(Originally written May 29, 2007 in Book 14)
Discourse on Metaphysics
G.W. Leibniz
(continued)
31.
- God's grace is truly grace
- We do not know how much and in what way God dispenses grace. Nor do we know why he chooses to dispense grace to some and why he chooses to withhold it from others
- Among possible beings there must be a person with a notion or idea contains the entire sequence of ordinary and extraordinary graces
32.
- "Substance contains all its events with all their circumstances" (Leibniz, 35).
- All other substances rely on God.
- God alone acts on other substances
- God alone brings about the communication and connection between other substances
- A soul is sufficient to itself with God
- A soul cannot perish without annihilation, the dissolution of the body cannot destroy that which is indivisible.
33.
- The perceptions of our senses, though they be clear, must necessarily contain some confused feeling because our body receives the impression of other bodies
- Without the ability to reflect, there can be no moral qualities. Thus, the animals cannot be moral entities though they have souls
- The intelligent soul knows what it is, can reflect upon itself and is therefore, a moral agent
- The knowledge of one's self is what renders the intelligent soul capable of merits or demerits, rewards or punishments
34.
- Immortality is required of substance, which is no substance perishes though it may become something different entirely, but for this to have religious/moral implications, one must have memory. This is, "I know I" and makes intelligent soul a desirable position.
35.
- God will always preserve our substance and our person.
- Our person is the memory and the knowledge of what we are
- God is the most perfect of all minds and the greatest of all beings.
- Minds are the closest beings to perfection because they most closely represent the divine
- The difference between intelligent souls and non-intelligent souls is the difference between a person looking into a mirror and their reflection
36.
- Minds are the most perfectible substances
- Minds alone can serve God freely
- The moral quality God possess makes Him the Lord of minds
- It is due to the moral quality God has, "that he humanizes himself, that he is willing to allow anthropomorphism, and that he enters into society with us, as prince with his subjects; and this consideration is so dear to him that the happy and flourishing state of his empire, which consists in the greatest possible happiness of its inhabitants, becomes the highest of his laws" (Leibniz, 40).
- God has ordained everything in such a way that minds live always and that always preserve their moral quality
- To make man perfectly happy, God only works for them to love Him.
37.
- The gospel has entirely changed the course of human history.
- God alone can make souls happy or unhappy.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Notes on Discourse on Metaphysics (B)
(Originally Written May 16, 2007 in Book 14)
Discourse on Metaphysics
G.W. Leibniz
(Continued)
18.
- Force is a change that is separate from size, shape or motion
- Thus, not everything that exists in a body exists merely within the extension of that body.
19.
- It is a mistake to banish final causes from physical studies because it would seem to follow that God designed body with no end.
- It is foolish to believe we can decipher the end of everything that God hath mad because He sees all connections at once, but he has made the universe to suit man and man to suit the universe. "There is nothing in the universe which does not affect us and does not also accommodate itself in accordance with his regard for us" (Leibniz, 21).
- God does nothing by chance.
20.
Leibniz agrees with Socrates' criticism of Anaxagoras in Phaedo that philosophy cannot be so materialistic.
21.
- Mechanical rules depend on metaphysics.
- The physical phenomenal world would be entirely different without its metaphysical system.
22.
- Nature operates under natural phenomena, but this natural phenomena only occurs because God has caused it.
- God is so skilled an artisan that He has produced a world that can function completely with God's original simple design.
23.
- There are true and false ideas.
- Ideas precede reasoning about something
- Thus, the proof of God in ontological form states that I reason about God and in order for me to reason about God, I must first have the idea of God. The idea of God entails all perfections and thus, existing is more perfect than not existing and thus, God exists.
- The problem with the ontological argument is that we can have false ideas that do not correspond to reality. Thus, the ontological argument merely proves that if God is possible then He necessarily exists.
24.
- Confused knowledge - the ability to recognize a thing without being able to articulate its differences or properties.
- Distinct knowledge - recognition of a thing and an ability to explain its properties and differences.
- Distinct knowledge has degrees
- Adequate knowledge - a distinct knowledge of a thing down to its primitive notions
- Intuitive knowledge - an adequate knowledge in which all the primitive notions of a thing are known at once, distinctly.
- Intuitive knowledge is extremely rare because most human knowledge is confused or suppositive.
- Suppositive knowledge - "A notion intermediate between intuitive and clear is when I have been deprived of clear knowledge of all surrounding notions"
- Clear knowledge - knowing how a thing is distinguishable from other things but only being able to say, I know not what makes X different than Y, but know that they differ.
Degrees of Knowledge
Confused - recognition
Clear - Recognition + ...
Distinct - Recognition and some explanatory ability
Adequate - Distinct + ...
Intuitive - immediate full knowledge
Clear, Distinct and Adequate are suppositive knowledge. Suppositive is a combinative knowledge.
Nominal definitions - a definition that leaves one able to still doubt if that which is defined be possible.
Real definition - a definition that includes a property which makes the thing's possibility known
"As long as we have only a nominal definition, we cannot be certain of the consequences we derive, for if it concealed some contradiction or impossibility, the opposite conclusions could be derived from it"
But truths are not dependent on name nor are they arbitrary, contra Hobbes.
Real definitions are twofold:
1) When it is known via experience a thing is real its definition is merely a real one.
2) When the proof of possibly is a priori the definition is real and causal.
An essential proof is perfect, a priori, and sees all the way to its primitive notions
25.
- We can have no idea of a notion when it is impossible
- We cannot contemplate a notion when we have suppositive knowledge of it because it may have some hidden contradiction
- We skip over the contemplation in suppositive knowledge because we suppose we know the thing
- "Only in confused notions when our knowledge is clear or in distinct notions when it is intuitive do we see the entire idea in them" (Leibniz, 28).
26.
- An idea is a quality of our soul.
- Our souls have these qualities in them whether we are thinking on them currently or not
- Our souls express God, the universe, all essences and all existences.
- Nothing can be taught to us whose idea is not already in our mind
- Plato's doctrine of reminiscence is correct so long it is purged of his notion of preexistence.
- "Our soul knows all these things virtually and requires only attention to recognize truths, and that, consequently, it has, at very least, the ideas upon which these truths depend" (Leibniz, 29).
27.
- Some things outside us express things more particularly than our own souls. It is through their more acute expression that we can understand a truth more completely.
- Ideas are expressions in our soul whether we conceive them or not
- Notions or concepts are ideas that we conceive or form
- It is false that all of our conceptions come via the senses, the sensual data we receive merely brings our attention to internal experience
28.
- There is no external cause acting upon us aside from God
- No other external object is capable of touching our soul or perception
- We have ideas of everything in our soul by virtue of God's continual action on us
- "God is our immediate external object and that we see all things by Him" (Leibniz, 30).
29.
- Our ideas however are in us and not in God.
30.
- Ordinarily, God does nothing more than follow the laws He established
- God determines our wills to choose the better option without necessitating it
- God finds it good that certain men should exist despite foreseeing they will sin
- It ought to be enough for us to know this without understanding it while we are yet on this earth
- God is clearly not the cause of evil
Discourse on Metaphysics
G.W. Leibniz
(Continued)
18.
- Force is a change that is separate from size, shape or motion
- Thus, not everything that exists in a body exists merely within the extension of that body.
19.
- It is a mistake to banish final causes from physical studies because it would seem to follow that God designed body with no end.
- It is foolish to believe we can decipher the end of everything that God hath mad because He sees all connections at once, but he has made the universe to suit man and man to suit the universe. "There is nothing in the universe which does not affect us and does not also accommodate itself in accordance with his regard for us" (Leibniz, 21).
- God does nothing by chance.
20.
Leibniz agrees with Socrates' criticism of Anaxagoras in Phaedo that philosophy cannot be so materialistic.
21.
- Mechanical rules depend on metaphysics.
- The physical phenomenal world would be entirely different without its metaphysical system.
22.
- Nature operates under natural phenomena, but this natural phenomena only occurs because God has caused it.
- God is so skilled an artisan that He has produced a world that can function completely with God's original simple design.
23.
- There are true and false ideas.
- Ideas precede reasoning about something
- Thus, the proof of God in ontological form states that I reason about God and in order for me to reason about God, I must first have the idea of God. The idea of God entails all perfections and thus, existing is more perfect than not existing and thus, God exists.
- The problem with the ontological argument is that we can have false ideas that do not correspond to reality. Thus, the ontological argument merely proves that if God is possible then He necessarily exists.
24.
- Confused knowledge - the ability to recognize a thing without being able to articulate its differences or properties.
- Distinct knowledge - recognition of a thing and an ability to explain its properties and differences.
- Distinct knowledge has degrees
- Adequate knowledge - a distinct knowledge of a thing down to its primitive notions
- Intuitive knowledge - an adequate knowledge in which all the primitive notions of a thing are known at once, distinctly.
- Intuitive knowledge is extremely rare because most human knowledge is confused or suppositive.
- Suppositive knowledge - "A notion intermediate between intuitive and clear is when I have been deprived of clear knowledge of all surrounding notions"
- Clear knowledge - knowing how a thing is distinguishable from other things but only being able to say, I know not what makes X different than Y, but know that they differ.
Degrees of Knowledge
Confused - recognition
Clear - Recognition + ...
Distinct - Recognition and some explanatory ability
Adequate - Distinct + ...
Intuitive - immediate full knowledge
Clear, Distinct and Adequate are suppositive knowledge. Suppositive is a combinative knowledge.
Nominal definitions - a definition that leaves one able to still doubt if that which is defined be possible.
Real definition - a definition that includes a property which makes the thing's possibility known
"As long as we have only a nominal definition, we cannot be certain of the consequences we derive, for if it concealed some contradiction or impossibility, the opposite conclusions could be derived from it"
But truths are not dependent on name nor are they arbitrary, contra Hobbes.
Real definitions are twofold:
1) When it is known via experience a thing is real its definition is merely a real one.
2) When the proof of possibly is a priori the definition is real and causal.
An essential proof is perfect, a priori, and sees all the way to its primitive notions
25.
- We can have no idea of a notion when it is impossible
- We cannot contemplate a notion when we have suppositive knowledge of it because it may have some hidden contradiction
- We skip over the contemplation in suppositive knowledge because we suppose we know the thing
- "Only in confused notions when our knowledge is clear or in distinct notions when it is intuitive do we see the entire idea in them" (Leibniz, 28).
26.
- An idea is a quality of our soul.
- Our souls have these qualities in them whether we are thinking on them currently or not
- Our souls express God, the universe, all essences and all existences.
- Nothing can be taught to us whose idea is not already in our mind
- Plato's doctrine of reminiscence is correct so long it is purged of his notion of preexistence.
- "Our soul knows all these things virtually and requires only attention to recognize truths, and that, consequently, it has, at very least, the ideas upon which these truths depend" (Leibniz, 29).
27.
- Some things outside us express things more particularly than our own souls. It is through their more acute expression that we can understand a truth more completely.
- Ideas are expressions in our soul whether we conceive them or not
- Notions or concepts are ideas that we conceive or form
- It is false that all of our conceptions come via the senses, the sensual data we receive merely brings our attention to internal experience
28.
