In law each case must be considered not only in itself but also as a possible precedent.
If wealth is what can be bought or sold, we may create wealth by finding new ways to buy and sell; this is governed by possibility of demand.
Wealth is assessed by money, by labor, and by credit.
Estates in land are created by word, by writing, or by record; it is intrinsic to them to be describable.
sovereign right
allodial right
estate right (tenure)
use right
material for material: gold for corn
material for service: gold for work
material for intangible: gold for stock
service for service: instruction for instruction
service for intangible: work for banknote
intangible for intangible: banknote for patent
(intangible here is sign)
wealth as exchangeable right (Henry Dunning Macleod)
"As Credit is the abstract *Right to demand* residing in the person of the Creditor, so the Debit is the abstract *Duty to pay* residing in the person of the Debtor. The Credit and the Debt together constitute a CONTRACT, which is thus composed of two opposite quantities, which spring into existence together, which can only exist together, and which vanish together." Henry Dunning Macleod
"At the very instant that the property in goods passes to the buyer, there is CREATED in teh person fot he seller the RIGHT to DEMAND their price in money at the stipulated time: and at the very same instant there is CREATED in the person of the buyer the DUTY to PAY their price in money at the stipulated time."
usury // exploitation of labor // overuse of material resources
NB Macleod's economic argument against the Lucretian philosophy
the Holy Spirit as Nexus as mutual right qua person
The marriage as a corporate entity builds the household as a corporate entity.
instruments of tradition -- this sense of 'instrument' is the old legal one of 'evidence, written or personal, by which a claim can be proved'
instruments of credit
(1) orders to pay
(2) promises of payment
(3) deposits (entries in record)
(4) acknowledgement of debts
For everything that pertains to a person, there is a right to demand it and a duty to give it, held by the person himself. These balance. However, in some cases the right to demand can be alienated to another. The debtor then will 'buy back' this right to demand to pay the debt; or the creditor will give back teh right to demand; or the debotr will transfer a distinct right to demand in exchange for the original, which may be where the creditor himself has the duty to pay or when some third party has a duty to pay; or the creditor and debtor may exchange the right-duty relationship for a different right-duty relationship.
Thinking of redemption as ransom makes sense because
(1) ransom is an exchange in which there is no right to demand or duty to pay; those holding the prisoner have not right to demand, they merely demand; and there is no *duty* to pay them.
(2) what grounds the *mercy* to pay is the need of the one to be ransomed, not anything to do with the captor.
(3) in paying, the ransomer gains the right to receive the ransomed, and the captor a duty to released the ransomed.
(4) having been ransomed, the ransomed gains a duty of gratitude to the ransomer.
Contrition, confession, and satisfaction each cancel different aspects of sin when brought before the tribunal of mercy.
Peter the Chanter on indulgences: "We say that this pardon is conferred on body and soul when these three are present, namely, the authority of the Church, the communion of suffrages, and the work and devotion of the penitent."
Sins incur both culpa and poena.
Indulgences are voluntarily accepted extensions of pentiential satisfaction in which one contributes to the prayer and alms of the Church as a whole.
Rather than talk about partial and plenary indulgences, we should perhaps talk instead of contributing and complete indulgences.
William of Auvergne treats indulgences as part of the spiritual warfare of the Church, in whcih the prelates, as the generals, summon soldiers, recruit them, and pay them stipends for their additional work and contribution to noble assignments.
the treasury of merit as the formal cause of pardons
In Lev 25:10, the liberty proclaimed is that from the effects fo debt; the corresponding ideas in Mesopotamia are always about bondservatns serving out a debt being allowed to return home, and analogous situations. (Cp also Is 61 and Lk 4:17ff.)
We sing "Hallelujah" to express that God has freed us.
Neh 5:19 -- prayer to be remembered with favor for what one has done for another.
The merits of the saints are the merits of Christ by way of the saints.
As good works, pentiential acts are meritorious; as penalties, they are satisfactionary.
Christ merits for others because He has the grace of headship.
Lk 2:35 -- the Virgin spiritually shares the Passion of Christ
Release of debt is increase of wealth.
