In light of God, human existence is known to be intelligible and lovable, and an expression of wisdom and goodness.
forms of final causation
(1) final cause exists objectively and nothing more
(2) final cause exists objectively and achieves real existence (is attained)
(3) final cause exists really as exemplar and therefore objectively
'Thou shalt not steal' is traditionally translated by Jewish rabbis as 'Thou shalt not kidnap'.
Measurement is always a directional difference from zero.
"To be a man is to be responsible. To be a man is to respond to what is said to man." Barth (CD 3.2)
"The true good of man awaits him only when he is courageous enough to commend and entreat himself to the opinion and judgment of God."
Love of neighbor includes love of Christ, who is preeminently our neighbor.
As a system of signs, Scripture requires a community for its existence.
freedom as a power of giving
"The laws of nature are the rules according to which the effects are produced; but there must be a cause which operates according to these rules." Thomas Reid
Reid argues that efficient causes must have will and understanding, but in general his arguments would only establish that if there are efficient causes, there must be somewhere in connection relevant efficient causes, with will and understanding.
Hobbe's time argument for the causal principle should be read as saying that without causes we cannot completely imagine situations. Hume reads it as about things; but Hobbes very clearly frames it as about trying to imagine the things. Hume takes it to be arguing that the denial of the causal principle is absurd; but Hobbes states it so as to argue that, try as we might, imagining the corresponding situation is impossible. Hume, in fact, assumes (and does not provide any non-question-begging argument) that it is possible.
Everything that is to be considered as a whole must have a reason why it is to be considered as a whole.
The 'maximal' usually used to characterize possible worlds seems to involve two things:
(1) Everything relevant is a term.
(2) Everything logically implies is listed.
Every active contingent has at least one end set by some agent other than itself.
formed & unformed conscience // formed & unformed reason
vegetarianisms by taste, by faith, by habit, and by hygiene
(1) The Paraclete shines forth and is manifest eternally through the Son, as light through the Son's rays.
(2) The Trinity as manifested eternally cannot be a different Trinity from the real Trinity.
(1) The Holy Spirit is bestowed, given, and sent to us from the Son.
(2) The Trinity as manifested in the missions cannot be a different Trinity from the real Trinity.
Being eternally the Spirit of the Son, the Holy Spirit eternally reveals the Son.
"Because the idea of universal being constitutes the *light* of reason, the moral law is expressed fairly well in the formula, 'Follow reason'. But it would be more accurate to say, 'In all that you do, follow the *light* of reason.'" Rosmini
"...infinity is the fundamental principle of dignity."
"omnes creaturae nihil aliud sunt quam realis quaedam expressio et repraesentatio eorum quae in conceptiones divini verbi comprehenditur." Aquinas SCG 4.42
internal word -> spirit of love -> breath -> external word
Sotah 30b-31a suggests a reading of Ps 68:26-27 as about the Jewish children in the womb ('the source') at the miracle of crossing the sea.
Isaiah 33:5-6 -- The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high; He has filled Zion with judgment (mishpat) and vindication (sedeqah). And He will be the steadfastness (emunat) of your times, the wealth of salvations (yeshuot) of wisdom (hokemat) and knowledge (da'at). The fear of the Lord is His treasury.
the gifts of the poor (tractate Pe'ah)
(1) pe'ah (corner) -- portion left standing (Lv 19:9, 23:22)
(2) leket (gleanings) -- grain that fell in reaping or gathering (Lv 19:9, 23:22)
(3) shich'chah (forgotten sheaves) -- sheaves forgotten or overlooked in move to threshing floor (Dt. 24:19)
(4) olelot -- immature clusters of grapes (Lv 19:10, Dt 24:21)
(5) peret -- grapes that fell in the plucking (Lv 19:10)
(6) ma'aserani (pauper's tithe) -- tithe for the poor in the third and sixth years of the sabbatical cycle (Dt. 14:28-29, Dt. 21:12-13)
Every mother is Mother Nature for her child.
A moral cause of x is a cause of it by rational imputation.
The advising cause is an efficient cause in that it acts in that which acts to produce an effect.
"A presence of God in the creature, analogous to the presence of the artist in the work of art, is visible and sensible in the religious act." Scheler
the experience of relative alterity (remotion), of relative nihilation (eminence), or relative dependence (causation)
Scheler takes negative theology to be essentially phenomenological.
the emotive import of doctrine, while not the most central element, as part of what binds doctrine to doctrine (this is easiest to see with Marian doctrines; the motive import provides the suggestive sphere within which the doctrines are found, 'Mother of God' being the key fount, and formulation of other doctrines being *partly* constrained by how true or false they are to the emotive import of the doctrine of the Theotokos)
A sharp dualism between religion as experience and religion as transcendent is not possible.
Bracketing the existence of the external world, we discover in the phenomena the existence of the external world. It is absurd to think that because one brackets existence, truth, etc., at the start of an inquiry that the inquiry must be distorted by refusing ever to recognize existence or truth as directly or indirectly manifested by the phenomena in which one inquires.
common levels in evaluating evidence
(1) the evidence seems to have these interrelations
(2) the evidence seems as if p
(3) the evidence pushes toward q
(4) the evidence requires r
--> Not stages, because they overlap and intertwine at every point.
Christian philosophy, i.e., metaphysics (and derivative fields) seen in light of sacred doctrine, is hierophanic.
It is difficult for prayer to be purely selfish; even impetration for material assistance is often asking for assistance to benefit others as well as oneself, or asking specifically for it to be from God. The closest thing to a prayer definitely selfish is that of the Pharisee in the parable: it asks nothing because it is smug and complacent, and acknowledges God only insofar as He had the good sense and good taste to benefit oneself. The one who begs at least sees beyond himself.