- There is no external cause acting upon us aside from God
- No other external object is capable of touching our soul or perception
- We have ideas of everything in our soul by virtue of God's continual action on us
- "God is our immediate external object and that we see all things by Him" (Leibniz, 30).
29.
- Our ideas however are in us and not in God.
30.
- Ordinarily, God does nothing more than follow the laws He established
- God determines our wills to choose the better option without necessitating it
- God finds it good that certain men should exist despite foreseeing they will sin
- It ought to be enough for us to know this without understanding it while we are yet on this earth
- God is clearly not the cause of evil
Monday, May 14, 2007
Notes for the Aesthetics Final
(Originally written May 14, 2007 in Book 16)
Studying for the Aesthetics Final. Only 2.5 hours to go!
I. Eco on Television & Mass Art
Eco feels that contemporary art, especially television and mass art and pop music is dominated by repetition.
A. The Serial - the repetition of the same abstract type (i.e. Soap Operas)
B. The Retake - Recycling characters from previously successful stories (i.e. Star Wars, Superman)
C. The Remake - telling the same story over again (i.e. Romeo & Juliet, Dr. Jekyll)
D. The Series - Fixed number of characters and situations and narrative scheme (Friends, Seinfeld)
Eco claims that the series respond to man's infinite need of hearing the same story repeated.
Also the series enables us to reward ourselves for guessing what will happen.
E. Loop series - a series with characters that have enormous pasts but no futures
F. Spiral - Characters are deepened and enriched but nothing new happens to them
II. Nehamas: Plato & The Mass Media
Nehamas applies Plato's critique of poetry to contemporary mass Media
Plato argued that poetry is dangerous because it is a medium that is suited for representation and imitation of vulgar subjects and shameful behavior.
Nehamas notes that mass media is strikingly similar to the poetry of Plato's age.
III. Carrol: Defining Mass Art
Carroll aims at defining mass art without passing judgment on it.
He claims that mass art is exoteric (as opposed to Avant-Garde art as being esoteric)
Mass art is meant for mass audience.
Mass art is designed so it can be enjoyed by a lot of people with little effort.
Mass art requires a mass delivery technology.
Formal Definition: "X" is mass art if and only if X is a multiple instance or type artwork, produced and distributed by mass technology, intentionally designed to be enjoyed virtually effortlessly by a largely untutored audience.
Mass art is nonetheless art according to Carrol because it is descendant of traditional art forms.
He denies that Mass Art can be labeled as bad simply because it is mass art because mass art is its own genre.
IV. Gracy K - Why is Rock Music so Noisy?
Gracy K claims rock is so "noisy" because of the distortion of amplified electric guitars.
The distortion of tone produced by volume adjustments in what accounts for the noisiness of rock music.
V. Rudinon: Can White People Sing the Blues?
Arguments against it and their problems:
1) The Proprietary Argument - Blues as a genre belongs to the African American community and when whites perform the blues they misappropriate the cultural heritage of Black Americans.
Problem - "Red Herring" The history of music is full of instances of borrowing genres among cultures.
2) The experiential access argument - One cannot understand the blues or authentically express oneself in it unless one knows what it is like to live as a Black American
Problem - This argument is the myth of ethnic memory - Not all Black Americas fully comprehend what their ancestors went through. And it observes the universal human element of the blues.
Rudinon contends that the blues can be authentically played by whites if one recognizes the proper sources of inspiration and technique which spawned the blues.
VI. Adorno
Adorno was a Marxist and was against all commodification of art.
Adorno felt that pop music does not resist the temptation to be commodified and is therefore is gross simplification of art.
Artistic music is individualized and unique. Pop music is standardized and not unique.
Stages of listening to Pop Music:
1) Vague Remembrance - I've heard this before
2) Actual Identification - I have heard this before
3) Subsumption by label - The listener knows the band or album or some lyrics
4) Self-reflection (act of identification) - identifies with the music
5) Psychological transfer - judges the song good and further identifies with it
6) Disillusionment - shallowness of song becomes apparent. Listener despises the songs and those who still like it.
7) Recycling - Song comes back as a "golden oldie" and is repackaged for new consumers
Brown points out numerous problems with Adorno's argument.
1) Adorno puts all pop music in a single category
2) Adorno is guilty of tonal chauvinism
3) Adorno picks the best classical music and compares it with the worst pop music
4) Adorno overlooks the point that classical music would become disillusioned if it were played at the quantity pop music is
5) Adorno overlooks that not all pop music is standardized (i.e. Tom Waits)
6) Classical music is also subject to commodification
VII. Shusterman - Form & Funk
Susterman aims to defend pop music against its critics.
A. The Passivity Argument
- Pop Music involves no aesthetic challenge and requires and induces passivity because of the simple and repetitive nature of it.
Objector: not all effort is intellectual effort, there can be "somatic" forms of effort
B. The Formal Complexity Argument
- High art has a formal complexity that is lacking in pop arts. High art focuses on form not content
Objection: Their argument mistakenly opposes form and content
C. The Argument from Aesthetic Autonomy
- Genuine art operates autonomously and resists commodification and serves only art itself. Pop art serves many functions.
Objection: Why should art not fulfill other roles and human codes.
VIII Solomon: Kitsch
A. Kitsch provokes excessive or immature expressions of emotion
Problems: A) The Purpose of art is to provoke emotion
B) How much emotion is too much?
B. Kitsch manipulates emotion
problems: A) The use of reason manipulation
B) We manipulate emotions in many ways in everyday life
C. Kitsch evokes cheap or superficial emotions
Problems: This is bias to ethnicity because what is cheap is relative to one's ethnicity and social class
D. Kitsch is self-indulgent
Objection - There is nothing wrong with enjoying one's emotions
E. Kitsch distorts our perceptions and interferes with rational thought and understanding
Objection - All emotions distort our perception to some degree
IX. Theories of Humor
A) Superiority Theory: People laugh when they feel a sudden sense of superiority to some one: "Sudden glory" - Hobbes
B) Incongruity Theory - People laugh when they see two things put together that are somehow incongruous - Kant
C) Relief Theory: People laugh to relieve nervous tension resulting from anxiety or nervousness - Freud
X. Cohen: Jokes
A. Sense of humor - a capacity to be amused by the amusing
B. The point of telling a joe is the attainment of community. There is an intimacy in sharing laughter that provide community.
C. Heretic Jokes: Jokes that make sense to those with special information
D. Affective Jokes: Jokes that call upon a certain attitude or prejudice
XI. Hayman and Pratt: What are Comics?
A. Medium-biased definition: classifies comics in terms of material components by which they are typically produced. Comics are pictures with ink and newsprint in papers or comic books.
Problem: Would Peanuts not still be a comic if it were printed on canvas?
B. Word Balloon definition - comics contain word balloons
Problem: Many comics do not have word balloons
C. Pictorial Narrative definition - X is a comic if and only if it is a sequence of discrete pictures that comprise a narrative with or without a text.
Problem: What about the Far Side or Family Circus?
XII. Goldblatt: Ventriloquism
A. Ecstasis - Greek concept of stepping beside or outside of one's self.
B. Ventriloquism - the paradigm case of stopping beside one's self in art, but in all art one must look at it from outside one's self
XIII. Crawford: Nature and Art
A. Dialectical relationship between natural and artifactual
Natural - what is not made by man
Artifactual - What is man-made
The combination is the "aesthetic attention or appreciation"
B. Ruins are aesthetically valuable because of their basic form and unity but also because
1) Future learning
2) Past leaning
are both Aesthetically interesting
C. Classical approach to ruins - consists in the missing fragments so the viewer can imaginatively reconstruct them
D. Romantic approach to ruins - consists of the viewer's sense of history and association with mystery
XIV. Carlson: Aesthetic Appreciation of the Natural Environment
A. Appreciating the beauty of nature poses Aesthetic problems
B. Several Approaches to aesthetic appreciation of nature:
1) Object of Art Model - appreciate the physical object itself
Problem: any physical object itself as a part of an environment and cannot be divorced from its setting
2) Landscape Model - beauty of nature as a landscape
problem: this reduces nature to two-dimensional scene
3) Human Chauvinistic Aesthetic - Denies aesthetic appreciation of nature
Problem: Goes against the natural impulse to aesthetically appreciate natural objects
4) AOE - Aesthetic appreciation through engaging with all of nature
Problem - Way too subjective aesthetic approach
5) Natural Environment Model (Carlson's approach) - stresses the importance of it being a natural system and does not assimilate natural objects to art objects
XV Vance and Mattock on government funding of Art
XVI Feinberg and Berger: Pornography
A. Berger's 3 Conditions for censorship
1) There most be strong evidence of a very likely and serious harm
2) The harm must be clearly directly linked with the expression
3) It must be unlikely that further speech or expression can be used effectively to combat the harm
B. Berger claims that pornography ought not to be censored because it does not fit any of the three criteria
C. Feinberg argues against censoring pornography because violent pornography's authors and vendors do not solicit rape or urger rape or advocate rape
MacKinnon: Pornography
A. MacKinnon rejects arguments like Feinberg who frame the harm of porn in empirically traceable causal roles
B. McKinnon claims that porn's real herm is that it contributes to a sexist social order
C. Pornography construes social reality and becomes invisible harm
D. She denies that the harm caused by porn must be empirically visible with the harm a car wreck causes.
XVIII Peck: Porn as Propaganda
A. Art is guided by illusion and allusion. Art gives us clues we must decipher for ourselves.
B. Sex is (in Christianity's view) a symbolic reflection of the nature of God and occurs only in the context of a proper relationship
C. Sex in art, according to Peck, should:
- Feature the primacy of relationship
- Preserve the illusion
- Be Redemptive in character
D. Under his view pornography fails all 3 criteria
E. Pornography destroys the illusion quality of artistic conceptions of sex
XIX. Carroll: Film
A. The Power of films lie in their capacity to direct audience attention
B. Variable framing - ensures the audience will see what the producer/director wants:
1) Indexing - moving the camera toward an object
2) Bracketing - including certain objects and excluding others
3) Sealing - changing the size of an object through positioning
C. Erotetic narrative - telling a story by generating questions that subsequent scenes answer
- This leaves audiences satisfied because they feel they have learned all there is to know.
XX. Woltersorff: Norms in Art
A. Non-aesthetic merits
- Truth
- Desirable efforts
- Genetic Aspects
- Audience approval
B. Aesthetic Merits
- Unity
- Complexity
- Fittingness Intensity
C. Beautiful or aesthetically excellent artifacts have aesthetic merits and beauty is therefore, a complex concept
XXI. Ryken: What is Christian Art?
Ways a work can be Christian:
1) Allusion - referencing Christian themes or ideas
2) Inclusively Christian - themes that have intersecting points with other religions
3) Exclusively Christian - themes that are uniquely Christian
XXII. Spiegel: Aesthetic model of providence and divine omnipathos
A. Aesthetic model of providence - God sustains everything by creating everything at each moment: beauty is central to this
B. The world as divine art - God is a cosmic artist and the world is his masterpiece
C. God is omnipathos - God experiences all emotions at once as He experiences all knowledge at once.
Studying for the Aesthetics Final. Only 2.5 hours to go!
