Dashed Off XII

Ethics is necessarily a conversation; not a negotiation, at least not always, but certainly discussion and social interaction.

classification, observation, and manipulation as the three moments of scientific thought
- these are, in fact, moments of experience in general, scientific inquiry being reflected-upon systematic experience

Theoretical truth is practical constraint.

Scientific inquiry is itself a social context.

To say that something is true by definition implies that it ought to be taken as given in some relevant system of thought.

The conventional, under appropriate rational conditions, converges on the natural.

A natural classification is that to which artificial classifications ought to tend.

In the Eucharist we (1) are transformed into what we consume; (2) are made sharers of Christ's divine nature; (3) are prepared for external gifts; (4) celebrate in sign that which will one day be perfected in us in truth.

Compatibilism in its more popular forms involves a confusion between determinateness and determination.

We should only appear at the banquet of the Lamb in the wedding garment of repentance.

locative affinity

classification as structuring inductions

the implicit ampliative character of truth itself

the deontic structure of induction

Calvin's commentary on Malachi is a criticism of Catholic conceptions of priesthood.

Simple enumeration, merely as such, does not reach a proper universal.

Representative samples are built by systematicity, not randomization; the latter is merely one thing that can rule out some biases that may interfere with systematicity. The link between representative sample and systematic sampling follows from the notion of representativeness itself.

probability as possibility plus degree of relevance

Probabilities, being measurements, are relative to the method of measurement used.

Endeavoring peace requires hope.

pacifism // passive obedience

A species has, beyond its members, its history and capacity to project itself forward.

Perversions of views of marriage have backed and germinated heresy for literally the entire history of the Church.

Scripture is the instrumental cause of sacred doctrine.

accessibility relations as forms of overlap

gifts as instruments

the grace of marriage as a tending to right representation

Mary as co-predestined with Christ
Christ predestined as | Mary predestined as
Incarnate Son | Mater Dei
fullness of grace appropriate to Incarnate Son | fullness of grace appropriate to Mother of God
meriting our grace de condigno | meriting our grace de congruo

A theory of sacrament is a theory of sacrifice.

clarity, coherence, necessity
clarity/splendor, integrity, proportion

layering of kinds of analogy as increasing probability of inference

bias removal as practical reasoning about structure of inquiry

three moments of angelic life: creation, merit/demerit, beatitude/reprobation

inquiry as dawning, knowledge as noon

the need for a symbolic economy appropriate to moral life

It is clear that God must be:
(1) first principle of our free will as a power
(2) first principle of the actuality of our free choice
(3) first principle of all goodness in the power and the act
and that He must be original, sustaining, and final cause in each case.

creativity in mathematics: a sense of the territory (to reduce wrong steps & establish priorities) + obsessiveness in rigor (to rule tihngs out or in definitively) + rapid thought (to avoid being bogged down or stuck too long exploring dead end routes)

Providence works both superordinately and coordinately with creatures.

"If God moved bodies by particular volitions, it would be a crime to avoid by flight the ruin of a collapsing building; for one cannot, without injustice, refuse to return to God the life He has given us, if He demands it." Malebranche
- Thus Malebranche holds that God's work through general laws allows us to correct nature without correcting God, to resist nature without resisting God, etc.

Doubt by its nature posits an end or satisfaction of doubt.
Doubt presupposes the possibility of knowledge. There is reason to think the reverse is not.

That something could be false is not the same as its being possible that it is false.

We come to understand the principle of noncontradiction by actually reasoning.

Any question of reliability is a teleological question.

Confidence does not come with percentages.

The post-medieval world is an age of theft: nations rise by plundering the Church and other nations, positions rise by plundering the cultural heritage of others, money is made by plundering time and effort. To plunder occurs always; making it the center of everything, however, is another thing entirely. It's the brazenness of it that is remarkable.

Mendelssohn's definition of 'church' -- 'public institution for the cultivation of man, concerning his relations with God' -- includes much more than what we usually think of as a church.

