Notes and Links

* Philosophers' Carnival 45 is up, hosted by Ainslee Hooper. My post on ad hominem fallacies is included.

* Contrary to popular belief, the living do not outnumber the dead.

* Klaas Kraay has a lovely paper entitled Can God Choose a World at Random? (PDF), looking at the randomness response to two recent objections to theism. Of course, both the IMUW-based objection and the NUW-based objection require the assumption that God's sufficient reason for choosing a world can only be completely axiological, i.e., that nothing can contribute to God's choice except what is surpassability-relevant, which is an implausible assumption to make. But a different sort of reply is to say that God does not need a sufficient reason at all, since he can choose one at random. I think Klaas's response to this is a basically right given the assumption, although he overlooks the possible response that, if God Himself is considered the randomizing device, then the reply to the claim that there is only one unsurpassable randomizer doesn't work, since that reply assumes that the randomizer is something distinct from God that is selected by Him. And it would be hard to argue that God couldn't Himself be a randomizer with someone who is already claiming that God can choose randomly.

* Glen Thompson's Christ on the Silk Road discusses scholarship on the history of Nestorian Christianity in China. Incidentally, one of the classic works on the subject, mentioned in the article, is Peter Yoshiro Saeki's 1916 The Nestorian Monument in China is available (in 1918 reprint) at Internet Archive. It's out of date, of course, but still well worth reading.

* Susan Palwick has a nice post on the Stations of Complacency that stand over against the Stations of the Cross.

* Edward T. Oakes muses on René Girard.

* Something I learned about Hume yesterday that I did not previously know: Hume's famous 'Reason is, and ought to be, the slave of the passions' (in Treatise 2.3.3) is, astoundingly, an allusion to Cicero. Cicero certainly doesn't have such a view, but is associated with the phrase by Bayle (in Note H of the Ovid article) in an argument against Stoicism. Bayle accuses the Stoics of ignoring the human condition, and quotes a passage from Cicero preserved by Augustine in order to illustrate the point. The point he is making is that the Stoics are unusual in antiquity in attributing so much power to reason. Hume, always a fan of Cicero, would no doubt have read the passage with particular interest. The recognition of this illuminates Hume's whole argument in that section. This is exactly why doing history of philosophy is a splendid endeavor. Bayle is someone I keep intending to read more closely (rather than just dipping in occasionally for reference), but haven't managed to do so yet; this is one more reason to get on with it. The Dictionnaire Historique et Critique is online.

* In San Francisco I managed to attend several papers. It confirms my view that the primary difference between attending the APA and attending any other conference is the cost. Far and away the best that I attended was Kate Abramson's paper on a (broadly) Smithian account of moral contempt in the Adam Smith session; it was very thought-provoking. I attended a Descartes session (bearable) and the Hume Society Session (enjoyable). I also dropped in on the Epistemic Value session; it was good to be reminded of how utterly boring analytic epistemologists are able to make otherwise interesting subjects. That's a bit harsh; there were bits and pieces that I enjoyed, but I had the experience a sane individual must feel who, having thoroughly enjoyed the early trilogy, nonetheless finds himself in a room filled with Star Wars geeks arguing about the details of Boba Fett's weaponry.

ADDED LATER:

* Whatever you may think of Alanis Morissette, she is at least a little bit awesome when it comes to mocking things that deserve it while also making a serious point about a serious absurdity in our contemporary culture. (This is what she's parodying.)

Via Crucis

The traditional Stations of the Cross are:

1. Jesus is condemned to death
2. Jesus receives the Cross
3. Jesus falls the first time
4. Jesus meets His Mother
5. Simon of Cyrene carries the Cross
6. Veronica wipes Jesus' face with her veil
7. Jesus falls the second time
8. Jesus meets the Women of Jerusalem
9. Jesus falls the third time
10. Jesus is stripped of His garments
11. Jesus is nailed to the Cross
12. Jesus dies on the Cross
13. Jesus' body is removed from the Cross
14. Jesus is laid in the tomb

In 1991 John Paul II started using an alternative Stations of the Cross:

1. Jesus in Gethsemane
2. Jesus is betrayed and arrested
3. Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin
4. Jesus is denied by Peter
5. Jesus is judged by Pilate
6. Jesus is scourged and crowned with Thorns
7. Jesus bears the Cross
8. Simon helps Jesus carry His Cross
9. Jesus meets the Women of Jerusalem
10. Jesus is crucified
11. Jesus promises Paradise to the Good Thief
12. Jesus speaks to His Mother and His Disciple
13. Jesus dies
14. Jesus is laid in the tomb

But, as Amy Welborn points out, some reporters are a little slow on the uptake.

