no longer' (e.g., contamination of evidence)
'evidence' vs 'evidence already
Victory requires not merely winning the battle but holding its gains.
the radix of a concept, the focus or point from which the circle of its plenitude of meaning extends
radix, plenitude, implicate associability, implicate articulability, poetic power (play), theory-grounding power, imaginative expression, external (e.g., verbal) expression
Plato is right that the true character of some moral matters can only be easily seen when taken to a large scale -- large populations, large timescales, large institutions.
Most 'confirmation' in the sciences involves ruling out the possibility that a hypothesis/interpretation/result is artificial (rather than natural).
An analogy between arguments may be
(1) an artifact of interpretation
(2) a convergent development of different reasons
(3) a development of shared reasons
Reasonable people do not rush around trying to find things of which to be skeptical; the hunger for being skeptical of the occult is the same as the hunger for the occult, a hunger to be among the knowing, fueld by ingenious fictions.
those who use Bayesianism for statistical ends vs those who use Bayesianism as numerology
To sorrow is to recognize the goodness of the fragile.
to commit suicide is to fail to treat the image of God with respect it deserves.
the palaetiology of arguments and ideas
the internal ethics of humanitarian traditions
the requirements for law (legal profession) be a humanitarian tradition
The tending of all human government is to usurp whatever makes its perceived task easier.
The most important part of inference to the best explanation is having the right starting points.
Error sometimes snares inquirers, but it is not a threat to inquiry.
For the mother, the child is a victory.
marks of truth
(1) appropriateness of source
(2) goodness for mind
(3) consistency of confirmation
(4) internal consistency
The perception of the beauty of a right action is distinct from the perception of the action's being right, for the former is a higher-order reflection.
Moral maturity requires moving from taking things to be good because they please to being pleased at things because they are good.
monarchia, unica spiratione, nexus
The Son receives from the Father that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father; thus we also say that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father to dwell or rest on the Son, and that the Spirit is the bond of unity between Father and Son. The Holy Spirit receives from the Father to be the Spirit of the Son as well, and in being the Spirit of the Father; thus we say that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son as from one principle by one spiration.
By means of icons we begin to appreciate the human being as made to the icon of God.
Socrates autem primas philosophiam devocavit e caelo. (Cciero Tusc Disp 5.10)
Whewell's Physical Argument for God's existence
[1] Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
-> There is a cause for the universe.
[2] A combination of means conspiring to a definite end implies intelligence.
-> The cause is an intelligent being.
[3] impossibility of finding cause of universe in nature
-> The cause is out of, above, nature.
"...Atheism is generally but a form of inconsistently applied scepticism." Whewell
Whewell's Moral Argument
(1) sentiment of Dependence
(2) spontaneous impulse of Gratitude
(3) Moral Constitution (Conscience)
(4) aspirations for well-being, Truth, Beauty, and Goodness (instinctive longing for immortality and higher blessedness)
Polemic involves assertion in advance of proof because a major function of assertion in polemic is to pose challenges.
the Church as icon of Christ
"Proper satire is distinguished by the generality of the reflections, from a lampoon, which aimed against a particular person." Johnson's Dictionary
Human beings are prone to error in most fields; but proneness to error is merely a reason to be cautious -- it does not tell us that we are irrational to conclude at all.
Defeaters cannot address first principles because defeat is a matter of inference.
Contradictory expectations mean defeat before you start.
When you can't fight the right kind of battle, winning every battle is not victory but stalemate.
the journalistic duty of scrutiny
Acts 13:2 -- the one case in NT of first person referred to Holy Spirit
understanding wisdom by remotion, causation, eminence
- remotion: removing presumption, recklessness, timidity, etc. (note link to Socrates here)
- causation: discerning wisdom through the beauty of its works
- eminence: cp Confucian approaches: exemplars, comparison of exemplars, and analogy between our harmony and a greater cosmic harmony; cp also filial piety as a school of virtue, and extension from there
Lines being terminated by points, there is some perspective from which they look like points; surfaces terminated by lines, there is some perspective from which they look like lines.
sciences as unities of truths, as unities of (intellectual) goods
undesigned coincidences between subjective experience and testimony
teleology -> intentionality -> intensionality
The philosophy truly appropriate to Catholic theology would be a philosophy infinite in scope, infinitely rich and profound, rigorously true, guiding to a good life, and beautiful in its expression. In practice, we get fragmented approximations.
Purify the heart, improve the mind.