"civilisation is founded on abstractions" Chesterton

unfitness and the horror genre

Note that Vatican I explicitly says that following are acts of definition in which the Pope exercises infallible teaching authority: summoning an ecumenical council to define a doctrine, consulting the opinion of churches throughout the world to define a doctrine, calling a special synod to define a doctrine. (There is also the miscellaneous category, 'taking advantage of other useful means afforded by divine providence'.)
Papal teaching authority is exercised with and for the Church.

Marriage cannot exist in a way that is inconsistent as a general condition with rational and virtuous family life, for it is itself and by nature familial.

natural classification
(1) affinities determined by whole
(2) arrangements are of greatest degree of relation
(3) the imperfectly known may be determined from the known

the importance of there being a romantic love that is not sexual in its goals

quantification as scope of inquiry

systematic vs nonsystematic intellectual inquiry

"We know with much greater clarity that our will is free than that everything that happens must have a cause." Lichtenberg

(1) The will is not necessitated in its choices by any prior cause.
(2) Our choices are attributable to us and are not beyond our control.
(3) We have a will naturally not determined to one.

'Life' admits of more and less.

Necessary regulative principles of empirical inquiry imply general constitutive theses about sensible nature and sensible phenomena. So also with the intelligible, mutatis mutandis.

What is always and necessarily *as if* is certainly *so*.

sublimity as a background for friendship

In marriage, love of self, love of neighbor, and love of God begin to overlap in sometimes obvious ways.

Loving is to goodness as dwelling or resting is to beauty.

prudence as the structure of good parenting

The sensible is always explained by the intelligible.

To defeat demons requires setting aside all pretense at being wholly in control.

We learn restraint by precept and example.

Prediction and retrodiction are the standard modes of exegetical confirmation.

(1) What is intelligible is not in itself sensible; therefore what knows the intelligible is not in itself sensible.
(2) What knows has the intelligible form of something, but not in the way the material thing has it; therefore what knows is not, as such, material.

The problem of evil requires that the moral principles used be precisely defined and either self-evident or demonstrable.

"The devil has his contemplatives even as God has his." Cloud of Unknowing XLV

(1) There is nonsensible but intelligible agency.
(2) Sensible phenomena are explained by intelligible agency.

Ontologies and epistemologies mutually suggest each other.

nonextrinsic similarity as suggesting shared causal history

tendency to end, intrinsic order, limitation, form of persistence
(four ways of thinking of natures)

When we assert, we often do so on another person's authority.
assertion-for-the-nonce, assertion-from-a-perspective

Truth sometimes sets us free by killing us.

reasonable hope as the key to double effect

coherence : truth :: integrity : good :: harmony : beauty

Truly to know that one has sinned against love is painful, and it is a pain that endures even if one fails to repents of the sin itself.

implicature of behavior in the virtue of temperance (substance, quality, quantity, relation) -- quality is the tricky one
the appearance of condoning
our behavior as communicating values
the casuistry of temperance-related implicature
what one's actions communicate to oneself
integritas, claritas, and proportionalitas in temperance

We should tend to avoid actions that could be confused with serious evils, if they became known.
We should tend to avoid actions that could be seen as condoning serious evils, if they became known.
We should tend to avoid actions that are very similar to serious evils.
We should tend toward actions that would communicate respect for persons, if the actions were known.
We should tend toward actions that would communicate the importance of virtuous disciplines if the actions were known.

postulates of communicative reason

infrastructural tracks for intellectual alliances

felicity conditions for sacraments

the authorities of the Holy See
(1) intrinsic
(2) by long possession
(3) by (non-intrinsic) succession
(4) by positive law
(5) by interest of the Church

evaluation of argument in terms of
(1) appropriateness to rational ends
(2) rigor and requirement
(3) durability in the face of objection-candidates
(4) simplicity and elegance

Genuine inquiry requires standards that do not create unworkable argumentative costs.