I. Eco on Television & Mass Art
Eco feels that contemporary art, especially television and mass art and pop music is dominated by repetition.
A. The Serial - the repetition of the same abstract type (i.e. Soap Operas)
B. The Retake - Recycling characters from previously successful stories (i.e. Star Wars, Superman)
C. The Remake - telling the same story over again (i.e. Romeo & Juliet, Dr. Jekyll)
D. The Series - Fixed number of characters and situations and narrative scheme (Friends, Seinfeld)
Eco claims that the series respond to man's infinite need of hearing the same story repeated.
Also the series enables us to reward ourselves for guessing what will happen.
E. Loop series - a series with characters that have enormous pasts but no futures
F. Spiral - Characters are deepened and enriched but nothing new happens to them
II. Nehamas: Plato & The Mass Media
Nehamas applies Plato's critique of poetry to contemporary mass Media
Plato argued that poetry is dangerous because it is a medium that is suited for representation and imitation of vulgar subjects and shameful behavior.
Nehamas notes that mass media is strikingly similar to the poetry of Plato's age.
III. Carrol: Defining Mass Art
Carroll aims at defining mass art without passing judgment on it.
He claims that mass art is exoteric (as opposed to Avant-Garde art as being esoteric)
Mass art is meant for mass audience.
Mass art is designed so it can be enjoyed by a lot of people with little effort.
Mass art requires a mass delivery technology.
Formal Definition: "X" is mass art if and only if X is a multiple instance or type artwork, produced and distributed by mass technology, intentionally designed to be enjoyed virtually effortlessly by a largely untutored audience.
Mass art is nonetheless art according to Carrol because it is descendant of traditional art forms.
He denies that Mass Art can be labeled as bad simply because it is mass art because mass art is its own genre.
IV. Gracy K - Why is Rock Music so Noisy?
Gracy K claims rock is so "noisy" because of the distortion of amplified electric guitars.
The distortion of tone produced by volume adjustments in what accounts for the noisiness of rock music.
V. Rudinon: Can White People Sing the Blues?
Arguments against it and their problems:
1) The Proprietary Argument - Blues as a genre belongs to the African American community and when whites perform the blues they misappropriate the cultural heritage of Black Americans.
Problem - "Red Herring" The history of music is full of instances of borrowing genres among cultures.
2) The experiential access argument - One cannot understand the blues or authentically express oneself in it unless one knows what it is like to live as a Black American
Problem - This argument is the myth of ethnic memory - Not all Black Americas fully comprehend what their ancestors went through. And it observes the universal human element of the blues.
Rudinon contends that the blues can be authentically played by whites if one recognizes the proper sources of inspiration and technique which spawned the blues.
VI. Adorno
Adorno was a Marxist and was against all commodification of art.
Adorno felt that pop music does not resist the temptation to be commodified and is therefore is gross simplification of art.
Artistic music is individualized and unique. Pop music is standardized and not unique.
Stages of listening to Pop Music:
1) Vague Remembrance - I've heard this before
2) Actual Identification - I have heard this before
3) Subsumption by label - The listener knows the band or album or some lyrics
4) Self-reflection (act of identification) - identifies with the music
5) Psychological transfer - judges the song good and further identifies with it
6) Disillusionment - shallowness of song becomes apparent. Listener despises the songs and those who still like it.
7) Recycling - Song comes back as a "golden oldie" and is repackaged for new consumers
Brown points out numerous problems with Adorno's argument.
1) Adorno puts all pop music in a single category
2) Adorno is guilty of tonal chauvinism
3) Adorno picks the best classical music and compares it with the worst pop music
4) Adorno overlooks the point that classical music would become disillusioned if it were played at the quantity pop music is
5) Adorno overlooks that not all pop music is standardized (i.e. Tom Waits)
6) Classical music is also subject to commodification
VII. Shusterman - Form & Funk
Susterman aims to defend pop music against its critics.
A. The Passivity Argument
- Pop Music involves no aesthetic challenge and requires and induces passivity because of the simple and repetitive nature of it.
Objector: not all effort is intellectual effort, there can be "somatic" forms of effort
B. The Formal Complexity Argument
- High art has a formal complexity that is lacking in pop arts. High art focuses on form not content
Objection: Their argument mistakenly opposes form and content
C. The Argument from Aesthetic Autonomy
- Genuine art operates autonomously and resists commodification and serves only art itself. Pop art serves many functions.
Objection: Why should art not fulfill other roles and human codes.
VIII Solomon: Kitsch
A. Kitsch provokes excessive or immature expressions of emotion
Problems: A) The Purpose of art is to provoke emotion
B) How much emotion is too much?
B. Kitsch manipulates emotion
problems: A) The use of reason manipulation
B) We manipulate emotions in many ways in everyday life
C. Kitsch evokes cheap or superficial emotions
Problems: This is bias to ethnicity because what is cheap is relative to one's ethnicity and social class
D. Kitsch is self-indulgent
Objection - There is nothing wrong with enjoying one's emotions
E. Kitsch distorts our perceptions and interferes with rational thought and understanding
Objection - All emotions distort our perception to some degree
IX. Theories of Humor
A) Superiority Theory: People laugh when they feel a sudden sense of superiority to some one: "Sudden glory" - Hobbes
B) Incongruity Theory - People laugh when they see two things put together that are somehow incongruous - Kant
C) Relief Theory: People laugh to relieve nervous tension resulting from anxiety or nervousness - Freud
X. Cohen: Jokes
A. Sense of humor - a capacity to be amused by the amusing
B. The point of telling a joe is the attainment of community. There is an intimacy in sharing laughter that provide community.
C. Heretic Jokes: Jokes that make sense to those with special information
D. Affective Jokes: Jokes that call upon a certain attitude or prejudice
XI. Hayman and Pratt: What are Comics?
A. Medium-biased definition: classifies comics in terms of material components by which they are typically produced. Comics are pictures with ink and newsprint in papers or comic books.
Problem: Would Peanuts not still be a comic if it were printed on canvas?
B. Word Balloon definition - comics contain word balloons
Problem: Many comics do not have word balloons
C. Pictorial Narrative definition - X is a comic if and only if it is a sequence of discrete pictures that comprise a narrative with or without a text.
Problem: What about the Far Side or Family Circus?
XII. Goldblatt: Ventriloquism
A. Ecstasis - Greek concept of stepping beside or outside of one's self.
B. Ventriloquism - the paradigm case of stopping beside one's self in art, but in all art one must look at it from outside one's self
XIII. Crawford: Nature and Art
A. Dialectical relationship between natural and artifactual
Natural - what is not made by man
Artifactual - What is man-made
The combination is the "aesthetic attention or appreciation"
B. Ruins are aesthetically valuable because of their basic form and unity but also because
1) Future learning
2) Past leaning
are both Aesthetically interesting
C. Classical approach to ruins - consists in the missing fragments so the viewer can imaginatively reconstruct them
D. Romantic approach to ruins - consists of the viewer's sense of history and association with mystery
XIV. Carlson: Aesthetic Appreciation of the Natural Environment
A. Appreciating the beauty of nature poses Aesthetic problems
B. Several Approaches to aesthetic appreciation of nature:
1) Object of Art Model - appreciate the physical object itself
Problem: any physical object itself as a part of an environment and cannot be divorced from its setting
2) Landscape Model - beauty of nature as a landscape
problem: this reduces nature to two-dimensional scene
3) Human Chauvinistic Aesthetic - Denies aesthetic appreciation of nature
Problem: Goes against the natural impulse to aesthetically appreciate natural objects
4) AOE - Aesthetic appreciation through engaging with all of nature
Problem - Way too subjective aesthetic approach
5) Natural Environment Model (Carlson's approach) - stresses the importance of it being a natural system and does not assimilate natural objects to art objects
XV Vance and Mattock on government funding of Art
XVI Feinberg and Berger: Pornography
A. Berger's 3 Conditions for censorship
1) There most be strong evidence of a very likely and serious harm
2) The harm must be clearly directly linked with the expression
3) It must be unlikely that further speech or expression can be used effectively to combat the harm
B. Berger claims that pornography ought not to be censored because it does not fit any of the three criteria
C. Feinberg argues against censoring pornography because violent pornography's authors and vendors do not solicit rape or urger rape or advocate rape
MacKinnon: Pornography
A. MacKinnon rejects arguments like Feinberg who frame the harm of porn in empirically traceable causal roles
B. McKinnon claims that porn's real herm is that it contributes to a sexist social order
C. Pornography construes social reality and becomes invisible harm
D. She denies that the harm caused by porn must be empirically visible with the harm a car wreck causes.
XVIII Peck: Porn as Propaganda
A. Art is guided by illusion and allusion. Art gives us clues we must decipher for ourselves.
B. Sex is (in Christianity's view) a symbolic reflection of the nature of God and occurs only in the context of a proper relationship
C. Sex in art, according to Peck, should:
- Feature the primacy of relationship
- Preserve the illusion
- Be Redemptive in character
D. Under his view pornography fails all 3 criteria
E. Pornography destroys the illusion quality of artistic conceptions of sex
XIX. Carroll: Film
A. The Power of films lie in their capacity to direct audience attention
B. Variable framing - ensures the audience will see what the producer/director wants:
1) Indexing - moving the camera toward an object
2) Bracketing - including certain objects and excluding others
3) Sealing - changing the size of an object through positioning
C. Erotetic narrative - telling a story by generating questions that subsequent scenes answer
- This leaves audiences satisfied because they feel they have learned all there is to know.
XX. Woltersorff: Norms in Art
A. Non-aesthetic merits
- Truth
- Desirable efforts
- Genetic Aspects
- Audience approval
B. Aesthetic Merits
- Unity
- Complexity
- Fittingness Intensity
C. Beautiful or aesthetically excellent artifacts have aesthetic merits and beauty is therefore, a complex concept
XXI. Ryken: What is Christian Art?
Ways a work can be Christian:
1) Allusion - referencing Christian themes or ideas
2) Inclusively Christian - themes that have intersecting points with other religions
3) Exclusively Christian - themes that are uniquely Christian
XXII. Spiegel: Aesthetic model of providence and divine omnipathos
A. Aesthetic model of providence - God sustains everything by creating everything at each moment: beauty is central to this
B. The world as divine art - God is a cosmic artist and the world is his masterpiece
C. God is omnipathos - God experiences all emotions at once as He experiences all knowledge at once.
Notes on Beyond Good & Evil 1-3
(Originally written May 14, 2007 in Book 16)
Beyond Good & Evil
Friedrich Nietzsche
Basic Writings of Nietzsche
Translated Walter Kaufmann
Published in 1886
Preface
Dogmatism is nothing more than noble childishness and tyranny
Let us hope that dogmatism is to finding truth as astrology was to real science.
"It seems that all great things first have to bestride the earth in monstrous and frightening masks in order to inscribe themselves in the hearts of humanity with eternal demands dogmatic philosophy was such a mask, for example, the Vedanta doctrine in Asia and Platonism in Europe" (Nietzsche, 193).
The worst error of dogmatism was Plato's invention of pure spirit and the good as such.
Christianity is the Platonism for the people.
