Saturday, January 4th, 2014

Time	Event
1:41a	'Occurrent Belief' http://branemrys.blogspot.com/2014/01/occurrent-belief.html It is a curious feature of contemporary analytic philosophy, which takes some getting used to, that its practitioners tend to explain things in terms of the more poorly understood. Thus, for instance, they like explaining things in terms of propositions, even though there is no generally accepted account of what propositions are; and they like appealing to intuitions, even though there is no particularly illuminating account in contemporary analytic philosophy of what intuitions are; and they like analyzing things in terms of their properties despite the fact that there is no widely accepted account of what properties are; and they like boiling things down to justification even though they can't agree on what justification is or implies; and they like bringing in identity despite the well-known puzzles concerning it; and so forth. I see that Andrew Moon has recently been puzzling about one of these curious terms, 'occurrent belief', in a recent "Certain Doubts" post. It's worth thinking a moment about the history of the phrase, which shows exactly why it falls into this category. 'Occurrent belief' arose from the dispute over the nature of beliefs in the middle of the twentieth century, which was regularly -- especially by dispositionalists -- put in terms of occurrentism vs. dispositionalism. Roughly speaking, dispositionalists took 'belief' to mean a state one is in over a period of time, not any kind of happening or doing. Pretty much any account of belief that did not make belief a disposition was labeled occurrence theory of belief, since the dispute was mostly ginned up by dispositionalists to build arguments for dispositionalism, and they just stuffed all their very different opponents in one box to do it. The dispute faded, more or less, although dispositionalism won to the extent of getting to set the default terminological assumptions among philosophers, but the terms remained; when people talked about 'occurrent belief' they meant simply 'belief as it would be understood in some occurrence theory or other'. 'Occurrent belief', in other words, never did more than signal that the person using it was not using 'belief' as a dispositionalist would use the term; it never indicated anything about what that belief was. Of course, in particular cases we can find particular accounts of belief in play, further specifications from context, or because people wanted to be clear what they meant when using the phrase. But such cases simply show that 'occurrent belief' largely meant whatever people wanted it to mean. A common early view was that occurrent beliefs were acts of some kind; e.g., acts of assent or taking an attitude toward propositions. We find trace of this, for instance, from a dispositionalist perspective, in Price's influential Gifford Lectures. Another, later, example of this view would be Amelie Rorty's definition of it as the assertion or denial of propositional content. A different view that sprang up, somewhat later, but now quite common, was the one that occurrent beliefs were just beliefs-we-are-conscious-of-somehow; David-Hillel Ruben says somewhere, for instance, that as far as he can tell it's the only plausible meaning of the phrase. The two are obviously going to be capable of having radically different implications. In reality, of course, people just use the phrase with occasional clarification when necessary, to mean whatever it is convenient for it to mean at the point when they are using it. (Comment on this)
3:42p	Kernel and Husk http://branemrys.blogspot.com/2014/01/kernel-and-husk.html Probably the most significant work on religious epistemology from a liberal Christian perspective written in the nineteenth century (and perhaps ever) is Edwin Abbott Abbott's The Kernel and the Husk, subtitled 'Letters on Spiritual Christianity'. Slow-witted as I am, I only realized just last night that the title is probably Augustinian in origin: To run over it briefly: by the five loaves are understood the five books of Moses; and rightly are they not wheaten but barley loaves, because they belong to the Old Testament. And you know that barley is so formed that we get at its pith with difficulty; for the pith is covered in a coating of husk, and the husk itself tenacious and closely adhering, so as to be stripped off with labor. Such is the letter of the Old Testament, invested in a covering of carnal sacraments: but yet, if we get at its pith, it feeds and satisfies us.... What remains then, but that those matters of more hidden meaning, which the multitude cannot take in, be entrusted to men who are fit to teach others also, just as were the apostles? Why were twelve baskets filled? This was done both marvellously, because a great thing was done; and it was done profitably, because a spiritual thing was done. They who at the time saw it, marvelled; but we, hearing of it, do not marvel. For it was done that they might see it, but it was written that we might hear it. What the eyes were able to do in their case, that faith does in our case. We perceive, namely, with the mind, what we could not with the eyes: and we are preferred before them, because of us it is said, "Blessed are they who see not, and yet believe." And I add that, perhaps, we have understood what that crowd did not understand. And we have been fed in reality, in that we have been able to get at the pith of the barley. Of course, the difference is that Augustine thinks such moral doctrines are interpretations of miraculous events, which were all done not merely to show a wonder but to teach truth, and Abbott's thesis is that all the stories of the miracles are cases where moral stories were mistakenly taken literally. (Comment on this)