Ayn Rand's theory of measurement omission underestimates the difficulty of measuring in the first place.

tradition and the parable of the talents

classification and helpful adjacency in research

Royce's paradox of revelation & human nature as itself a revelation or (at least) preparatory thereto

reasoning at others vs reasoning with others

the intrinsic curatorial authority of the Church

When the very wealthy lends to the very poor, steps must be taken to guarantee that they enter the contract as equals and can both expect genuine benefit from it.

imitation of saints 1 Thess 1:5-10

the Ascension as promise of deliverance

In Purgatory, souls finally bear the weight of the martyrs' faith.

The nature of a rational creature being oriented to virtue, the true orientation of any human sexuality is to temperate action.

Measurements are of signs, by signs.

layers of marriage: sacrament, virtue, honor, profit, pleasure

sense organs as interpretants
classifiers as interpretants

contingent identity in the structure of desire (the object of desire)

testimony as vicarious experience

Marriage by nature has reference to common good.

natural light as inner affinity to truth

Every proposition is a seminal inference.

Confidence is not organized in univocal units, but functionally.

the felicity conditions of jargon

Forgiveness is a pillar of genuine civilization; this necessarily requires that repentance be one, too.

Human persons are such great goods that even the risk of there being a hell is not sufficient reason not to create them.

the Manichaean character of anti-natalism

"There is no marriage where motherhood is not in view." Augustine

Nothing can be thwarted in doing X expect in that sense in which it has the potential for X.

cognitive identity as contingent identity

that there are needs of human life more important than pleasure that do not reduce to preferences

Little pains may more naturally stimulate or incite curiosity than fear or avoidance, given otherwise comfortable circumstances.

man as the called animal

Anyone? Anyone?

Paramount released Ferris Bueller's Day Off on June 11, 1986. A little known fact: Ben Stein's monotonous lecture about the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act and supply-side economics was not in the script; he had been amusing the cast with mock lecturing, and they liked it so much that John Hughes had him improvise a lecture for the camera.



The movie wears surprisingly well, partly because the weaker humor isn't front and center. I find I have much more sympathy with Mr. Rooney these days than I did in decades ago; but it is as true as ever that "Life moves pretty fast; if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it!"

Ignatius Shoukrallah Maloyan

Today is the memorial of Blessed Ignatius Shoukrallah Maloyan (1869-1915). He was an Armenian Catholic belonging to the Patriarchal Order of Bzommar. He spent much of his career as a parish priest in Egypt, but in 1911 was made Archbishop of Mardin. The appointment would lead to his death.

In 1915, Mehmed Reshid, governor of the Ottoman province of Diyarbekir, having become convinced that Christian communities were a significant cause of the economic problems of the Empire and that they were conspiring with its enemies during World War I, began the systematic extermination of Armenian and Assyrian Christians throughout his province, and the Armenian Genocide came to Mardin. In June, the leaders of the Armenian Catholic community of Mardin were taken to court. During the trial, Bl. Ignatius was asked if he would convert. When he refused, he was beaten, and he and a large crowd of Armenian Christians were driven by forced march into the desert and killed, one by one. Bl. Ignatius was shot after he refused again to convert. He was beatified in 2001.

Knowing and Loving

In fact it is knowing that causes love and gives birth to it. It is not possible to attain love of anything that is beautiful without first learning how beautiful it is. Since this knowledge is sometimes very ample and complete and at other times imperfect, it follows that the philtre of love has a corresponding effect. Some things that are beautiful and good are perfectly known and perfectly loved as befits so great beauty. Others are not clearly evident to those who love them, and love of them is thus more feeble.

Nicholas Cabasilas, The Life in Christ, DeCatanzaro, tr. St. Vladimir's Seminary Press (Crestwood, NY: 1974) p. 89.

