tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post7580029059957276537..comments2023-10-19T21:48:56.560-05:00Comments on meaning in history: Briefly Noted: We Are In The Fight Of Our Lives Over Epistemologymark wauckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08247066866195200890noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post-79543789497133903002020-12-06T11:51:13.482-06:002020-12-06T11:51:13.482-06:00I left Berkeley a radical 46 years ago and for dec...I left Berkeley a radical 46 years ago and for decades I thought that my familiarity with the mindset would allow me to flip my old mates. It's only been in the past four years that I've realized how impervious they are to any argument. It finally occurred to me that their sense of self is inextricably linked to their political ideology. Subtract the ideology and you would render them PD Quighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00454197219107241444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post-31223084292983893882020-12-06T10:27:05.984-06:002020-12-06T10:27:05.984-06:00As Swift puts it, "Reasoning will never make ...As Swift puts it, "Reasoning will never make a Man correct an ill opinion, which by Reasoning he never acquired." I would say we face an uphill battle.<br /><br />In a sense, if we bend the meaning of the story to fit our needs, the myth of Sisyphus is more apt.<br /><br />We are Sisyphus. The rock is our endless and futile attempt to win the argument. <br /><br />Thinking we can argue Titan 28https://www.blogger.com/profile/09046922743675836512noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post-62864758785682898702020-12-06T09:38:12.322-06:002020-12-06T09:38:12.322-06:00Problem is, as Richard Weaver noted, the apparent ...Problem is, as Richard Weaver noted, the apparent does not exhaust the real.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11603641921552583327noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post-76715615406752886442020-12-05T21:17:20.043-06:002020-12-05T21:17:20.043-06:00Bloch's wiki entry attributes to him the view ...Bloch's wiki entry attributes to him the view <br />"that the historian should attempt to explain and describe rather than evaluate in normative terms."<br />I'm quite with him on this, and suggest that opinionated historians should Evaluate in separate "Afterwards", akin to OP-eds in newspapers.aNanyMousehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14452492302514671882noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post-81193254827569710132020-12-05T20:05:02.375-06:002020-12-05T20:05:02.375-06:00Have you tried Gilson's "The Unity of Phi...Have you tried Gilson's "The Unity of Philosophical Experience"? It is, in my view, in important respects his greatest book. It's his 1936 Harvard lectures and is both highly readable as well as a sweeping historical survey of Western thought.mark wauckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08247066866195200890noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post-91546136228904750152020-12-05T19:41:03.792-06:002020-12-05T19:41:03.792-06:00More on historical contingency, vs. longer-run tre...More on historical contingency, vs. longer-run trends, e.g. in Epistemology:<br />What if one of the judges who sent Stalin to "cushy" exile (after his multiple arrests for various crimes), instead took more into account the long length of his career of bank robbery, kidnapping, etc., and gave Stalin sentences of decades, instead of just 2-3 years at a time?<br />Would the USSR have aNanyMousehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14452492302514671882noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post-22120989525197946572020-12-05T19:34:22.168-06:002020-12-05T19:34:22.168-06:00Gilson supervised the doctoral dissertation of Fr....Gilson supervised the doctoral dissertation of Fr. Joseph Owers ('The Doctrine of Being in Aristotle's Metaphysics'). Owens supervised the doctoral distortion of one John Catan who in turn was my philosophy teacher.<br />Catan tried to get me in to the whole metaphysics/epistemology thing but the only thing by Gilson that I could get through was his delightful book "Eloisa to Tom Versohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03042492935981130084noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post-72079466906546557482020-12-05T19:16:24.029-06:002020-12-05T19:16:24.029-06:00By my lights, the Founders were a synthesis of the...By my lights, the Founders were a synthesis of the very best of the Western Tradition, and came early enough to not be bastardized by Rousseauism/ Jacobinism.<br />Had the Bourbons not been such idiots, the Jacobins may not have gotten so much power so fast, and Rousseauism may not have gotten steam (as more that just another interesting set of approaches).<br />As it was, Rousseauism did becomeaNanyMousehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14452492302514671882noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post-53751944774067604342020-12-05T18:38:31.683-06:002020-12-05T18:38:31.683-06:00Good stuff, Aletheia.
On some specifics:
"evo...Good stuff, Aletheia.<br />On some specifics:<br />"evolution, creating doubts about... the fixity of human nature."<br />I don't see how such doubts *needed* to matter in a political context.<br />Even if the human species "evolves", it does so, in the key respects, too slowly to matter (contrary to Marxist fantasies).<br /><br />As to "infatuated with German aNanyMousehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14452492302514671882noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post-33119261466968605152020-12-05T18:20:18.969-06:002020-12-05T18:20:18.969-06:00The Catholic influence on the founding is the subj...The Catholic influence on the founding is the subject of this book (not yet read, but on my to-do list):<br /><br />Catholic Republic: Why America Will Perish Without Rome<br />by Timothy GordonBrother Asshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01743538023268812952noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post-16747529132278520202020-12-05T18:12:38.833-06:002020-12-05T18:12:38.833-06:00The last sentence should read: I remember clearly...The last sentence should read: I remember clearly when it was hijacked by corporate media and always considered it egregious.<br />Tom S.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post-8150645980662812632020-12-05T17:24:39.449-06:002020-12-05T17:24:39.449-06:00That's it.That's it.mark wauckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08247066866195200890noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post-1471539877201480322020-12-05T16:24:33.818-06:002020-12-05T16:24:33.818-06:00“You can resolve to live your life with integrity....“You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.”<br /><br />“If I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible what was the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: 'Men had forgotten God;Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post-16947890146696004292020-12-05T16:23:16.693-06:002020-12-05T16:23:16.693-06:00Heard this at a Trump rally...