The tension between truth and dogmatism is great and has been attempted to be relieved twice: Once by Jesuitism, once by democracy.
Part One: On the Prejudices of Philosophers
1.
What in us really desires truth? Where did the will to truth come from?
Why do we desire truth? Why not untruth, uncertainty or ignorance?
The quest for truth involves risk.
2.
The prejudice that things cannot arise from their opposites is deceptive.
Judging things on this prejudice (that X cannot arise from its opposite) is prejudgment
He can doubt that there are really opposites at ll.
Metaphysicians rely most on the faith that opposites exist. But where is the truth in that?
3.
"Most of the conscious thinking of a philosopher is secretly guided and forced into certain channels by his instincts" (Nietzsche, 201).
Value judgments like 'the definite is worth more than the definite' or 'mere appearance is worse than truth' may not be true. They may be simply a kind of "naiserie" (folly, stupidity, or silliness) that is necessary for us to maintain our way of life. Those maxims may simply be one of perspective and not of truth.
Man may not be the measure of all things.
Beyond Good & Evil
Friedrich Nietzsche
Basic Writings of Nietzsche
Translated Walter Kaufmann
Published in 1886
Preface
Dogmatism is nothing more than noble childishness and tyranny
Let us hope that dogmatism is to finding truth as astrology was to real science.
"It seems that all great things first have to bestride the earth in monstrous and frightening masks in order to inscribe themselves in the hearts of humanity with eternal demands dogmatic philosophy was such a mask, for example, the Vedanta doctrine in Asia and Platonism in Europe" (Nietzsche, 193).
The worst error of dogmatism was Plato's invention of pure spirit and the good as such.
Christianity is the Platonism for the people.
The tension between truth and dogmatism is great and has been attempted to be relieved twice: Once by Jesuitism, once by democracy.
Part One: On the Prejudices of Philosophers
1.
What in us really desires truth? Where did the will to truth come from?
Why do we desire truth? Why not untruth, uncertainty or ignorance?
The quest for truth involves risk.
2.
The prejudice that things cannot arise from their opposites is deceptive.
Judging things on this prejudice (that X cannot arise from its opposite) is prejudgment
He can doubt that there are really opposites at ll.
Metaphysicians rely most on the faith that opposites exist. But where is the truth in that?
3.
"Most of the conscious thinking of a philosopher is secretly guided and forced into certain channels by his instincts" (Nietzsche, 201).
Value judgments like 'the definite is worth more than the definite' or 'mere appearance is worse than truth' may not be true. They may be simply a kind of "naiserie" (folly, stupidity, or silliness) that is necessary for us to maintain our way of life. Those maxims may simply be one of perspective and not of truth.
Man may not be the measure of all things.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Notes on Discoure on Metaphysics (A)
(Originally written May 12, 2007 in Book 14)
We come back to my mentor and favorite, the much maligned G.W. Leibniz.
Discourse on Metaphysics and other Essays
G.W. Leibniz
Trans. Daniel Garber & Raoger Ariew
Hackett Publishing Co.
Indianapolis, IN
1991
Discourse on Metaphysics 1686
1. On Divine Perfection and that God does everyone in the most desirable way
- God is an absolutely perfect being
- Power & knowledge are perfection and have no limits within God
- The more enlightened we are of God's works the more we'll "be disposed to find them excellent and in complete conformity with what we might have desired" (Leibniz, 1).
2. Against those who claim that there is no goodness in God's works or that the rules of goodness and Beauty are arbitrary
- By looking at the created things we can discover the creator
- All acts of will presuppose a reason for willing
- Reason is prior to the act of will
- Eternal truths of metaphysics and geometry and the rules of goodness, justice and perfection are not merely the effects of the will of God, but the consequences of His understanding.
3. Against those who believe that God might have made things better
- The consequences of believing that God could have made things better are wholly contrary to the glory of God.
- "A lesser evil is relatively good, so a lesser good is relatively evil" (Leibniz, 3).
- To act with less perfection than one could have is to act imperfectly
- The reason many believe that God could have created better is our inadequate knowledge of the general harmony of the universe and the hidden reasons for God's conduct
- "God does nothing for which he does not deserve to be glorified" (Leibniz, 3).
4. That the Love of God requires our complete satisfaction and acquiescence with respect to what he has done without our being quietist as a result
- Those who are dissatisfied with God's creation cannot fully love God
- We must be truly satisfied with everything that comes to us because it is according to His will
- As to regards to future events though we must not be passive and simply await what God will do, but act in accordance to what may be the will of God as best we can. We must strive to contribute to the general good.
- The outcome of our actions may show that God did not wish our good to have immediate effect, but it does not follow that He did not wish us to act
- "He never demands more than the right intention, and it is for Him to know the proper hour and place for letting the good designs succeed"
5. What the rules of the perfection of divine conduct consist in, and that the simplicity of the ways is in balance with the richness of the effects
- To know in detail the reason that could have moved God to choose the order of the universe is beyond the scope of finite minds
- As finite minds we cannot fully comprehend why God allows sin or bestows grace in the way He does, especially prior to attaining the full enjoyment of the vision of God.
- Minds have perfections and these consist of virtues
- The happiness of minds is the principal aim of God
6. God does nothing which is not orderly and it is not even possible to imagine events that are not regular
- The acts of God are commonly divided into ordinary and extraordinary. But everything is in conformity with the universal order.
- In understanding this we understand little other than what happens happens according to the order of harmony that God established.
7. That miracles conform to the General order, even though they may be contrary to the subordinate maxims; and about what God wills or permits by a General volition
- Miracles are as much in the order of things as typical events
8. To distinguish the actions of God from those of Creatures we explain the notion of an individual substance
- Every predicate of a subject must be contained within the subject at least "in-esse"
- One who understands perfectly the notion of the subject would also know the predicates which belong to it
- There is something in the being of every substance or in the haecceity (thingness) of a thing, vestiges of everything that has happened to it and that will happen to it and even traces of everyone that happens in the universe. But, God alone is capable of recognizing this and knowing the thing's haecceity perfectly.
9. That each singular substance expresses the whole universe in its own way, and that all its events, together with all their circumstances and the whole sequence of external things are included in its notion
- Two substances cannot resemble each other completely and differ only in number or spatial qualities
- A substance can only begin by creation and end via annihilation
- A substance is not divisible into two. Likewise two substances cannot be combined into one.
- Every substance is like a complete world and a mirror of God
- The glory of God is multiplied by the number of substances in the universe
- Every substance bears in some way the infinite wisdom of God and imitates it insofar it is capable
10. That the belief in substantial forms has some basis, but that these forms do not change anything in the phenomena and must not be used to explain particular effects
- Without using the forms (Platonic forms) we cannot "elevate our minds sufficiently well to the knowledge of incorporeal natures and the wonders of God" (Leibniz, 10).
11. That the Thoughts of Theologians and Philosophers who are called scholastics are not entirely to be disdained
- If we are to look at St. Thomas and the other scholastics we would find a great treasure of demonstrative truths
12. That the notions involved in extension contain something imaginary and cannot constitute the substance of body
- The nature of substance and body does not wholly lie in extension, that is size, shape and motion, but is something related to souls or substantial form
- Souls sustain existence of bodies from moment to moment and preserve the basis for knowledge of what they are
- Souls alone are susceptible to punishment and reward and citizens subject to God.
13.
- The individual notion of each person includes once and for all everything that will ever happen to him but these truths are nonetheless contingent because they are caused by either the Free Will of God or of his creation
- It would appear that if all that happens is included in the nation of a single substance we would be left with complete fatalism. However, there is a big difference between certainty and necessity. Everything that will occur is certain because God foresees all actions, but it does not follow that what happens happens necessarily.
- An effect is necessary when its opposite implies a contradiction. An effect is contingent when its opposite course is not a contradictory one.
- Whatever happens in conformity with the predeterminations is certain, but not necessary, fore he would have done the opposite without it causing a contradiction, despite it being impossible for him to take the opposite action
14.
- Every created substance depends on God who preserves them in the manner we preserve our thoughts, only completely and perfectly.
- Every created substance is independent of everything save for God.
- No substance truly acts upon or is enacted upon by another substance because every substance is sustained by itself and God.
15.
- A substance is of infinitely extension insofar as it expresses everything, but is limited insofar as it expresses everything imperfectly
- Substances act upon one another in only the sense that they serve to limit the extension of one another. When one substance is greatened another must be limited to accommodate the other's growth.
- Whenever a thing acts it improves its efficacy. Thus, when a thing increases its efficacy it achieves more perfection and is strengthened and another substance is weakened.
- Pleasure arises when a perceptional being increases itself and pain occurs when it is decreased.
- One can sin by seeking to increase and thus seeking power and pleasure.
16.
- Miracles and extraordinary influence from God on man seems impossible because all events are consequences according to nature's demands.
- Miracles exist but are always in conformity with the universal law and general order of the universe.
- Miracles are miracles because they cannot be presupposed or foreseen by any created mind.
- What we express is our essence or idea and that is unlimited, but our nature or our power is limited.
- Whatever surpasses the nature or power of created substances is supernatural, but nothing can surpass our essences.
17.
???
We come back to my mentor and favorite, the much maligned G.W. Leibniz.
Discourse on Metaphysics and other Essays
G.W. Leibniz
Trans. Daniel Garber & Raoger Ariew
Hackett Publishing Co.
Indianapolis, IN
1991
Discourse on Metaphysics 1686
1. On Divine Perfection and that God does everyone in the most desirable way
- God is an absolutely perfect being
- Power & knowledge are perfection and have no limits within God
- The more enlightened we are of God's works the more we'll "be disposed to find them excellent and in complete conformity with what we might have desired" (Leibniz, 1).
2. Against those who claim that there is no goodness in God's works or that the rules of goodness and Beauty are arbitrary
- By looking at the created things we can discover the creator
- All acts of will presuppose a reason for willing
- Reason is prior to the act of will
- Eternal truths of metaphysics and geometry and the rules of goodness, justice and perfection are not merely the effects of the will of God, but the consequences of His understanding.
3. Against those who believe that God might have made things better
- The consequences of believing that God could have made things better are wholly contrary to the glory of God.
- "A lesser evil is relatively good, so a lesser good is relatively evil" (Leibniz, 3).
- To act with less perfection than one could have is to act imperfectly
- The reason many believe that God could have created better is our inadequate knowledge of the general harmony of the universe and the hidden reasons for God's conduct
- "God does nothing for which he does not deserve to be glorified" (Leibniz, 3).
4. That the Love of God requires our complete satisfaction and acquiescence with respect to what he has done without our being quietist as a result
- Those who are dissatisfied with God's creation cannot fully love God
- We must be truly satisfied with everything that comes to us because it is according to His will
- As to regards to future events though we must not be passive and simply await what God will do, but act in accordance to what may be the will of God as best we can. We must strive to contribute to the general good.
- The outcome of our actions may show that God did not wish our good to have immediate effect, but it does not follow that He did not wish us to act
- "He never demands more than the right intention, and it is for Him to know the proper hour and place for letting the good designs succeed"
5. What the rules of the perfection of divine conduct consist in, and that the simplicity of the ways is in balance with the richness of the effects
- To know in detail the reason that could have moved God to choose the order of the universe is beyond the scope of finite minds
- As finite minds we cannot fully comprehend why God allows sin or bestows grace in the way He does, especially prior to attaining the full enjoyment of the vision of God.