6:00p	Dashed Off II http://branemrys.blogspot.com/2014/01/dashed-off-ii.html dependent origination of ideas (1) The human person is a single whole with a plurality of attributes. (2) The human person is not infinitely divisible. (3) The human person is a subsisting agent in relation to others. (4) The human person is a possibility of experience, an active existent, and a necessary condition of a kind of life and thought. how we derive apodeictic knowledge from experience -- the empirical apodeictic ->Aristotelian epistemology is precisely the epistemology of the empirical apodeictic -> phenomenology as also concerned with the empirical apodeictic The unity of thought lies not in its representations but in its character as immanent action. Note Kant's abstraction point A355, which is a good one. Categories are not deduced but reached by division. T(p or q) iff (Tp or Tq) This is a modal fallacy if we are considering all T-style modalities, for exactly the same reason that [](p or q) iff ([]p or []q) is fallacious for some interpretations of []. Predication requires the introduction of being or not being. We are all only dialecticians in any field we have not made our own a Buridanian account of endoxa: They are important because people, following their natural inclination to the true, accept them, having found no counterexample. ends as endpoints consistent with nature vs as endpoints consistent with the functioning of nature enthymeme as the body of persuasion but its aim is judgment which requires preparation of audience & presentation of oneself as an appropriate kind of person; this requires the study of character and of the kinds of soul and of the passions and dispositions of mind. Poetic catharsis is a civic or political end; it has to be understood as something involving our sociality, as bearing directly on social life. note Iamblichus on inborn knowledge of the gods Extended practice of prayer nurtures our mind, enlarging its receptivity to truth, revealing to us a more-than-human order and divine life and light, elevating our mind to good things, stimulating trust, communion, friendship, making us to be familiar with divine things. Schrodinger's anschaulichkeit has less to do with literal visualizability than with concreteness of explanation, the discernible unfolding of identifiable processes in space and time. Schrodinger's two principles of science: intelligibility of nature, objectivity. Instrumental rationality qua coherence of intention and belief is different from instrumental rationality qua appropriateness of means-taking, which are both different from instrumental rationality qua means-construction. climacteric ideas rhetoric as consensus-building "In the products of his activity man beholds himself as in a mirror." Susan Blow mutual aid, inventive thrift, structured sociability, just exchange The Holy Spirit is the purest traditionalist and the agent of holy tradition; He is, in truth, the only full evangelist. Metaphor is a way of thinking with the world as one's cognitive instrument. In becoming we recognize both being and nothingness. The quality of an argument is partly determined by context. The finite is that which admits of the infinite as a possibility. the precursive character of the Holy Spirit's work the Virgin Mary as instrumental part of the mission of the Son and the Spirit (Mary as Seat of Wisdom) the body as itself an economic system money as expansion of exchange vs money as a restriction of exchange (note that flexibility of money disappears for those without a surplus to use in a system in which everything requires money; in a less restrictive system they would not be so confined, but could barter or service-borrow and steward their money for more general exchanges) -> it follows from this distinction that a money-only system loses much of the benefit of money -> No economic system currently in existence is strictly money-only; but there are subsystems of major economies that are. It follows directly from Thomas Reid's account of the sense of sublimity that the experience of the sublime in nature is evidence for an intelligent Author of nature. Lent as a giving of firstfruits to God (and thus asceticism generally as the same) Who apprehends the genus apprehends the species potentially -- indistinctly and confusedly. That which is sensible may also be taken intelligibly. Something's being a fallacy is not a fact about its formal structure. measurement as the uniting of quantity and quality The primary mechanism of democratic debate is not reasoned argument but sympathy. existence as relative necessity categorical judgment (1) of inherence: accidental quality of its substance (2) of reflection: essential property of its substance (3) of necessity: essence of its substance think about Hegel's association of 2nd Figure with induction & 3rd Figure with analogy Nothing can be identified as an explanatory mechanism except in terms of its tendencies. mockery as concerned with wrongness having such weak support or defensibility as to be incongruous play and playthings as mediating between inner and outer worlds "Comparisons are always favorable to the promotion and application of truth." Froebel Personal need is a form of obligation. It is a dangerous one to consider, however, in the sense that there are many ways to go wrong in one's assessment of it, not least because we tend to be confused about what we genuinely need. forms of deontic [] to be done always to be done everywhere to be done by everyone necessarily to be done Experimentation is in a sense merely greater attention to the instrumental element of cognition. original justice as not being a merely personal justice but a justice of the human race itself Nothing prevents us from knowing as object what must be presupposed in order to know any object; for there is no contradiction between something having each character in different moments of cognition. Remission of powers is not remission of substance. "Grace and virtue imitate the order of nature." ST 2-2.31.3 As Lent in some sense joins Epiphany and Easter, so Penance joins Baptism and Eucharist. Aristotelian place as containment with orientation To the extent that anyone is a tool prior to other tools, existing instrumentally to impart instrumental purposes to instruments, they are slaves. seven causes considered by rhetoric: chance, nature, compulsion, habitus, reason, passion, desire (appetite) Language arises out of rational cooperation (cf how Deaf languages develop automatically if you just have enough