natural simplicity, enlightened self-interest, prudence, holiness
NB that Kant equates metaphysics with the pure a priori principles of physics in their universality (CPrR 5:138).
"But it is impossibly through metaphysics to proceed *by sure inferences* from knowledge of this world to the concept of God and to the proof of his existence, for this reason; that in order to say that this world was possibly only through a *God* (as we must think this concept) we would have to cognize this world as the most perfect whole possible and, in order to do so, cognize all possible worlds as well (so as to be able to compare them with this one), and would therefore have to be omniscient." Kant CPrR 5:138-139
→ this is a very interesting argument
-- Note the Leibnizian rationalism implied here as the target (Perhaps Wolffian in particular?).
"Doing things at the whim of human beings is not a safe standard (i.e., a safe rule), since the human will is often unreasonable and unjust." Aquinas
"Within the 'we' of the family emerges the 'I' of the child." Lonergan
Snow falls, and is white;
the falling is a process,
the whiteness is too.
"There is experience and a fortiori distinction from experience must be admitted: Nobody experiences an experience of a pillar, a wall, etc.; rather people have experience of objects of experience, as a pillar, a wall, etc." Shankara
the indefinite mineness of the world
'Two supreme authorities cannot without contradiction be subordinate one to the other' -- but Church and state are not absolutely supreme, but only each in a certain respect, and both are subordinate to God, the Church more eminently so.
To be non-aliud is to be intellectual and volitional.
"The Triune God is definition defining itself and all things." Cusanus
three forms of History of Philosophy: occasional, eclectic, systematic
design & layered multifunctionality
If there is no progress in philosophy, there is no such thing as human progress.
(1) Since we do not have an innate idea of what progress is, to recognize anything as progress requires that we make philosophical progress in understanding progress.
(2) Progress requires ends; in human life, ends are understood and clarified by philosophical inquiry.
(3) Philosophy is the progress of the mind to the point of being able to set in order, which progress requires.
- a logic with a removing rather than a positing operator
Nicholas's terms for the Trinity; This, It, Same. (Cp: This is the Same as It/That.) More abstractly: Oneness, Equality, Union.
* freedom as inherent (power); freedom as causality; freedom as interaction
* freedom as integrity; freedom as alternativity; freedom as selection from a whole
* freedom as act; freedom as lack of impediment; freedom as boundary of self
* freedom as permissible-or-impermissible; freedom as willing-or-nilling; freedom as obligation-or-nonobligation
We cognize ourselves as intelligible, not merely sensible.
Kant's postulate of immortality would be better grounded if he based it on the nontemporality of moral law, without the intermediary of endless progress. But the latter can work if one thinks not of bare conformity but of a good (God) that moral law requires us always to seek, and which is inexhaustible.
By virtue of their baptism and confirmation, the motherhood of Christian mothers is a type of the motherhood of the Church; the typical mulier fortis symbolizes the archetypal mulier fortis. And especially in terms of their confirmation, each Christian mother is co-mother with Mary, the highest type of the motherhood of the Church, and themother of all Christ's disciples by Christ's assignment on the Cross, so that each Christian mother assists Mary in her work as Mother of the Church. (We see in all human motherhood that one of the works of motherhood is to draw on assistance for help in the work of motherhood.)
In the Church we see the power, wisdom, and goodness of Christ who made her.
the picturesque sublime (compositional sublime in a frame)
the picturesque as a particular species of the striking
the picturesque as especially conducive to memory
the beautiful grotesque (Sagrada Familia, the growing cave)
the moral law considered theoretically rather than practically (as evidence for that which one postulates for it)
Kant's challenge to the natural theologian at CPrR 5:138 boils down to a challenge to do natural theology, and is thus question-begging for Kant's purposes.
Therapeutic conceptions of philosophy drastically overestimate the importance of skepticism.
Liberalism as practice is often impressive; liberalism as theory is often fan fiction: liberal theology is theology done as fan fiction, liberal political theory is political theory done as fan fiction, etc.
intrinsic hierarchy of holiness (based on sanctity as such) vs instrumental hierarchy of holiness (based on performing a role or function as a means to holiness)
-- the split between these is quite important for the history of the Church
-- the ecclesial hierarchy is an example of the latter
the continuous and the periodic, the plotted and the episodic
The primary and proper meaning of persistence (as in persistence through time) is stability of final cause; other senses are derived from this by analogy.
The creation is part of God only in something like the sense that the child is part of the parent, or the painting is part of the painter.
"The word 'light' can be used for Brahman, which manifests the world even as light manifests objects." Shankara (Brahm. Sut. 1.1.24)
"The assignation of a definite locality to the all-pervading Brahman only serves the purpose of meditation."
"If the individual soul is something different from Brahman, then the knowledge of Brahman would not give knowledge of the individual soul. Therefore the individual soul is different, yet not different, from Brahman." (1.4.20)
"Everything in the world is, and this quality it gets from Brahman, which is being itself. Again, the intelligence of Brahman lights the whole universe." (2.1.6)
"The effect exists in the cause before its origination as well as after it. It can never exist independent of the cause either before or after creation. Therefore the world exists in Brahman even before creation and is not absolutely nonexistent." (2.1.7)
"The effect is not experienced in the absence of the cause, which shows that the effect is nondifferent from the cause.' (2.1.15)
Where translations of Shankara say 'material cause', substitute 'principiating substance' -- i.e., a substance in its aspect of quasi-material cause, as the scholastics say, not material cause in the ordinary sense, despite the lump of clay metaphor.
"Someone who, a hundred years from now, falsely repeats something evil about me, injures me right now." Kant
In "If X, do Y", we usually take X to be indicative, as it seems to be; but perhaps it should be seen as an implicit imperative (a test- or check-imperative).
living assent vs bookish assent
"Only the descent into the hell of self-cognition can pave the way to godliness." Kant
The defects of Kant's ethics are especially seen in his discussions of humility and friendship.
the duty to associate the graces with the virtues
the Church as effect of Christ
the Church as quasi-inherent in Christ (Body, branches)
the Church as in community with Christ (Bride, flock)
All natural rights are transfigured by Christianity, so that each has a new aspect.
Even in peace, states need something like unto victory.
the Church as a domestic society, as a society of friends, as a liturgical commonwealth, as a complete society
Nobody exercises virtue solely as an individual, but always as a participant in a community.
'Slob' began as a word for muddy land or mire; it began to apply to people through the metaphor 'slob of a man' in the late nineteenth century.
A robinsonade is like an equation:[wealth of prior knowledge] + [wealth of external resources] + [wealth of local resources] = [survival requirement] + [further benefit]. Each individual variable can be more or less, but the equation must plausibly balance. Robinson Crusoe has a fair amount of PK, ER, and LR; the Swiss Family has a superabundance of all three; those stranded on the Mysterious Island have a superabundance of PK, a very minimal amount of ER, and a fair amount of LR; the variations give different flavors to the stories, but the equation structures it. A significant factor is how much FB you get, since SR is roughly the same in most cases. The Swiss Family finish with the FB of an incipient colony, whereas The Martian doesn't need to have any FB left at the end, because he's leaving it all behind anyway.
-- Time is also a significant factor and needs to be considered (the equation is different for different allowed times).