- Minds have perfections and these consist of virtues
- The happiness of minds is the principal aim of God
6. God does nothing which is not orderly and it is not even possible to imagine events that are not regular
- The acts of God are commonly divided into ordinary and extraordinary. But everything is in conformity with the universal order.
- In understanding this we understand little other than what happens happens according to the order of harmony that God established.
7. That miracles conform to the General order, even though they may be contrary to the subordinate maxims; and about what God wills or permits by a General volition
- Miracles are as much in the order of things as typical events
8. To distinguish the actions of God from those of Creatures we explain the notion of an individual substance
- Every predicate of a subject must be contained within the subject at least "in-esse"
- One who understands perfectly the notion of the subject would also know the predicates which belong to it
- There is something in the being of every substance or in the haecceity (thingness) of a thing, vestiges of everything that has happened to it and that will happen to it and even traces of everyone that happens in the universe. But, God alone is capable of recognizing this and knowing the thing's haecceity perfectly.
9. That each singular substance expresses the whole universe in its own way, and that all its events, together with all their circumstances and the whole sequence of external things are included in its notion
- Two substances cannot resemble each other completely and differ only in number or spatial qualities
- A substance can only begin by creation and end via annihilation
- A substance is not divisible into two. Likewise two substances cannot be combined into one.
- Every substance is like a complete world and a mirror of God
- The glory of God is multiplied by the number of substances in the universe
- Every substance bears in some way the infinite wisdom of God and imitates it insofar it is capable
10. That the belief in substantial forms has some basis, but that these forms do not change anything in the phenomena and must not be used to explain particular effects
- Without using the forms (Platonic forms) we cannot "elevate our minds sufficiently well to the knowledge of incorporeal natures and the wonders of God" (Leibniz, 10).
11. That the Thoughts of Theologians and Philosophers who are called scholastics are not entirely to be disdained
- If we are to look at St. Thomas and the other scholastics we would find a great treasure of demonstrative truths
12. That the notions involved in extension contain something imaginary and cannot constitute the substance of body
- The nature of substance and body does not wholly lie in extension, that is size, shape and motion, but is something related to souls or substantial form
- Souls sustain existence of bodies from moment to moment and preserve the basis for knowledge of what they are
- Souls alone are susceptible to punishment and reward and citizens subject to God.
13.
- The individual notion of each person includes once and for all everything that will ever happen to him but these truths are nonetheless contingent because they are caused by either the Free Will of God or of his creation
- It would appear that if all that happens is included in the nation of a single substance we would be left with complete fatalism. However, there is a big difference between certainty and necessity. Everything that will occur is certain because God foresees all actions, but it does not follow that what happens happens necessarily.
- An effect is necessary when its opposite implies a contradiction. An effect is contingent when its opposite course is not a contradictory one.
- Whatever happens in conformity with the predeterminations is certain, but not necessary, fore he would have done the opposite without it causing a contradiction, despite it being impossible for him to take the opposite action
14.
- Every created substance depends on God who preserves them in the manner we preserve our thoughts, only completely and perfectly.
- Every created substance is independent of everything save for God.
- No substance truly acts upon or is enacted upon by another substance because every substance is sustained by itself and God.
15.
- A substance is of infinitely extension insofar as it expresses everything, but is limited insofar as it expresses everything imperfectly
- Substances act upon one another in only the sense that they serve to limit the extension of one another. When one substance is greatened another must be limited to accommodate the other's growth.
- Whenever a thing acts it improves its efficacy. Thus, when a thing increases its efficacy it achieves more perfection and is strengthened and another substance is weakened.
- Pleasure arises when a perceptional being increases itself and pain occurs when it is decreased.
- One can sin by seeking to increase and thus seeking power and pleasure.
16.
- Miracles and extraordinary influence from God on man seems impossible because all events are consequences according to nature's demands.
- Miracles exist but are always in conformity with the universal law and general order of the universe.
- Miracles are miracles because they cannot be presupposed or foreseen by any created mind.
- What we express is our essence or idea and that is unlimited, but our nature or our power is limited.
- Whatever surpasses the nature or power of created substances is supernatural, but nothing can surpass our essences.
17.
???
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Functionality vs. Beauty
(Originally written May 10, 2007 in Book 16)
Class Notes
Functionality of the world or Beauty of the world, which is the most primary? - Second Sun Allegory. The beauty as it is and in its role in our lives. The beauty of God is His Beauty in and of Himself. If Beauty is the foundation of all what we are extending from then we are enjoying beauty for beauty's sake, something that ought to be reserved for God.
Class Notes
Functionality of the world or Beauty of the world, which is the most primary? - Second Sun Allegory. The beauty as it is and in its role in our lives. The beauty of God is His Beauty in and of Himself. If Beauty is the foundation of all what we are extending from then we are enjoying beauty for beauty's sake, something that ought to be reserved for God.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Philosophy of Soul
(Originally written May 8, 2007 in Book 25)
Soul
There are many theories about the soul that are dualistic, but there are a few that are not.
Thomas Hobbes believed that man was purely physical.
Bishop Berkeley believed that the physical nature was essentially soul.
Plato - essence of man is his soul, which is trapped in the body
Descartes
- Dualist, but not as strict as Plato
- Believed the soul and body interacted
Problems: implied that there is a specific center between physical and soul
How can extended and unextended substances interact?
Augustine
- Soul and physical men make up whole man
- somewhat Platonic
- Believed the soul was immortal
- Soul gives life to the body
Nemesius
- Platonic
- Soul not just a part of a composite man
- Soul is an intelligible substance, incorporeal substance
Problem: if man is a soul that uses the body, what is the body?
Bible rules out some theories:
1. Materialism (Hobbes)
2. Spiritualism (Berkeley) [Not Really]
3. Strict Dualism
Aristotle
- Everything has four causes:
1. Final
2. Material
3. Formal
4. Efficient
Man:
- Soul is the formal Cause
- Mom and Dad is the efficient cause
- Flesh & bones is the material cause
- Happiness is the final cause
Soul is the form of man. Soul is inextricable from the body.
Aristotle's theory allows for a separation of mind and body
Aristotle's theory allows for a separation of mind and body
Does not have the Cartesian problems.
Allows man to be physical and spiritual
His theory is Biblically justifiable
Thomas Aquinas
Soul is the form of man, but differed from Aristotle
God: Ideals -> Exemplar Cause:
- Efficient
- Formal
- Material
- Final
Soul distinguish us from animals.
Soul is not the motor of the body
Soul is indestructible (similar to Plato)
Antony Flew objected:
Why is the new Flew better than the original Flew (post-return of Christ/resurrection of the body)?
Thomas' questions
1. Is the soul a body?
2. Is the soul a man or is the man composite of body and soul?
3. Is the soul composed of matter and form?
4. Is the intellectual principle united to the body as a form?
5. Is the intellectual principle multiplied according to the bodies or a single collective mind?
The soul is moved accidentally, but the body is moved essentially.
The soul is the first principle of life.
The soul is not a body, but is the act of a body.
The intellect is the form of the body. It is separate, but it still exists in matter. The intellect can be united with the body but not an act of the body.
How can the soul influence the body?
Way of power relation:
How does the pot hold the clay together? Power relation. There is no mechanism that holds it together, but it does. So it is how the soul influences the body.
Man: Shape, vegetative soul, sensitive soul and rational soul are the form of man
The soul and body are aspects of the single substance that is man.
String Theory?
Soul
There are many theories about the soul that are dualistic, but there are a few that are not.
Thomas Hobbes believed that man was purely physical.
Bishop Berkeley believed that the physical nature was essentially soul.
Plato - essence of man is his soul, which is trapped in the body
Descartes
- Dualist, but not as strict as Plato
- Believed the soul and body interacted
Problems: implied that there is a specific center between physical and soul
How can extended and unextended substances interact?
Augustine
- Soul and physical men make up whole man
- somewhat Platonic
- Believed the soul was immortal
- Soul gives life to the body
Nemesius
- Platonic
- Soul not just a part of a composite man
- Soul is an intelligible substance, incorporeal substance
Problem: if man is a soul that uses the body, what is the body?
Bible rules out some theories:
1. Materialism (Hobbes)
2. Spiritualism (Berkeley) [Not Really]
3. Strict Dualism
Aristotle
- Everything has four causes:
1. Final
2. Material
3. Formal
4. Efficient
Man:
- Soul is the formal Cause
- Mom and Dad is the efficient cause
- Flesh & bones is the material cause
- Happiness is the final cause
Soul is the form of man. Soul is inextricable from the body.
Aristotle's theory allows for a separation of mind and body
Aristotle's theory allows for a separation of mind and body
Does not have the Cartesian problems.
Allows man to be physical and spiritual
His theory is Biblically justifiable
Thomas Aquinas
Soul is the form of man, but differed from Aristotle
God: Ideals -> Exemplar Cause:
- Efficient
- Formal
- Material
- Final
Soul distinguish us from animals.
Soul is not the motor of the body
Soul is indestructible (similar to Plato)
Antony Flew objected:
Why is the new Flew better than the original Flew (post-return of Christ/resurrection of the body)?
Thomas' questions
1. Is the soul a body?
2. Is the soul a man or is the man composite of body and soul?
3. Is the soul composed of matter and form?
4. Is the intellectual principle united to the body as a form?
5. Is the intellectual principle multiplied according to the bodies or a single collective mind?
The soul is moved accidentally, but the body is moved essentially.
The soul is the first principle of life.
The soul is not a body, but is the act of a body.
The intellect is the form of the body. It is separate, but it still exists in matter. The intellect can be united with the body but not an act of the body.
How can the soul influence the body?
Way of power relation:
How does the pot hold the clay together? Power relation. There is no mechanism that holds it together, but it does. So it is how the soul influences the body.
Man: Shape, vegetative soul, sensitive soul and rational soul are the form of man
The soul and body are aspects of the single substance that is man.
String Theory?
What is Christian Art?
(Originally written May 8, 2007 in Book 15)
What is Christian Art?
What constitutes Christian art is important on three levels:
1) Measuring the worldview of works by a Christian standard is the distinctive interest of Christian criticism
2) It is important in the academic criticism of the arts
3) It is a perennial question facing Christian artists
Some Fallacies
Art is never totally neutral. W.H. Auden was simply wrong in asserting that there can be no such thing as Christian art.
Ideas, opinions, attitudes, and statements about life are true or false.
Every artist's work shows a moral and intellectual bias.
There is not however as Francis Schaffer pointed out a godly or ungodly style.
There is no ungodly form of art.
Likewise a particular style of music is not godly or wicked.
The Christian element of art is neither stylistic nor is it primarily the subject matter.
Christian art is not always religious art.
The loose equation of religious art and Christian art is a major fallacy in academic circles.
The practice of allegorizing every work of art is a fallacy in Christian's perspectives.
The Variety of Ways in Which Art can be Christian
There should not be a single criterion applied or all work will be labeled as Christian or non-Christian.