https://www.youtu...Heard this at a Trump rally... <br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neCS21rPTHU<br /><br />Very apropos for these times.<br />Mike Edmonsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09715497998545552826noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post-67743229194118600002020-12-05T16:15:04.561-06:002020-12-05T16:15:04.561-06:00In fact the notion that most of the prominent Foun...In fact the notion that most of the prominent Founding Fathers were anything like real believing Christians is incorrect.<br /><br />OTOH, the Catholic influence on the American Founding was very real, and does lead back to Aquinas through Bellarmine:<br /><br />St. Robert Bellarmine's Influence on the Writing of the Declaration of Independence & the Virginia Declaration of Rights<br /><mark wauckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08247066866195200890noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post-78705644786928985572020-12-05T16:14:49.675-06:002020-12-05T16:14:49.675-06:00Well...as Jordan Peterson is fond of saying, a per...Well...as Jordan Peterson is fond of saying, a person may well deny reality and objective truth al Ln they want until they slam up against physical pain. There is no philosophy or solipsism that can overcome the reality of physical pain. That suffering focuses the mind and clarifies thinking in a marvelous way. And make no mistake. Pain is coming for many many people if this insane power grab Tschifty Mccoyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04145718212696956164noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post-60255323172796124382020-12-05T16:05:25.596-06:002020-12-05T16:05:25.596-06:00But they also believed that Christianity was true
...<i>But they also believed that Christianity was true</i><br /><br />Yes, but Deneen (and James Schall, SJ) make it clear that "Christianity" is not congruent with Catholicism. After Luther, Aquinas was a mostly-dead letter in Christianity; thus Deneen's concern.Dad29https://www.blogger.com/profile/08554276286736923821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post-13807120047170771962020-12-05T16:01:22.235-06:002020-12-05T16:01:22.235-06:00I would say much the same is true of the abuse of ...I would say much the same is true of the abuse of the word "gay" as a proxy for homosexual. It forces the conversation away from behavior and into a cul-de-sac about personality. I remember clearly when it was hijacked my corporate media and always considered egregious.<br />Tom S.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post-19705896048366007522020-12-05T15:39:54.494-06:002020-12-05T15:39:54.494-06:00Oh, and with the "Great Reset" I shouldn...Oh, and with the "Great Reset" I shouldn't expect to be compensated (amongst many, many others) for losses incurred due to Covid-19 origination in China. That's right... we're all in this situation together now. Here ya go, here's some more skin off my back. AmericanCardiganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07905240590569993870noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post-48632144942338010422020-12-05T15:33:19.974-06:002020-12-05T15:33:19.974-06:00"But in collective solipsism, it is not enoug..."But in collective solipsism, it is not enough to make people do things. You must make them believe things—as much as one can believe in something they know to be false. So in this system, you have to force people to believe things that they otherwise would reject. Without doing so the objective world still has primacy."<br /><br />- So is this the Kool-aid the MSM is drinking? AmericanCardiganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07905240590569993870noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post-61519306563220624192020-12-05T12:33:09.823-06:002020-12-05T12:33:09.823-06:00I find Dr. Kenneth Minogue very insightful on libe...I find Dr. Kenneth Minogue very insightful on liberalism (Big L in the sense we are ALL liberals) contradictions and trajectory. "The Liberal Mind" is short but very very sweet.Mark Ackmannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11304347524710804388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post-19924595154100372822020-12-05T12:27:23.833-06:002020-12-05T12:27:23.833-06:00Feeling philosophical today are we?
I'm not ...Feeling philosophical today are we? <br /><br />I'm not sure that we're in the fight of our lives over epistemology. I think it's a side effect of a much bigger and intentionally created problem. <br /><br />The clash is not a naturally occurring it's being brought about by a larger force in almost every case. <br /><br />By saying that I do realize that the argument could become devilmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00256049667739001018noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post-61400972241499517222020-12-05T12:23:09.609-06:002020-12-05T12:23:09.609-06:00You're very welcome!You're very welcome!mark wauckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08247066866195200890noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post-32396636236425120142020-12-05T12:09:32.779-06:002020-12-05T12:09:32.779-06:00Many thanks for the link to the Notturno article.
...Many thanks for the link to the Notturno article.<br /><br />My daughter is an adolescent, and her view of the world continues to unfold in front of her. The travails of this past year have afforded us to discuss the merits of examining the facts concerning COVID-19, and comparing these facts to the stories we are fed in the media.<br /><br />As our daughter is, like her adolescent peers, often rkh412https://www.blogger.com/profile/12592559945538025601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608697421187043479.post-36709409663286256482020-12-05T11:58:30.077-06:002020-12-05T11:58:30.077-06:00I know Deneen and like him, but I think he is wron...I know Deneen and like him, but I think he is wrong about the intrinsically self-destructive nature of liberalism, especially as it was understood in America. The Founding Fathers of this country did indeed hold certain political truths, such as the equality of human beings (of all races and both sexes) and their endowment with certain natural rights to be true, not just for their times, but Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com