Saturday, May 26, 2018

Dashed Off X

An argument cannot apply itself.

bi: obsession with one aspect in such a way that one cannot accommodate the significance of other aspects; opposed to ming as blindness to clarity

Sustained political violence always depends on accessory enablers and post-hoc enablers.

Human nature is unhoned.

Shameless people will escalate harder against you than you can escalate against them. They need to be sidelined, not the focus of obsessive attrition. One sidelines them by focusing on what is more essential.

Going around actively trying to shame people is usually an injustice. The difficult question to answer is: When is it not? A necessary condition seems to be some kind of stakeholding, and it seems clear that what may be done depends on the kind of stakeholding.

Escalation only works under two conditions: (1) you have overwhelming advantage; (2) the other already doesn't want to be in the conflict either through first-order reluctance (don't want to be fighting this kind of conflict) or through second-order (don't want to be fighting at all), and can see a better alternative.

The most basic principle of government is: Actions in guise of authority must have a specific and appropriate ground of authority.

A problem with deterrence theories of punishment is that deterrence does not answer questions like, "Why not use the same punishments to deter other actions with bad consequences, like over-eating?" The only answer can be that some things are, independently, more punishment-worthy than others.

Reasoned discussion is the first and most basic form of politics. Any political view that does not recognize this is a form of political corruption. In this world, other methods and means may be necessary, but if they are not subordinated to reasoned discussion, they are simply an expression of might-makes-right.

Verecundia in Aquinas's sense should probably be more like a potential part than an integral part - kin to continentia. There is something in Temperance functionally filling that integral part place. (As Justice has doing good & avoiding evil, so Temperance has honoring the beautiful/graceful and avoiding/rejecting the disgraceful.)

convention marches vs protest marches

"The mind is the artisan and the steward of the Way." Xunzi

The sense of novelty is certainly linked to the sense of (im)plausibility, but neither is reducible to the other.

Shaming punishments are either exposures or harassments.

Shunning punishments: boycott, ban, banishment.

shaming punishments & issues of detraction
- actually a great many things pertaining to justice can be seen as restricting this and other kinds of punishment

All reasons for disestablishment of state churches seem to carry over and apply, with minimal change, to disestablishment of state schools.

intrinsic & extrinsic titles to penalty

opinions (properly speaking) vs opinion-like gestures

li as a way things are set in order

Dao is order that sets in order.

normification // classification
artificial normification converges on natural normification

"The noble uses authority; the petty uses force." Xunzi

There is no difference of significance between yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater and rigging up a machine or pulling a fire alarm to get the same effect; that the one is done by means of speech is incidental to the act and the reasons for prohibiting it.

Civilization in the broad sense is the tradition of reasoned interaction.

We are not structured so that it is easy for us to pursue being pleased; we are instead structured to pursue things, and then be pleased in attaining them.

The purpose of the police is not primarily to make the citizens do right or avoid wrong; it is primarily to be a middleman and buffer between citizens in matters that can lead to violence.

Nothing is worse for politics than trying to use political means to shortcircuit rational discussion.

The Bible itself records a history over centuries of continually reading the texts of previous ages more deeply.

aspects of the literal sense of Scripture
(1) local grammatical
(2) local historical
(3) unity of Scripture
(4) centrality of Christ
(5) ecclesially dispositive character

conjecture refinement processes

title to taxes & risk, loss, and service

(1) truth with authority
(2) objective presumption
--(2.1)inadvertent = madness in a broad sense
----(2.1.1) folly
----(2.1.2) madness proper
--(2.2) deliberate = lying
(underlying structure of "lunatic, liar, Lord arguments")
LLL arguments & defective causes

Apologetics draws on rhetoric rather than demonstration. It thus incorporates concerns of passion and character.

Sabbath rest symbolically teaches the imitation of God.

Paul Guldin's criticism of Cavalieri's proof by superposition of figure (Centrobaryca): 'Who will be the judge -- hand, eye, or intellect?'

Kitcher: "Central to the idea of rigorous reasoning is that it should contain no gaps, that it should proceed by means of elementary steps."
-- This obviously raises questions of what counts as a gap, and what counts as elementary. In fact, both of these can onlyl be determined relative to possible lines of criticism (the relativity of rigor).

experiential arguments based on affinity; based on revelation; based on hypothesis confirmation

"There is hope of the conversion of a nation of unbelievers; of the conversion of a nation of hypocrites none." Brownson

"I am as good as you, does very wll; but, you are as good as I, is quite another affair, and few will accept it, who have not the supernatural virtue of Christian charity." Brownson

" a philosopher and historian the madness and imbecility and wickedness of mankind ought to appear ordinary events." Hume to Robertson (27 Nov 1768)

To remain free, a society must be thick with traditions.

Who flees the field will find it difficult to turn suddenly to fight.

mathematical existence proofs as arguments that something is good to be (or at least good to be posited)

Luck and genius are often kin.

'in' as the relation of part to its whole; 'out', of nonpart to whole

Principles of warfare are guards against stupidity, not methods of winning.

Every Mystery of Mary is a sign of a Mystery of Christ.

a quasi-ontological argument
(1) God morally ought to be.
(2) God canont be such that He morally ought to be unless He is such that He must be.
(3) Therefore God must be.
-- As with the atheistic argument from evil, the question of moment is the status of this ought.

If we can distinguish and speak of mathematical existence, axiological existence, metaphysical existence, etc., then divine existence should be something in which, so to speak, these kinds of existence are not divided.

Right to truth accounts of lying do not take into account the importance of fidelity to truth. (Cp. Chastek)

Truth can be said to have a sort of right to manifestation and defense. This seems connected both to our obligations to ourselves and others as rational, and also to divinity (since truth is an appurtenance of divinity).

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