Attingitur inattingibile inattingibiliter. (Cusa)
phantasms as preambles to understanding (Un. Int. 4, Comm. Div. Nom. 4.9)
synderesis as preamble to virtuous act (DV 16.2 ad 5)
It is often easier to be courageous for someone than simply courageous; the same is true of many virtues.
The purpose of even realistic painting is not to approximate the photograph but to suggest more than a photograph does with less than a photograph needs.
modes of scholarship: auctor, scriptor, compilator, commentator
The first principle of productive intellect is: The beautiful is to be made and conserved; the ugly is to be avoided in those ways.
If we take the Merricks condition for truthmakers, X is a truthmaker for Y only if Y is about X, then the principle of noncontradiction is about being, and God (subsistent being itself, whence all other beings have being) is its truthmaker.
truthmaking as a form of participation (or, more precisely, communication, since it goes in the other direction)
"the juxtaposition of doctrines, by comparison, saves the truth, from which follows knowledge" Clement of Alexandria
Bezaleel and the gifts of the Spirit (Ex 31:2-5)
A difference of truth requires a difference in particular possibilities.
Every particular possibility is defined with respect to some truth.
whimsical classification, artificial classification, natural classification
simple games (like simple machines in physics)
-- match A with B
-- find A in this group
-- position A with respect to B
--guess A (but perhaps this is a kind of find)
existence
-- -- FIND games
-- -- -- -- REMEMBER games
-- -- -- -- GUESS games
relation
-- -- MATCH games
-- -- -- -- STATIC MATCH
-- -- -- -- DYNAMIC MATCH
mode of relation
-- -- POSITION games
-- -- -- -- STATIC POSITION
-- -- -- -- DYNAMIC POSITION
-- -- IMITATE games
metric vs nonmetric position games: pushpin is metric (positioning is measured), paper football is nonmetric (positioning is yes/no)
-- metric vs nonmetric find games: 52 Pickup and scavenger hunts are metric (find enough o rmost to win); these are many, sometimes very many, cumulative nonmetric find moves find this, find this, find that)
-- metric games in general seem to be layered nonmetric games -- e.g., pushpin is position with respect to this needle, with respect to that needle, etc.) But it seems you can layer nonmetric games nonmetrically -- e.g., obstacle course
ludiformic invariance: consisting wholly of the same structure of simple games regardless of the material embodiment
-- obvious examples are the same game with difference in size (e.g., tic-tac-toe on paper vs on football field) or with different symbols; or playing a two-person game by oneself. Tabletop paper football is ludiformically invariant with fieldgoal kicking, a subgame in American football.
contiguity-goal vs resemblance-goal vs avoidance-goal games
discrete vs continuous layering of games -- e.g., capture the flag seems a continual positioning? But perhaps this is not structurally relevant -- distance or curviness of path is not important. But capture the flag is not pure positioning; it is obstacle course with moving obstacles, and it is this that is perhaps the continuous layering.
serial vs parallel combinations of simple games
FIND games require: (1) field of search; (2) means of search; 3) means of identification
A full theory of simple games would bring us very close to a complete theory of basic cognition.
Pierre Johanns regards the saccidananda as equivalent to the Tat tvam asi: sat // tat; cit // tvam; ananda // asi with the former as objective and the latter as subjective.
"The Lord who is thus established by sacred testimony and by inference is directly seen by some people, since he is an object of experience, like a pot." Udayana
In "Philosophical Studies on Christianity", Brownson collapses the consensus gentium argument into the traditionary argument.
In the long run, ideology always devours action.
There is a kind of wishful thinking that confuses the tragic and the unjust; it takes many forms.
What is called 'progress' is sometimes just a movement from one vice to another.
thanks of relief vs thanks of gratitude
certifying proofs (that) vs grounding proofs (why)
There needs to be a category for mathematical inference less than proof that amounts to something like, 'a counterexample has not been discovered and there is no likely chance that one would be discovered by guess and check'. (semi-security, perhaps)
Simpson's paradox establishes that how one analyzes data depends on causal assumptions.
undermine: default premise
undercut: default inference
rebut: default conclusion
skill/justice convergence fantasies in action movies (the hypercompetent assassin/thief/hacker/grifter/outlaw, but in a situation in which we can cheer their hypercompetence because in that situation it converges on what is approximately just)
Parents when they name their kids aren't giving them bare labels but entries in a sort of social directory.
the plenitude of possibility
Christ's critique of hypocrisy treats it as spoiled promise or potential.
marriage as a freedom-building institution
A larger population of philosophers diversifies philosophical positions but also arguably medocritizes them to more easily defensible and less sophisticated forms.
the self-awareness / self-knowledge of the Demos as the fundamental problem of democracy
convergent vs eminent forms of greatness of nobility
We recognize structure by semiotic comparison, constructing signs to correspond to that which has the structure we are examining.
It is not any arbitrary inequality that matters for justice, but inequality with respect to human dignity. It is not unjust that some are tall and some are short, or that some are liked and some are not; it is unjust that some are treated as inherently to be despised.
marriage as a seed of the ethical commonwealth.
(1) To be a commonwealth, the ethical commonwealth must be enduring.
(2) To be enduring, it must be from generation to generation.
(3) Therefore it must be structured by means of reproduction and education.
(4) These means must be organized in a way appropriate both to the ethical nature and the endurance of the ethical commonwealth.
(5) Therefore there must be a formal institution for reproduction and education in which there are moral safeguards and recourse for all involved.
'Choose life so that you and your descendants may live' & baptism of vicarious desire
the Additions to Esther as a sort of literary commentary
Tanakh ends with Chronicles: the rebuilding of the Temple
Old Testament ends with Malachi: the return of Elijah
When God speaks from the whirlwind, He makes clear that He has no need or obligation to justify Himself at all, for indeed He is God.