It is more useful to talk about how art intersects with Christianity.
Christian Allusions
Allusions or symbolic things that point to Christian doctrine show the artist's familiarity with Christianity.
These are not wholly reliable criteria for labeling a work Christian.
Allusion and symbol are a part of an artist's language.
Christian references do not necessarily imply a Christian viewpoint.
William Wadsworth used Biblical idiom tastefully to express a romantic worldview and expound pantheistic religious experience.
Allusions to Christianity cannot stand alone as a criteria to show a work to be Christian.
Inclusively Christian Viewpoints (x problem in paper)
An artist may choose to embody values or viewpoints which are inclusively Christian.
It should not be surprising that non-Christians to produce works that are true to Christian belief.
Exclusively Christian Viewpoints
Lastly, an artist may incorporate exclusive Christian viewpoints.
By referencing the Christian God (or aspects of him unique to him) it makes it an exclusive Christian viewpoint.
The Christian Vision in Beowulf
Many have suggested that Beowulf is an allegory of Christ.
Christian allusions in Beowulf
The use of Christian allusions in Beowulf does not make it a Christian piece.
The Hero & Ethos of the Story
Does Christianity idealize the type of hero that Beowulf does?
There are aspects of Beowulf that are similar to Christianity.
Elements that contradict a Christian outlook
The hero possesses inclusive Christian virtues but also ones that violate Christian ethics. He is proud and boastful and not humble.
Some telling Omissions
There is a controversial issue with no unanimous meeting by Christians.
What is Christian Art?
What constitutes Christian art is important on three levels:
1) Measuring the worldview of works by a Christian standard is the distinctive interest of Christian criticism
2) It is important in the academic criticism of the arts
3) It is a perennial question facing Christian artists
Some Fallacies
Art is never totally neutral. W.H. Auden was simply wrong in asserting that there can be no such thing as Christian art.
Ideas, opinions, attitudes, and statements about life are true or false.
Every artist's work shows a moral and intellectual bias.
There is not however as Francis Schaffer pointed out a godly or ungodly style.
There is no ungodly form of art.
Likewise a particular style of music is not godly or wicked.
The Christian element of art is neither stylistic nor is it primarily the subject matter.
Christian art is not always religious art.
The loose equation of religious art and Christian art is a major fallacy in academic circles.
The practice of allegorizing every work of art is a fallacy in Christian's perspectives.
The Variety of Ways in Which Art can be Christian
There should not be a single criterion applied or all work will be labeled as Christian or non-Christian.
It is more useful to talk about how art intersects with Christianity.
Christian Allusions
Allusions or symbolic things that point to Christian doctrine show the artist's familiarity with Christianity.
These are not wholly reliable criteria for labeling a work Christian.
Allusion and symbol are a part of an artist's language.
Christian references do not necessarily imply a Christian viewpoint.
William Wadsworth used Biblical idiom tastefully to express a romantic worldview and expound pantheistic religious experience.
Allusions to Christianity cannot stand alone as a criteria to show a work to be Christian.
Inclusively Christian Viewpoints (x problem in paper)
An artist may choose to embody values or viewpoints which are inclusively Christian.
It should not be surprising that non-Christians to produce works that are true to Christian belief.
Exclusively Christian Viewpoints
Lastly, an artist may incorporate exclusive Christian viewpoints.
By referencing the Christian God (or aspects of him unique to him) it makes it an exclusive Christian viewpoint.
The Christian Vision in Beowulf
Many have suggested that Beowulf is an allegory of Christ.
Christian allusions in Beowulf
The use of Christian allusions in Beowulf does not make it a Christian piece.
The Hero & Ethos of the Story
Does Christianity idealize the type of hero that Beowulf does?
There are aspects of Beowulf that are similar to Christianity.
Elements that contradict a Christian outlook
The hero possesses inclusive Christian virtues but also ones that violate Christian ethics. He is proud and boastful and not humble.
Some telling Omissions
There is a controversial issue with no unanimous meeting by Christians.
Class Notes on the distinctiveness of Christianity
(Originally Written May 8, 2007 in Book 15)
Jesus
- Healing
- Healing on the Sabbath
- Referring to God as His Father
Therefore, equal to God
The Authorities look at all of this and claim that it is a lead-pipe cinch case that he must be killed.
The Jews put Jesus to death as a sorcerer (Deuteronomy 13). The Jews accused him of preaching apostasy.
However, Jesus was not preaching apostasy, He was fulfilling the Old Testament.
The "Lunatic-Liar-Lord" scenarios offered by many modern Christians is inadequate because the Jews saw Christ as demonic, sent from and powered by Satan to turn men away from YHWH.
Does the Bible have an "original" audience?
If the Bible is co-authored by God and men then the man-author is addressing an original audience while God is addressing man himself.
If Jesus Christ and the Word of God are synonymous as Logos, then by identification it is both in time and out of time. Christ as man is in time with an "original" audience and yet, as God He is not bound by time.
What have we learned?
- John H. Hick was wrong (pluralism).
- Salvation is different in different in religions
- Scriptures in other religions cannot be viewed through the same lens as used to read the Holy Bible.
- Morality is inextricably connected with the religious elements
What does this mean?
1) MEIC PEARSE - "Countries cannot be Christian; only individuals can.
Christianity is not a set of rules. This is a major difference with Islam. Islam requires personal, individual community but it is not fully complete without the community.
Islam - Al-Umana
- community
- political entity
Christianity does not come with a political agenda. Christianity, at its heart and core is a correct relationship with the Living God.
Creating a Christian government is not a viable Biblical option for Christians living in a religious pluralistic world.
2) Give the Gospel the Highest Priority
Taking the gospel to the world should be the highest priority in a Christian's life.
The gospel is the redeeming power of Christianity, the outward actions of a Christian (feeding the poor, clothing the naked) are good but not on par with spreading the gospel.
3) Keep Christianity Christian!
There is no need for accommodation whatsoever. Non-believers will not find Christ if you package Him in a non-offensive, tentative way.
Christianity is distinctive because it is based on and rooted in historical events. If these historical events are ignored in worship then we are sacrificing our basis of religion.
That's it, that's all there is.
That's all folks.
Jesus
- Healing
- Healing on the Sabbath
- Referring to God as His Father
Therefore, equal to God
The Authorities look at all of this and claim that it is a lead-pipe cinch case that he must be killed.
The Jews put Jesus to death as a sorcerer (Deuteronomy 13). The Jews accused him of preaching apostasy.
However, Jesus was not preaching apostasy, He was fulfilling the Old Testament.
The "Lunatic-Liar-Lord" scenarios offered by many modern Christians is inadequate because the Jews saw Christ as demonic, sent from and powered by Satan to turn men away from YHWH.
Does the Bible have an "original" audience?
If the Bible is co-authored by God and men then the man-author is addressing an original audience while God is addressing man himself.
If Jesus Christ and the Word of God are synonymous as Logos, then by identification it is both in time and out of time. Christ as man is in time with an "original" audience and yet, as God He is not bound by time.
What have we learned?
- John H. Hick was wrong (pluralism).
- Salvation is different in different in religions
- Scriptures in other religions cannot be viewed through the same lens as used to read the Holy Bible.
- Morality is inextricably connected with the religious elements
What does this mean?
1) MEIC PEARSE - "Countries cannot be Christian; only individuals can.
Christianity is not a set of rules. This is a major difference with Islam. Islam requires personal, individual community but it is not fully complete without the community.
Islam - Al-Umana
- community
- political entity
Christianity does not come with a political agenda. Christianity, at its heart and core is a correct relationship with the Living God.
Creating a Christian government is not a viable Biblical option for Christians living in a religious pluralistic world.
2) Give the Gospel the Highest Priority
Taking the gospel to the world should be the highest priority in a Christian's life.
The gospel is the redeeming power of Christianity, the outward actions of a Christian (feeding the poor, clothing the naked) are good but not on par with spreading the gospel.
3) Keep Christianity Christian!
There is no need for accommodation whatsoever. Non-believers will not find Christ if you package Him in a non-offensive, tentative way.
Christianity is distinctive because it is based on and rooted in historical events. If these historical events are ignored in worship then we are sacrificing our basis of religion.
That's it, that's all there is.
That's all folks.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Notes on Genesis 29-30
(Originally written May 3, 2007 in Book 16)
Notes on Genesis
29:1 Jacob went eastward on his journey
29:2 He saw three flocks of sheep lying beside a well. The well was covered by a large stone
29:3 When all the flocks were gathered there the shepherds would roll away the stone and then put it back on when they had finished
29:4 Jacob asked them where they came from
29:5 The replied from Haran
29:6 Jacob asked if they knew Laban and they replied, yes.
29:7 Jacob told them it isn't time for the animals to be gathered together he said to water the sheep and re-pasture them
29:8 They replied they couldn't because they had to wait for the stone to be moved
29:9 While Jacob was speaking to them Rachel and her father's sheep came down
29:10 When Jacob saw Rachel and Laban's sheep he rolled the stone away and water her sheep.
29:11 Jacob kissed Rachel and wept
29:12 Jacob told Rachel who he was and she ran and told her father
29:13 Laban ran out to Jacob and kissed him and brought him to his house
29:14 Jacob told Laban everything and stayed with a month
29:15 Laban asked Jacob what his wages should be
29:16 Laban had two daughters: Leah, the older and Rachel, the younger
29:17 Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful
29:18 Jacob said let me serve you for 7 years for the hand of Rachel
29:19 Laban agreed
29:20 Jacob served the seven years but it seemed to be only a few days because of his love for Rachel
29:21 Jacob asked for Rachel because his time was complete
29:22 Laban gathered all the men of the place and prepared a feast
29:23 Laban took Leah to Jacob and he went into her
29:24 Laban gave his maid Zilpah to Leah
29:25 In the morning Jacob found that it was Leah and asked Laban why he had deceived him
29:26 Laban said it was custom that the older marry before the younger
29:27 Laban said that he would give him Rachel for another seven years of service
29:28 Jacob did so, he completed the week-long ceremony and then married Rachel
29:29 Laban gave his maid Bilhah to Rachel
29:30 Jacob went into Rachel. He loved Rachel more than Leah. He then served Laban for 7 years.
29:31 When the Lord saw that Leah was hated He opened her womb and closed the womb of Rachel
29:32 Leah bore Jacob a son and named him Reuben
29:33 She bore another son and named him Simeon
29:34 She bore another son and named him Levi
29:35 She bore another son and named him Judah
30:1 Rachel envied Leah and told Jacob to give her children or she will die
30:2 Jacob became angry with Rachel
30:3 Rachel gave Jacob Bilhah to bear her children
30:4 Jacob went into Bilhah
30:5 Bilhah bore Jacob a son
30:6 Rachel said God has judged and heard me and named the boy Dan
30:7 BIlhah conceived another son
30:8 Rachel named him Naphtali
30:9 When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children she gave Jacob Zilpah
30:10 Zilpah bore Jacob a son
30:11 Leah named him Gad
30:12 Zilpah bore him another son
30:13 Leah named him Asher
- recap:
Jacob & Leah - Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah
Jacob and Bilhah - Dan, Naphtali
Jacob and Zilpah - Gad and Asher
30:14 Reuben found some mandrakes and gave them to his mother Leah. Rachel asked for some mandrakes
30:15 Leah said is it not enough that you have taken my husband away you now want to take away my son's mandrakes. Rachel said Leah could sleep with Jacob that night for some mandrakes.