Large portions of Hinduism, particularly the Rigvedic deities, seem to arise by regarding parts of rituals as having tutelary power and so as divine. The entire visvedevas is as it were a heavenly manual of sacrificial ritual.
power, wisdom, and goodness as three modalities of the holy
architecture as the functionalization of space
The mark of the virtue of friendliness is doing good to another without requiring begging and without expecting reward.
three elements of community: lived intentionality, expressive symbolism, regulative organization
"The creation of God, and therefore His positing of a reality distinct from Himself, is the external basiss and possibility of the covenant. And the covenant itself is the internal basis and possibility of creation, and therefore of the existence of a reality distinct from God." Barth
"Every supposed humanity which is not radically and from the very first fellow-humanity is inhumanity."
"Those who try to fight the Gospel always make caricatures, and they are then forced to fight the caricatures."
"In its basic form humanity is fellow-humanity."
"In the Christian Church we have no option but to interpret humanity as fellow-humanity."
Proto-Indo-Iranian: *Hr̥tás, probably from Proto-Indo-European *h₂r̥-tós, meaning roughly 'properly put together', 'well ordered'; --> ṛta (Vedas = truth, as what moves things fittingly) and aṣ̌a (Avesta = truth as what is established)
three aspects of ṛta (Sharma, "Varna and Jati in Traditional Indian Persepctive")-- gati (change), samghatna (system), niyati (ordering).
dharma as cooperation with ṛta; karma as extension of ṛta
sátya is in a sense the Vedic form or expression of ṛta, as haithya is the quasi-adjectival form of aṣ̌a
In the Avesta, fire is regarded as at least a symbol of, and probably an expression of aṣ̌a.
Everything that is considered a part must have a reason why it is considered a part.
Much of the phenomenology of reading is in reality an exploration of the affordances and affinities of the world for ritual practices.
the sacredness of covenants in Yasht 10
While polytheists usually can distinguish the idol and the god, it is common in popular practice among many cultures to treat the possession of the idol as giving an indirect power over the god.
The course of history has repeatedly seen states taking over powers that originally were the prerogatives of the gods and their priests.
medicamentum (medicor), ornamentum (orno), pigmentum (pingo), monumentum (moneo), detrimentum (detero)
Exodus 29:37 -- The altar will be most holy, and whatever touches it will be holy.
That which is consecrated is destroyed in one mode that it may be brought within a particular templum of God.
covenantal act : jural :: consecrated act : sacral
"There are three dimensions to the mind in relation to the concept of existence: wajib (necessary), mumkin (possible), and mumtani (impossible)." Suhrawardi
"Cause is that through which the existence of something becomes necessary."
Christ as microcosm
There is a limit to our ability to be certain about both the precise outcome of a single experiment and its representativeness of other experiments. The more precise the relevant outcome, the more we need the ensemble to assess its representativeness. On the other side, the more representative an experiment is, the more easily we run up against a limit to how precise the outcome can be while still being representative.
"We must do what the gods did in the beginning." Satapath Brahmana 7.2.1.4
"This the gods did, thus men do." Tattiriya Brahmana 1.5.9.4
Every text reveals the true and the good well and badly.
the testability of the test (a key element in replication) -- related to the ensemble of experiments
modality and the difference of the same
An experiment is a potentiality with a boundary such that a change can be measured, thus providing information (allowing good inferences) about moving causes (sources of change), and laws (that to which the change tends).
Every virtue has a phenomenology of the world with respect to that virtue.
"Men who are given to defining too much inevitably run themselves into confusion in dealing with the vague concepts of common sense." Peirce
"The phenomena that *show themselves* to one person need not necessarily show themselves to another." Fernando Molina
"Every sign *by itself* seems dead. *What* gives it life? -- In use it is *alive*." Wittgenstein
If your theology, gathered all together, has a sameyness, it is not a theology adequate to Christian life, nor a theology developed from Scritpure, because neither Christian life nor Scripture could be accused of exhibiting any general kind of sameyness.
"In all the arts that minister to rational pleasure, variety is studied, that the mind may be refreshed with a succession of novelty." Beattie
-- Beattie takes our sense of the sublime to be an anticipation of our ultimate felicity; and also tpromote our moral improvement by increasing our disgust with vice and interest in virtue.
-- Gilpin perhaps gets his characterization of beauty as 'smooth' from Beattie (either directly or indirectly) -- see Eleemtns 1.1.9 (sect 181)
-- Beattie on tenderheartedness toward animals (Elements 1.2.5, sect 316)
-- Beattie's Elements 2.1 draws heavily from Butler.
-- Beattie gives a natural desire argument for immortality (sect 460) and also a consensus gentium argument (section 461-462).
three kinds of moral anti-realism: noncognitivism, error theory, nonobjectivism (subjectivism)
I. realism (Some moral facts are objectively true.)
-- -- A. naturalism (objectively true as 'natural facts')
-- -- B. non-naturalism (objectively true in a distinctive way from 'natural facts')
II. anti-realism
-- -- A. noncognitivism (not true or false)
-- -- B. error theory (always false)
-- -- C. subjectivism (true in some sense but not objectively)
NB -- according to Beatties 26 Oct 1769 letter to Sir William Forbes, Beattie gave the draft of the Essay on Truth to Campbell and Gerard, asking them especially to look for any possible misrepresentation.
Beattie to Mrs Montagu (21 April 1773) gives a traditionary argument based on language.
Harre, Causal Powers, p. 45 gives an argument one also finds in Lady Mary Shepherd versus the Humean theory (see also p. 52ff.).
Measurement is always of a thing (the measured) by a thing (the means of measurement) to a thing (what registers the measurement).
causal power --> potential at a place --> ordered structures of local potentials relative to causal powers --> field --> wave --> particle