Deaf in one place). Leibniz's law of continuity: "In any supposed transition, ending in any terminus, it is permissible to institute a general reasoning in which the terminus may also be included." -> This is where Whewell must (directly or indirectly) have found the idea for his principle for Limit. -> Robinson took the transfer axiom (Every real statement holding for all real numbers holds for all hyperreal numbers) as a specification and precisification of this. Law can only legitimately approach rights by remotion, recognizing causation and eminence, however. marriage as a tradition of oneself and one's body The sacramentality of marriage is an extension of that of baptism. (cp Familiaris Consortio no. 13) genius as superassociation picturesque : eye :: expressive : ear The general structure of defensive war is to impede and that of offensive war is to overcome impediment. The military art is a casuistic art. the military as representative, as advisory, and as instrumental Origen on Joshua: "the book does not so much indicate to us the deeds of the son of Nun, as it represents for us the mysteries of Jesus my Lord" (Hom 1 in Jos) Josiah // Joshua 2 Kg 22:2 // Josh 1:7; 23:6 Term functor logic needs to be supplemented with an account of ampliation, and it needs something suitable for reduplication. (Note that Englebretsen's dispute with Angelilli seems to turn partly on E's ignoring of any reduplicatively modulated predication.) The unity of the Trinity is the principle of the unity of the Church. The Notes of the Church are Christ unifying, sanctifying, catholicizing, and apostolocizing the community of the faithful. The unity of the Church is Christ communicating His life to the Church; the holiness of the Church is Christ giving Himself for the Church; the catholicity of the Church is Christ present in the Church; the apostolicity of the Church is Christ present through the Church. There is a sense in which chemistry is the science most natural to human beings, the one we all dabble and progress in, although rarely beyond the two paths of recipe and trial-and-error; thus it is unsurprising that mixing, boiling, sampling things to find out something is almost the universal image of natural science itself. Only in our own case do we derive our notion of possible experience from actual experience, and even that is arguably not exceptionless. We rather determine conditions for possible experience and then establish what would be a possible experience for any hypothetical experiencer. The causality of the cause needs to have come into being only if causality in itself is temporal. Sublimity is involved in the larger branch of each of Kant's antinomies. The intelligible appears, and appearances are intelligible: the intelligibility of appearances themselves. To test is to cause to produce an effect, or else to register some effect. The sum-total of all possibility contains itself as a possibility. the sum-total of all possibility as branching or 'chunked' The possibility of the sum-total of possibilities could only have an actual ground in an intellect. The Christian theologian may draw from all myths and religions insofar as they reflect on the common principle and ultimate end of the human race, insofar as they are shadows and images that prepare for truth. Existence proofs of any kind may start from determinate experience, or from indeterminate experience, or from something abstracted from any and all experience. NB: Kant has no adequate answer to Malebranche, for whom 'the thought, which is in us, is the thing itself', i.e. God The principle of causality does not apply to the world precisely as sense but rather as intelligible. Postulation is the attempt to reach by hypothesis what is or must be presupposed. Kant's primary problem is his uncritical and naive acceptance of the empiricist account of experience. Before his critique of pure reason he needed a critique of experience. (The Critique of Judgment partly, but only partly, remedies this.) arguments that prove vs arguments that prepare (give a natural leaning) The Beatific Vision is precisely the doctrine that God is a possible object of experience, and may appear as given to (intelligible) intuition. Kant's account of intuition in the Aesthetic is so abstract that nothing prevents it from including things we do not usually regard as sensation. The Transcendental Ego, Freedom, and God should all have been considered the same thing: the rationalists did not take the soul or the will to have the particular unconditional Kant draws upon; only divine substance and will did. Thus the three are really just divine substance, divine intellect, and divine will. The Church participates the mission of Son and Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is the principal agent of her as missionary. The Church is apostolic as being called to be with Christ and to be sent out to preach. (Mk 3:13-14) Winnowing out error is the fasting and temperance of the mind. (Comment on this)
11:26p	Press Briefing http://branemrys.blogspot.com/2014/01/press-briefing.html PRESS SECRETARY: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for coming to this daily briefing. Before we get to questions, I want to lay out the basic ideas behind the new defense policy. This policy does represent a major change from previous approaches, so it's important to get the rationale for it. As you know, there has been considerable worry recently about the percentage of the budget going to defense, so we've been looking for programs that are more easily sustainable, but still quite effective. At the same time, it is absolutely imperative that we send a message to the entire world that the United States is still the elite military power on this globe, and that, no matter how serious anyone else may be about their military capabilities, they simply cannot be more serious than the United States is. We have also been looking into shovel-ready military projects, that can be quickly developed because the groundwork has already been established in local industries. I am pleased to be able to let you know that the first phase of this exciting new project has already begun to show