30:16 When Jacob came home Leah told him that he must sleep with her because she had hired him with Reuben's mandrakes
30:17 She conceived another son
30:18 She named him Issachar
30:19 Leah conceived again
30:20 She named this son Zebulun
30:21 She then had a daughter she named Dinah
30:22 God remembered Rachel and opened up her womb
30:23 She bore a son and said God has taken away my reproach
30:24 She named him Joseph
30:25 When Joseph was born Jacob said to Laban send me back home to my own country
30:26 He said give me wives and my children and let me go
30:27 Laban said that he had learned by divination that the Lord had blessed him because of Jacob
30:28 Laban said name your wages and stay
30:29 Jacob said you know how I have served you well
30:30 He asked when will I provide for myself
30:31 Laban asked what he could give him and Jacob said you can give me nothing if you will just do this for me.
30:32 Jacob said let me take the speckled goats and black sheep and that will be my wages
30:33 He said he would only take the speckled ones
30:34 Laban agreed
30:35 Jacob took his pay and gave them to his son's to tend
30:36 He traveled for a three day distance away from Laban and fed the rest of Laban's flock
30:37 Jacob peeled the bark off some trees
30:38 He set them where they came to drink and breed
30:39 The flocks conceived many striped and speckled animals
30:40 He then separated the flocks of Laban and his own
30:41 Whenever the stronger flocks were breeding Jacob lay the striped tree rods before them
30:42 But he did not do so for the feeble flocks. Jacob's flocks grew strong
30:43 Jacob grew to be very wealthy.
Notes on Genesis
29:1 Jacob went eastward on his journey
29:2 He saw three flocks of sheep lying beside a well. The well was covered by a large stone
29:3 When all the flocks were gathered there the shepherds would roll away the stone and then put it back on when they had finished
29:4 Jacob asked them where they came from
29:5 The replied from Haran
29:6 Jacob asked if they knew Laban and they replied, yes.
29:7 Jacob told them it isn't time for the animals to be gathered together he said to water the sheep and re-pasture them
29:8 They replied they couldn't because they had to wait for the stone to be moved
29:9 While Jacob was speaking to them Rachel and her father's sheep came down
29:10 When Jacob saw Rachel and Laban's sheep he rolled the stone away and water her sheep.
29:11 Jacob kissed Rachel and wept
29:12 Jacob told Rachel who he was and she ran and told her father
29:13 Laban ran out to Jacob and kissed him and brought him to his house
29:14 Jacob told Laban everything and stayed with a month
29:15 Laban asked Jacob what his wages should be
29:16 Laban had two daughters: Leah, the older and Rachel, the younger
29:17 Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful
29:18 Jacob said let me serve you for 7 years for the hand of Rachel
29:19 Laban agreed
29:20 Jacob served the seven years but it seemed to be only a few days because of his love for Rachel
29:21 Jacob asked for Rachel because his time was complete
29:22 Laban gathered all the men of the place and prepared a feast
29:23 Laban took Leah to Jacob and he went into her
29:24 Laban gave his maid Zilpah to Leah
29:25 In the morning Jacob found that it was Leah and asked Laban why he had deceived him
29:26 Laban said it was custom that the older marry before the younger
29:27 Laban said that he would give him Rachel for another seven years of service
29:28 Jacob did so, he completed the week-long ceremony and then married Rachel
29:29 Laban gave his maid Bilhah to Rachel
29:30 Jacob went into Rachel. He loved Rachel more than Leah. He then served Laban for 7 years.
29:31 When the Lord saw that Leah was hated He opened her womb and closed the womb of Rachel
29:32 Leah bore Jacob a son and named him Reuben
29:33 She bore another son and named him Simeon
29:34 She bore another son and named him Levi
29:35 She bore another son and named him Judah
30:1 Rachel envied Leah and told Jacob to give her children or she will die
30:2 Jacob became angry with Rachel
30:3 Rachel gave Jacob Bilhah to bear her children
30:4 Jacob went into Bilhah
30:5 Bilhah bore Jacob a son
30:6 Rachel said God has judged and heard me and named the boy Dan
30:7 BIlhah conceived another son
30:8 Rachel named him Naphtali
30:9 When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children she gave Jacob Zilpah
30:10 Zilpah bore Jacob a son
30:11 Leah named him Gad
30:12 Zilpah bore him another son
30:13 Leah named him Asher
- recap:
Jacob & Leah - Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah
Jacob and Bilhah - Dan, Naphtali
Jacob and Zilpah - Gad and Asher
30:14 Reuben found some mandrakes and gave them to his mother Leah. Rachel asked for some mandrakes
30:15 Leah said is it not enough that you have taken my husband away you now want to take away my son's mandrakes. Rachel said Leah could sleep with Jacob that night for some mandrakes.
30:16 When Jacob came home Leah told him that he must sleep with her because she had hired him with Reuben's mandrakes
30:17 She conceived another son
30:18 She named him Issachar
30:19 Leah conceived again
30:20 She named this son Zebulun
30:21 She then had a daughter she named Dinah
30:22 God remembered Rachel and opened up her womb
30:23 She bore a son and said God has taken away my reproach
30:24 She named him Joseph
30:25 When Joseph was born Jacob said to Laban send me back home to my own country
30:26 He said give me wives and my children and let me go
30:27 Laban said that he had learned by divination that the Lord had blessed him because of Jacob
30:28 Laban said name your wages and stay
30:29 Jacob said you know how I have served you well
30:30 He asked when will I provide for myself
30:31 Laban asked what he could give him and Jacob said you can give me nothing if you will just do this for me.
30:32 Jacob said let me take the speckled goats and black sheep and that will be my wages
30:33 He said he would only take the speckled ones
30:34 Laban agreed
30:35 Jacob took his pay and gave them to his son's to tend
30:36 He traveled for a three day distance away from Laban and fed the rest of Laban's flock
30:37 Jacob peeled the bark off some trees
30:38 He set them where they came to drink and breed
30:39 The flocks conceived many striped and speckled animals
30:40 He then separated the flocks of Laban and his own
30:41 Whenever the stronger flocks were breeding Jacob lay the striped tree rods before them
30:42 But he did not do so for the feeble flocks. Jacob's flocks grew strong
30:43 Jacob grew to be very wealthy.
Immorality in Art
(Originally written May 3, 2007 in Book 16)
Class Notes
Immorality in Art
Aestheticism - The view that art and artists cannot judged by morals.
- Oscar Wilde
Moralism - Art is good or bad based on the morality of the piece
- Leo Tolstoy
Ethics - Moral concepts an judgments are part of the overall aesthetic judgment.
1) Depiction of evil vs. Endorsement of Evil
Saving Private Ryan & Passion of Christ
vs.
Cider House Rules & Million Dollar Baby
2) Necessary depiction vs. Gratuitous depiction of evil
The Deerhunter, Exorcist, City of God
vs.
Natural Born Killers, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm St.
3) Depiction of evil in service of a noble theme vs depiction of service of a trivial theme
On the Waterfront and Spitfire Grill
vs.
Sin City and Requiem for a Dream
4) Provision of insight into truth vs. Obscuring of truth
The Big Kahuna and Les Miserables
vs.
JFK, Pleasantville and Chocolat
Final Justice and Personal Redemption vs. Moral lawlessness and personal hopelessness
Deadman Walking & American History X
vs.
The Silence of the Lambs and Dogville
6) Objective Content of the artwork vs. Subjective Response of the audience
Profanity in Goodwill Hinting
Sexual Premise in American Beauty
Violence in Pulp Fiction
Class Notes
Immorality in Art
Aestheticism - The view that art and artists cannot judged by morals.
- Oscar Wilde
Moralism - Art is good or bad based on the morality of the piece
- Leo Tolstoy
Ethics - Moral concepts an judgments are part of the overall aesthetic judgment.
1) Depiction of evil vs. Endorsement of Evil
Saving Private Ryan & Passion of Christ
vs.
Cider House Rules & Million Dollar Baby
2) Necessary depiction vs. Gratuitous depiction of evil
The Deerhunter, Exorcist, City of God
vs.
Natural Born Killers, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm St.
3) Depiction of evil in service of a noble theme vs depiction of service of a trivial theme
On the Waterfront and Spitfire Grill
vs.
Sin City and Requiem for a Dream
4) Provision of insight into truth vs. Obscuring of truth
The Big Kahuna and Les Miserables
vs.
JFK, Pleasantville and Chocolat
Final Justice and Personal Redemption vs. Moral lawlessness and personal hopelessness
Deadman Walking & American History X
vs.
The Silence of the Lambs and Dogville
6) Objective Content of the artwork vs. Subjective Response of the audience
Profanity in Goodwill Hinting
Sexual Premise in American Beauty
Violence in Pulp Fiction
Double Effect
(Originally written May 3, 2007 in Book 25)
Class Notes
God is pure actuality. There are no privations in his actions. An action is good or bad based on the four causes of actions. All four causes contributes to status of an action.
Actions
Object - formal cause
Circumstances - Material Cause
Purpose/Goal - Final Cause
Intention - Efficient Cause
Intention is a mental act. Purpose is a physical outcome.
The Double Effect Theory
Double Effect:
- not the ends justify themes
- not evil subsequent to the good
It is unavoidable second effect stemming from the same cause
Key note: Cause and Effect are not separate instances. They are one event.
Causality is normally defined as "event a causes event b".
Hume criticizes causality because you never see the causation. This is true, but meaningless.
Causation is rightly defined as an actualization of a potential.
Double effect is two effects at the same time.
The crucial difference between double effect and consequentialist theories is that Aquinas holds that one should never do evil to bring what good whereas consequentialist theories come only to bring about good consequences regardless of the action.
Question: Why does God permit evil in the world?
Answer: Double Effect
God -> Creation -> The Best
(Double Effect) Evil
This theory does not put evil in a positive light. It keeps evil as bad, not a disguised good.
Class Notes
God is pure actuality. There are no privations in his actions. An action is good or bad based on the four causes of actions. All four causes contributes to status of an action.
Actions
Object - formal cause
Circumstances - Material Cause
Purpose/Goal - Final Cause
Intention - Efficient Cause
Intention is a mental act. Purpose is a physical outcome.
The Double Effect Theory
Double Effect:
- not the ends justify themes
- not evil subsequent to the good
It is unavoidable second effect stemming from the same cause
Key note: Cause and Effect are not separate instances. They are one event.
Causality is normally defined as "event a causes event b".
Hume criticizes causality because you never see the causation. This is true, but meaningless.
Causation is rightly defined as an actualization of a potential.
Double effect is two effects at the same time.
The crucial difference between double effect and consequentialist theories is that Aquinas holds that one should never do evil to bring what good whereas consequentialist theories come only to bring about good consequences regardless of the action.
Question: Why does God permit evil in the world?
Answer: Double Effect
God -> Creation -> The Best
(Double Effect) Evil
This theory does not put evil in a positive light. It keeps evil as bad, not a disguised good.