Christina Rossetti on Easter Eve

EASTER EVEN

There is nothing more that they can do
For all their rage and boast :
Caiaphas with his blaspheming crew,
Herod with his host;

Pontius Pilate in his judgment hall
Judging their Judge and his,
Or he who led them all and past them all,
Arch-Judas with his kiss.

The sepulchre made sure with ponderous stone,
Seal that same stone, O priest :
It may be thou shalt block the Holy One
From rising in the east.

Set a watch about the sepulchre
To watch on pain of death :
They must hold fast the stone if One should stir
And shake it from beneath.

God Almighty, He can break a seal,
And roll away a stone :
Can grind the proud in dust who would not kneel,
And crush the mighty one.

There is nothing more that they can do
For all their passionate care,
Those who sit in dust, the blessed few,
And weep and rend their hair.

Peter, Thomas, Mary Magdalen,
The Virgin unreproved,
Joseph and Nicodemus foremost men,
And John the well-beloved.

Bring your finest linen and your spice,
Swathe the sacred Dead,
Bind with careful hands and piteous eyes
The napkin round His head :

Lay Him in the garden-rock to rest :
Rest you the Sabbath length :
The Sun that went down crimson in the west
Shall rise renewed in strength.

God Almighty shall give joy for pain,
Shall comfort him who grieves :
Lo He with joy shall doubtless come again
And with Him bring His sheaves.

23 March 1861.

RESURRECTION EVE

He resteth: weep not;
The living sleep not
With so much calm.
He hears no chiding
And no deriding,
Hath joy for sorrow,
For night hath morrow,
For wounds hath balm,
For life's strange riot
Hath death and quiet.
Who would recall him
Of those that love him?
No fears appall him,
No ills befall him;
There's nought above him
Save turf and flowers
And pleasant grass.
Pass the swift hours,
How swiftly pass !
The hours of slumber
He doth not number;
Grey hours of morning
Ere the day's dawning;
Brightened by gleams
Of the sunbeams,
By the foreseeing
Of resurrection,
Of glorious being,
Of full perfection,
Of sins forgiven
Before the face
Of men and spirits;
Of God in heaven,
The resting-place
That he inherits.

8 April 1847.

Race to Mecca

The story is told that a very wealthy man died with two sons. His will stated that only one son will receive anything, namely the son whose horse would lose a race from Medina to Mecca.

The race was arranged, but after many months neither son had made it far outside the gates of Medina. There are infinitely many ways to defer a goal, and they were each trying to be the last to reach the holy city.. One day an old man happened by and asked why they both look so frustrated. They told him the whole story.

The old man stood in thought a moment, then said, "You are certain that the will states that the son whose horse reaches Mecca last will receive the inheritance?"

"Yes," said one of the sons; "hence our frustration."

"Then the problem is easily solved: each of you must ride your brother's horse and make sure it reaches Mecca before your own."

So they each jumped on the other's horse and spurred the horses for all they were worth toward Mecca.

A Poem Draft for Holy Wednesday

Again, because I don't know if I'll have a chance to post tomorrow.

Alabastrum

Take up this alabaster box to break,
take up this heart to pour it out,
let it flood forth with scented oils
and gladness born of mercy.

How closed up is my heart's desire!
How much it must be broken!
Upon your head and feet I empty
and pour myself in weeping;
let not one drop be left within
but all anointing you.

Hymn of Kassiani

It really goes with Holy Wednesday, but as I don't know if I'll have the chance to post anything tomorrow, I thought I'd post a paraphrase of Kassia's famous Mary Magdalen hymn:

O Lord, the woman who had fallen into many sins,
perceiving Your divinity,
took the part of a myrrh-bearer;
weeping, she brings oils of myrrh
before your burial.

"Woe to me," she says, "for night
is a frenzy of license to me,
a dark, moonless love of sin.

"Receive the fountains of my tears,
O You who gather the sea-waters into clouds
Incline to the groanings of my heart,
O You who laid low the heavens by Your humility.

"I shall kiss Your immaculate feet,
wipe them again with the hair of my head,
those feet at whose sound Eve in Paradise hid for fear.

"The multitude of my sins, the depths of your judgments,
who can search them out, O Savior of souls?
Do not despise me, Your handmaiden,
O You whose mercy admits of no measure."

The original Greek is here. You can read a musical analysis of it here (example 4). Here (PDF) is an English translation with sheet music. You can hear an English version here. But to get a sense of the power of it, you have to hear it in Greek.

Last year I gave a rough-and-quick summary of the events of Holy Week, for those who are interested.

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