Three Poem Re-Drafts

Kolob

A star there is, they said, so near to God's own throne
it rules both near and far and governs as its own
the lights both great and small that shine in heaven's heights,
those children, one and all, that beam in endless night.
Its every day, they said, lasts for a thousand years
in which God's children play with smiles and no tears;
and every journal's thought exceeds in wisdom's reach
all things our scribes have taught, all things our lives can teach.
And from that place, perhaps, one sees the host of hosts
that sprinkle endless space, the sea without a coast --
and there the forests old spread endless and unmarred;
their trunks are trunks of gold, and every leaf -- a star.

But standing here, I said, I know a greater thing
than any extant sphere around which worlds can ring:
the One that prays with tears while facing endless loss
but overcomes all fears to stretch forth on a cross,
and rises up once more, a lamb upon a throne,
the way, the sheepfold's door, the knower and the known;
he is the branching vine and we the grafted stems
that praise with cheerful wine the endlessness of him.

River

The force of love to rush,
to flood,
is force of love to river be,
not pool or puddle on the plain:
it moves with end and not in vain,
to flow through vale to violet sea,
to find a home in unbound good.

Yet every water must be bound,
or, formless,
it will forceless move,
creep and seep,
devoid of rush,
like words that waver into hush,
enslaved by furrow and by groove.
That way the sea is never found.

Love in every way may veer,
may fall away,
may fail.
As rivers overflow we err --
the border burdens by being there --
and waves will war,
fight and flail,
for bounds are death:
death we fear.

All-Father's Knowledge

Weird is the wyrd of man,
and wild,
writ on stars with sacred stile,
carved on ash of ages blessed,
carved on leaves.
The bracts confess truth to those who hang for nine --
nine days,
nine nights,
in death sublime.
Eye then opens --
source of awe --
wise becomes the Hanging God:
wise with lore of ancient runes,
wise in ways of birth and doom.
Draughts,
fresh-drawn from prophet's well
(poets there will drink their fill,
the scops who,
with their eddas,
dream of things to come and things unseen),
will wake from slumber sleeping thoughts --
wise becomes the prophet-God,
who gives an eye to be made wise,
who on the ash of ages dies.
Ravens soar from rainbow-bridge
with piercing eye for all things hid,
go back and forth through all the lands --
of death,
of elf,
of god,
of man;
through all ages restless roam from root to crown to Father's throne,
thought and memory turned to wing,
seeking out all truths unseen.

And this he sees in town and wild:
a stranger is the human child.

Harp of the Spirit

Today is the feast of St. Ephrem of Syria, Doctor of the Church:

Good is He, for lo! He labours in these two things—He wills not to constrain our freedom— nor again does He suffer us to abuse it.— For had he constrained it, He had taken away its power—and had He let it go, He had deprived it of help.

He knows that if He constrains He deprives us—He knows that if He casts off He destroys us—He knows that if He teaches He wins us.— He has not constrained and He has not cast off, as the Evil One does:— He has taught, chastened, and won us, as being the good God.

He knows that His treasuries abound:— the keys of His treasuries He has put into our hands.— He has made the Cross our treasurer— to open for us the gates of Paradise,— as Adam opened the gate of Gehenna.

(Hymns for Epiphany, 10.14-16)

A Very Strange Presidential Election

So the presumptive nominees of the major parties for President are, on the one hand, a billionaire who is universally recognized to be self-aggrandizing, and, on the other, a dynastic politician no one trusts who is under investigation by the FBI for violating national security law. I don't vote major party in presidential elections, so I don't have anything more to say about that except:

At this point, to be sure, it really wouldn't be surprising if we got to the voting booth and turned out to be rickrolled.

I once had an idea for a story in which the American President, President Beltrane, is a fantastically popular supervillain who vacations in his volcano lair, has a vice president who is an inarticulate Frankenstein-monster named Henchman, and whose campaign promises and policies consist of a mix of supervillain schemes and taking real political slogans to an insane limit. For instance, as a tax-cutting measure he holds Ireland for ransom in order to pay for government paperclips, and he advocates forcing everyone to undergo weekly physical examinations at the doctor's office because it's not universal health care if there are people not receiving it. But looking at this election, I find that there are just infinitely many ways in which I am not imaginative enough.