The Uniqueness of Christian Salvation
(Originally written May 3, 2007 in Book 15)
Salvation is unique to Christianity and there is no salvation outside of Christ.
Does this imply conscience faith in Christ or can one be saved through implicit faith?
Old Testament
God's convenient people (Jews) are saved
- Implicit faith in Christ
- Sacrificial system, Temple Cultus, the Law, the Prophets and the writings point to the coming of Jesus Christ
In the Old Testament than are only the Jews eligible for salvation?
1) There are converts
2) Non-Jews that worship the true God, (i.e. Melchizedek, Job, Rahab)
Any person that involves idolatry in their worship cannot be saved. Dos point away from Christ, not towards him.
Ultimately, Idolatry consists of worshipping the creature rather than the creator.
New Testament
Those who have heard the gospel and responded by faith are the ones who are saved.
Who is not saved?
- People who have heard and understood the gospel but have rejected Christ
What about those who have not heard?
- There is a natural revelation and a natural law; but, unfortunately, we all have violated it.
But there are examples in the New Testament of people in the New Testament who are serious about God without having knowledge in Christ who God sends the message of Jesus Christ to (i.e. Apollos, Peter to the centurion, etc.).
Salvation is unique to Christianity and there is no salvation outside of Christ.
Does this imply conscience faith in Christ or can one be saved through implicit faith?
Old Testament
God's convenient people (Jews) are saved
- Implicit faith in Christ
- Sacrificial system, Temple Cultus, the Law, the Prophets and the writings point to the coming of Jesus Christ
In the Old Testament than are only the Jews eligible for salvation?
1) There are converts
2) Non-Jews that worship the true God, (i.e. Melchizedek, Job, Rahab)
Any person that involves idolatry in their worship cannot be saved. Dos point away from Christ, not towards him.
Ultimately, Idolatry consists of worshipping the creature rather than the creator.
New Testament
Those who have heard the gospel and responded by faith are the ones who are saved.
Who is not saved?
- People who have heard and understood the gospel but have rejected Christ
What about those who have not heard?
- There is a natural revelation and a natural law; but, unfortunately, we all have violated it.
But there are examples in the New Testament of people in the New Testament who are serious about God without having knowledge in Christ who God sends the message of Jesus Christ to (i.e. Apollos, Peter to the centurion, etc.).
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Who is saved
(Originally written May 1, 2007 in Book 15)
Class Notes
John 14:6 - No one comes to the Father but by me
Acts 4:12 - There is no other name
I Timothy - One God, One Mediator - The Man Jesus
"If you believe then you will be saved"
does not mean
"If you don't believe, then you will not be saved".
"You will be saved if and only if you believe"
means also
"Since you believe you will be saved"
Romans 10
Old Testament
Who is definitely saved?
- The ones who are in covenant with God
- The sacrifices implicitly direct them to Christ
- Job, Melchizedek, Rahab (worshippers of the true God outside of the covenant), Ruth
Who is definitely not saved?
- Idolaters
Class Notes
John 14:6 - No one comes to the Father but by me
Acts 4:12 - There is no other name
I Timothy - One God, One Mediator - The Man Jesus
"If you believe then you will be saved"
does not mean
"If you don't believe, then you will not be saved".
"You will be saved if and only if you believe"
means also
"Since you believe you will be saved"
Romans 10
Old Testament
Who is definitely saved?
- The ones who are in covenant with God
- The sacrifices implicitly direct them to Christ
- Job, Melchizedek, Rahab (worshippers of the true God outside of the covenant), Ruth
Who is definitely not saved?
- Idolaters
Notes on Genesis 27-28
(Originally written May 1, 2007 in Book 16)
Notes on Genesis
27:18 Jacob went to and called to his father. Isaac asked who he was.
27:19 Jacob said he was Esau and told him to eat and bless him.
27:20 Isaac asked how he had got the game so quickly and Jacob said that he had been blessed by the Lord
27:21 Isaac told him to came close so he could touch him so he could know if it was Esau or not
27:22 Isaac felt him and said it is the voice of Jacob, but the feel of Esau
27:23 He did not recognize that it was Jacob so he blessed him
27:24 He asked Jacob if he was really Esau and Jacob replied he was
27:25 So Isaac told him to bring him the food and he ate and drank
27:26 Isaac told him to come close and kiss him
27:27 Isaac smelled his garments and blessed him. He said the small of my son is the smell of a field the Lord had blessed.
27:28 He said may God give you the dew of heaven, the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine
27:29 He said let the peoples serve you and stations bow down to you. He said cursed be whoever curses you and blessed be all that bless you
27:30 As soon as Isaac was done Jacob left and Esau came in from hunting
27:31 Esau prepared the food and took it to Isaac to get the blessing
27:32 Isaac asked him who he was and he answered, I am Esau
27:33 Isaac trembled violently and asked who came before him because he had blessed him.
27:34 Esau cried out and begged for a blessing also
27:35 Isaac said that Jacob had stolen his blessing
27:36 Esau exclaimed that Jacob had stolen his birthright and his blessing. He asked if Isaac had some blessing for him
27:37 Isaac said I have made him your lord and blessed him with wine and grain and servants. He asked what can he give him
27:38 Esau wept and pleaded for some blessing
27:39 Isaac gave a little blessing saying away from the fatness of the earth and from the dew of heaven will you dwell
27:40 By the sword shall you live and shall serve your brother, but when you break loose you will break Jacob's yoke from your neck
27:41 Esau hated Jacob for this and planned to kill him after mourning Isaac
27:42 Rebekah learned of Esau's plans and told Jacob
27:43 She told Jacob to go and hide with her brother Laban in Haran.
27:44 She said to stay there until Esau's anger fades
27:45 She told him that she would send for him when Esau's fury had passed
27:46 Rebekah said to Isaac that she was tired of the Hittite women and did not want Jacob to marry one
- There is so much deceit in Abraham - Isaac - Jacob/Esau. Abraham lied about his wife. Isaac lied about his wife. Jacob lied about who he was. Could the punishment be a continuance of lies?
28:1 Isaac told Jacob not to marry a Canaanite woman.
28:2 He told him to go to Laban's house and find a daughter of his to marry
28:3 He blessed him and told him to multiply
28:4 He said may God give you the blessing of Abraham and fulfill his promise to Abraham through your descendants
28:5 So Jacob went to Laban's house
28:6 Esau saw that his father had done this
28:7 He saw that Jacob had left for Laban's house
28:8 Esau saw that Canaanite women did not please his father
28:9 So Esau went to Ishmael and took his daughter Ma'haloth
28:10 Jacob left Beer-Sheba and headed for Heron
28:11 He camped out in a certain place for the night
28:12 He dreamed that there was a ladder from earth to heaven and the angels of the Lord were ascending and descending
28:13 The Lord spoke saying, I am the Lord, God of Abraham, God of Isaac
28:14 He said your descendants will be like the dust of the earth
28:15 He said he will not leave Jacob until he had fulfilled his promise
28:16 Jacob woke and exclaimed that the Lord is surely in this place
28:17 He said this place is the house of God and the gate of Heaven
28:18 Jacob took the stone he used as a pillow and poured oil on it
28:19 He called the place Bethel (the house of God). The city was called Luz at first.
28:20 Jacob said if God is with me and will keep me...
28:21 then the Lord will be my God
28:22 He exclaimed that he will give one tenth of all the Lord gave him to God.
Notes on Genesis
27:18 Jacob went to and called to his father. Isaac asked who he was.
27:19 Jacob said he was Esau and told him to eat and bless him.
27:20 Isaac asked how he had got the game so quickly and Jacob said that he had been blessed by the Lord
27:21 Isaac told him to came close so he could touch him so he could know if it was Esau or not
27:22 Isaac felt him and said it is the voice of Jacob, but the feel of Esau
27:23 He did not recognize that it was Jacob so he blessed him
27:24 He asked Jacob if he was really Esau and Jacob replied he was
27:25 So Isaac told him to bring him the food and he ate and drank
27:26 Isaac told him to come close and kiss him
27:27 Isaac smelled his garments and blessed him. He said the small of my son is the smell of a field the Lord had blessed.
27:28 He said may God give you the dew of heaven, the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine
27:29 He said let the peoples serve you and stations bow down to you. He said cursed be whoever curses you and blessed be all that bless you
27:30 As soon as Isaac was done Jacob left and Esau came in from hunting
27:31 Esau prepared the food and took it to Isaac to get the blessing
27:32 Isaac asked him who he was and he answered, I am Esau
27:33 Isaac trembled violently and asked who came before him because he had blessed him.
27:34 Esau cried out and begged for a blessing also
27:35 Isaac said that Jacob had stolen his blessing
27:36 Esau exclaimed that Jacob had stolen his birthright and his blessing. He asked if Isaac had some blessing for him
27:37 Isaac said I have made him your lord and blessed him with wine and grain and servants. He asked what can he give him
27:38 Esau wept and pleaded for some blessing
27:39 Isaac gave a little blessing saying away from the fatness of the earth and from the dew of heaven will you dwell
27:40 By the sword shall you live and shall serve your brother, but when you break loose you will break Jacob's yoke from your neck
27:41 Esau hated Jacob for this and planned to kill him after mourning Isaac
27:42 Rebekah learned of Esau's plans and told Jacob
27:43 She told Jacob to go and hide with her brother Laban in Haran.
27:44 She said to stay there until Esau's anger fades
27:45 She told him that she would send for him when Esau's fury had passed
27:46 Rebekah said to Isaac that she was tired of the Hittite women and did not want Jacob to marry one
- There is so much deceit in Abraham - Isaac - Jacob/Esau. Abraham lied about his wife. Isaac lied about his wife. Jacob lied about who he was. Could the punishment be a continuance of lies?
28:1 Isaac told Jacob not to marry a Canaanite woman.
28:2 He told him to go to Laban's house and find a daughter of his to marry
28:3 He blessed him and told him to multiply
28:4 He said may God give you the blessing of Abraham and fulfill his promise to Abraham through your descendants
28:5 So Jacob went to Laban's house
28:6 Esau saw that his father had done this
28:7 He saw that Jacob had left for Laban's house
28:8 Esau saw that Canaanite women did not please his father
28:9 So Esau went to Ishmael and took his daughter Ma'haloth
28:10 Jacob left Beer-Sheba and headed for Heron
28:11 He camped out in a certain place for the night
28:12 He dreamed that there was a ladder from earth to heaven and the angels of the Lord were ascending and descending
28:13 The Lord spoke saying, I am the Lord, God of Abraham, God of Isaac
28:14 He said your descendants will be like the dust of the earth
28:15 He said he will not leave Jacob until he had fulfilled his promise
28:16 Jacob woke and exclaimed that the Lord is surely in this place
28:17 He said this place is the house of God and the gate of Heaven
28:18 Jacob took the stone he used as a pillow and poured oil on it
28:19 He called the place Bethel (the house of God). The city was called Luz at first.
28:20 Jacob said if God is with me and will keep me...
28:21 then the Lord will be my God
28:22 He exclaimed that he will give one tenth of all the Lord gave him to God.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)