serious promise. We are breeding giant destructo-lobsters as big and heavily armored as tanks. Initial worries were that with that much armor the lobsters would be unable to move and would just sit on the bottom of the seafloor, but it turns out that this was a very easy method to solve, since we just fitted them out with hydraulics when we put in the ballistic missiles. What is especially exciting about this program is the relatively foolproof character of it; we can reasonably guarantee that in any deployment we would lose no more than two and a half percent of the local civilian population, and to maintain this guarantee of safety we've only had to put the coast of Maine under naval quarantine. A similar program, a bit behind schedule but nonetheless under budget, is underway for the West Coast using Alaskan snow crab. I don't have to tell you all that there is no other nation in the world that is even close to being able to wield an army of giant destructo-lobsters. Even our allies are not this seriously in the forefront of modern-day military technology. The closest are the British, of course, but it's well known that they've been having difficulty getting the project finished since the board of the Scottish company in charge of the project suddenly and without warning took a vacation at one of those vacation resorts in Syria. Our speed and efficiency in developing this project will certainly show the world that we mean serious business when it comes to defense policy. This is really what we want to highlight today: The United States is serious about defense, more serious than anyone else, and we have the lobsters to prove it. I'll now take any questions. Q. You mentioned the budget before. How are you paying for this project? PRESS SECRETARY. That's an excellent question. My understanding is that the President and the Vice President are each funding about twenty-five percent of it out of pocket, and most of the rest comes from selling obsolete lobsters to restaurants. We are also planning on holding Ireland hostage, and our economic experts tell us that we can probably get three or four thousand dollars from that. This Administration is committed to making the population of giant destructo-lobsters self-sustaining. Q. You said that this was phase one. What is phase two? PRESS SECRETARY. Ah, that's very exciting. We've already begun it, although certain aspects are still years away from their final stages. Phase two consists of weaponizing seagulls with stealth technology and nuclear missiles. Initial testing shows that the basic idea is sound, but obviously there are certain environmental concerns that will require further research and development. We are confident about our ability to surmount those obstacles, of course; nothing in the world can outpace American ingenuity. Q. Is there any truth to the rumors of a phase three? PRESS SECRETARY. Obviously I cannot go into details about the kind of national security deliberations occurring behind the scenes, but we do want to put to rest recent scurrilous reports by Republicans that we are planning on hurling American bison through the air into the path of oncoming missiles. This is certainly not true, and it's sad that people will make up stories like this. We are very much in favor of protecting the American bison population, and I would like to point out that it was Republicans in Congress, not this Administration, that killed the bill that would have let us establish no-fly zones for buffalo. This Administration is strongly committed to the development of a rational, consistent defense policy based on the principle of shock and awe. What is shocking and awful about bison soaring through the air? Absolutely nothing. What is really shocking and awful is that anybody believes such obvious fictions. Q. On a separate issue, reports today that the U.S. has halted all nonlethal aid to Quebec -- I’m wondering, is the U.S. losing faith in the ability of rebels to fight without Francophone extremist interference or participation? PRESS SECRETARY. Well, Dave, as you know, most of our approach to Canada is geared toward supporting those terrorists who are moderately committed to respecting basic human rights. So that's really our goal when it comes to the provision of nonlethal aid. We have seen the reports that the NDP has seized the maple syrup warehouses belonging to Quebec, and we’re obviously concerned by those reports. We’re still gathering intel, but we have suspended all further deliveries of nonlethal assistance to Quebec. At the same time it's important to to understand that any aid distributed through international and nongovernmental organizations is unaffected by this decision. Likewise, certain military assistance programs are unaffect, so the government of Quebec will still be getting their supply of shrieking parakeets. Q. The President said last week that he had a plan for reducing the deficit that would be declared this week; but so far there hasn't been any word of it. PRESS SECRETARY. Let me stop you right there, because I know exactly what you're talking about. There was a bit of a snag due to the President's attention being taken up by the threats of a disgruntled NSA employee to leak state secrets -- you've certainly heard of this -- but as this happily resolved itself when his plane went down in flames due to pilot error, we are now back on track and should have it for you next week. I can't tell you the details, but I can tell you that it involves blackmailing all the politicians in the free world. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that will better show this Administration's commitment to reducing the deficit, and it will also show the naysayers that the money being spent on NSA surveillance is money well spent. Thanks, everybody. Have a good Friday. Q. Does the President have anything on his schedule the rest of the week? PRESS SECRETARY. Aside from visiting his volcano lair, I don't think so, but there's some possibility that something else will be coming up a bit later. As we get some more details, we’ll let you know. Thanks, everyone. (Comment on this)

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