Genres may be formed
(1) spontaneously by imitation
(2) reactively by reflection on prior achievements
(3) programmatically by cooperative attempt to achieve something new
the essay as an experiment in communication
Civilization endures for two reasons:
(1) things are occasionally renovated;
(2) things are always going to ruin, altogether and without pause, but the ruining of some things restricts the ruining of others, as when in a wall or arch the falling of one stone prevents the falling of another.
dialectics as bringing fragments into conversation with each other
Romantic irony as concerned with the meaning of a discussion among different perspectives
Kant's Prolegomena is the description of an aspiration
aphorism as:
sudden view of meaning (like medieval surprise in civic architecture)
answer to question not yet asked
mnemonic condensation of many things into one
bounding of the unbounded, the immeasurable given measure
Lesbian rule, a description exemplary of descriptions, a definition bendable to situation
proverb in embryo
arrow pointing elsewhere, a Hodegetria
dialogue in fragmetns, a partially overheard conversation
motley heap in a motley heap that nonetheless suggests an architecture
refraction through crystal of whole into part
cell in an amoeba colony, cooperating for mutual benefit
part of a convergence to something dimly suspected
pollen fertilizing different flowers simultaneously
system pretending not to be system, order in masquerade
concentration of wandering attention on the extraordinary, Easter in ordinary time, Sunday in Lent
whisper in the whispering gallery of time
All ecclesiastical art is a fragmentary diagrammatic sketch of something it can only suggest.
All of Christian life is a practice of translation. Most such translation is unauthoritative. Some of it will be fumbling and wooden; some of it loose and paraphrastic; some of it technical and limited; some of it folksy and potentially misleading; some of it inspired genius; much of it poor. But we are requried by Christ in the Great Commission to translate.
the Church as archive of divine things
Lavoisier's conception of simple substance is relative to us -- "since we have no means of dividing them, they act with respect to us as simple substances"; we suppose them simple except where experiment and observation require us to treat them as compounded, not because we are affirming that they are not compound.
a hierarchy of sublimities that are signs of sublimities
Kant is best in fragments.
Art is contagious.
The message of tragedy is that there is good even in the terrible; the message of comedy is that there is good even in the ridiculous.
the satyr play as the representation of all artistic endeavor, the artist as both Silenus throwing the myth into chaos and the hero restoring it to form
The soul is our general medium for having a point.
"If it's really philosophy, then, like the phoenix, it will always rise again from its own ashes." Schlegel
Henry V is perhaps the greatest work on representation of the legendary/heroic/mythic ever penned.
God is simple (as regards presence itself), immense (as regards how the presence itself is related to boundaries that contain), and infinite (as regards how local things are related to His presence).
For a thing to exist, there must be a providential role (li) for it.
The providential role of heaven, earth, and myriad things is that nothing is in isolation but certainly has its complement, spontaneously and not artificially.
Things have a providential role in the world, which we learn, and a providential role in the mind, which we oversee, and the one providence is a sign and symbol of the other providence.
The providential role of a thing is the reason by which it is and the rule according to which it ought to be. All things have a providential role, and as a whole they are providence.
Some friendship 'runs its course', but the only friendship commensurate with the human person is eternal friendship.
Language already presupposes a system of deontic powers.
"When the defilement of all faults is cleared away, our business is to learn eternal virtues." Leo
"Christian povery is always wealth, because what one has is more than what one does not have."
"Love is the power of faith; faith is the strength of love. Only then is the name true the fruit truth of both when the union remains intact."
"Paradox is the mark of the overcoming of abstractions." Spaemann
Knowing is something we do with others.
Truth has expressions in logic, ethics, and aesthetics, and the same is true of goodness and beauty.
A possibility: imperatives and questions can't be antecedents because they are inherently incomplete; incompleteness, however, is not a problem for consequents (they don't have to be affirmed). Btu this still leaves the matter of negation.
Language already presupposes understanding one thing as another or in different lights.
feeling-that as a modality weaker than belief but otherwise suggesting a doxastic logic
ens socialis straddles the ens realis / ens rationis line
(1) Each Person of the Trinity is necessarily related to the other two.
(2) The relation to one and the relation to the other must be unified, not splitting or dividing the Person.
(3) As principle the Father is at once the generator of the Son and the projector of the Spirit; as Spirit, the Spirit is from the Father so as to be the Spirit of the Father and the Son; as image of the Father, the Son is from the Father so as to be at once the Son and the sharer of the Spirit with the Father.
natural and artificial classification, as opposed to formal and instrumental classification
medium of exchange -> store of value
:: the condition is that we are dealing with exchanges over time -- with diachronic features, not just at a time
medium of exchange + store of value -> unit of account
:: the condition is record-keeping of exchanges both synchronic and diachronic
unit of account -> standard of deferred payment
:: the condition is planning in light of records
general monetary desiderata
as medium of exchange: fungibility, portability
as store of value: durability, nonreplicability
as unit of account: verifiability
as standard of deferred payment: stability
--> there can be other desiderata under specific circumstances.
Fiat money basically consists of tax certificates, for a broad sense of tax. It does not, as is often said, depend only on faith and trust; it depends on the fact that government can and does compel payment on certain matters, and does so in the form it deems fit. It would be an exaggeration, but more accurate, to say that fiat money is based on universal desperation arising from the need to pay created by government.
kinds of interaction
(1) nonexchange (different actions in the interaction)
(2) exchange of something for its own sake
(3) exchange of record of something
S uses X to represent W for purposes P.
"The fundamental idea of constitution is this: when a thing of one primary kind is in certain circumstances, a thing of another primary kind -- a new thing, with new causal powers -- comes to exist." Lynne Rudder Baker
All artisans create abstract artifacts; it's just that sometimes we are only interested in one instance, usually the prototype created in creating the abstract artifact.
"As we must live righteously all the time, so we must bear the cross all the time, for to all of us have been assigned our own crosses, and all of us carry them in our own way and in our own measure." Leo
bearing the Cross participatively, bearing the Cross symbolically, bearing the Cross aspierationally
Academic philosophy tends to confuse philosophy with the production of philosophy artifacts.