"He who is generous to the downtrodden makes a loan to the Lord; He will repay him his due." Pr 19:17
"The treasuries of teh wicked are of no avail, but sedaqah saves from death." Pr 10:2
"Capital is of not avail on the day of wrath, but sedaqah saves from death." Pr 11:4
"Almsgiving delivers from death and keeps you from entering darkness; and for all who pratice it, almsgiving is an excellent offering in the presence of the Most High." Tobit 4:11
"Lay up your treasure according to the commandments of the Most High, and it will profit you more than gold. Store up almsgiving in your treasury, and it will rescue from all affliction; more than a might shield and more than a heavy spear, it will fight on your behalf against your enemy." Sirach 29:11-13
Sir 7:29-36 and the seven physical almsdeeds
"Almsgiving lightens sin." 2 Clement 16:4
"O splendid trading! O divine business! You buy incorruption with money. You save the perishingthings of the world and receive in exchange for them an eternal abode in heaven." Clement of Alexandria
Ephrem, Hymn 4 & 5 on the Nativity: God is giver of all, canceling our debts. He is borrower of all, creating a debt by receiving sacrifices.
"We have given him our alms on loan. In turn, let us demand their repayment." Ephrem, Hymn on Faith 5
Mk 8:32 // Mk 10:26
"Give temporal wealth and claim eternal interest, give the earth and gain heaven." Augustine
Gn 17:6 // Church as social
Gn 17:7 // Church as sacramental
Gn 17:8 // Church as scriptural
kinds of executive action
(1) order (direction to action)
(2) declaration of intentions
(3) acknowledgments (findings and recognitions)
(4) registrations (enrollments)
Jesus' healing ministry seems to be concerned with removing impediments to full participation in the assembly -- all of the conditions are conditions that would have been considered unclean or otherwise prevent one from participating in the assembly by at least some Jewish sects of the day (e.g., the Rule of Congregation for Qumran bans all of the conditions Jesus heals). This is important for undertsanding how they symbolize salvation. It is also relevant to the cut-off-your-hand, pluck-out-your-eye passages; that is, it is better to exclude yourself from the assembly than to do so from the Kingdom of God.
Hand, foot, and eye are all associated with sexual transgression figures of speech in ancient Jewish and rabbinical texts.
Labor unions largely arise to block managerial retaliation.
Discussions of reliability of cognitive powers or methods often confuse 'unreliable' with 'false'; but they are very much not the same.
translation as a source of creativity -- the conversion of one text into different versions
Extensive government works by lists.
In every age, freedom grows from victory, and the kind of freedom is shaped by the kind of victory.
Love of neighbor enables us to diversify the ways we love God.
"If you have good armies, you will have good allies." Machiavelli
Like many rationalist accounts, Chomsky's universal grammar seems often to confuse formal and final considerations.
Tocqueville recognizes that lawyers are a non-democratic element of the American system, which is why they are a safeguard against lapses of democracy. But lawyersare for the very same reason poorly suited to blocking oligarchical wrongs.
Equal protection of law is equality in standing with regard to tribunals.
"Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity." Weil
"Truth is too dangerous to touch."
Genuine acts of solidarity are very difficult.
forms of Christian literature
(1) Scripture
(2) holy teaching
(3) oblatio litterae
use of pardon power as oversight of judiciary; as correction of anomalies in the execution of law; as safeguard for the freedoms of the people
- Clifford Geertz on the theatre state (order by model and copy)
-- note that ceremonial status can more easily cross boundaries than other influences
-- metaphysical theatre & shared vision
-- it's not necessary to think of this as a 'state'; rather, it is a form of power, weak in effect but powerful by slow pressure
The 'judgment of history' is an aesthetic judgment.
The sovereignty of a state derives from its civil society.
Philosophy of language often proceeds as if all language were derived from writing, and all meaning in language built up in the way one builds up meaning in writing.
Every sign suggests more than it means.
ordinary, operationalized, and stipulative language
Progressivism over-relies on persuasive definitions.
Children's playsets are systems of manually modifiable signs -- the toy car a sign of the car, etc.
the sacraments as cleansing piacular guilt and complicitous 'pitch'
