James Chastek, Justice and Right

Political theories based on right can very easily dissolve justice into right. Such a dissolution involves saying that there is nothing to justice beyond preserving, delineating, and defending rights. Let’s stipulate that all accounts of justice are in fact rights- relative, that is, that every act of justice is inseparable from the reality that such and such is owed to someone by right. What problem is there in simply using “right” as a proxy for “justice”? Won’t we get exactly the same results?

Justice is the virtue of right operation to others. As a virtue, it is confers good on the one who has it, as giving right operation to others it confers some good on others. Notice that from one and the same action, good necessarily flows into a multitude: the one who acts and another. Right is not like this. Right captures the aspect of justice that speaks of “right operation to others”, but it prescinds from how such an operation needs to be perfective of the one from whom the operation flows. Right is a kind of abstraction in the mind that cannot be an abstraction in reality: the separation of “giving what is due” from the moral perfection of the giver. There is nothing wrong with these abstractions, and political thought needs to make them, but there is a blind side to the abstraction that we need to be aware of.

A full rights theory needs to recognize how the actuality of right- the satisfaction of right- is a good that is not limited to the one with the right, but it belongs both to the one who receives the good by right and the one who provides it to him. There is a single good which flows into two persons in different modes; but it flows in a higher mode into the one who acts or gives since it flows into him as virtue. A full rights theory would be a way of leading to a recognition of the superabundance of justice (where “superabundance” means “a good not limited to one nor diminished by being common”)

Notice that it is not enough to include a notion of “duty” as a correlative of right, though this is necessary. Neither right nor duty speaks to a superabundant good, flowing in diverse modes. Rights based theories must be perfected in one way by relating them to duties and in another way by relating them to justice.

A full rights theory can only be developed within ethics, or a political theory that is built upon "ethics" and the good. The problem is not with rights language, but with the ethical foundation that supports it.

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When I first saw the headline, without the body of the article, I thought perhaps someone was trying to present an alternative to the theologoumenon that the Blessed Virgin Mary is Mediatrix and Co-Redemptrix. (Orthodox if understood correctly, but liable to be misunderstood by Protestants and maybe the Orthodox.)

Update on Defining Mary Spiritual Mother of Humanity

"Could Constitute a Historic Benefit of Grace and Blessing for All"

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, DEC. 8, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is the letter sent today, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, by Cardinal Luis Aponte-Martinez, the retired archbishop of San Juan, to the cardinals and bishops of Latin America on the petition to define the "Blessed Virgin Mary as the Spiritual Mother of All Humanity, under its threefold aspects of Coredemptrix, Mediatrix of All Graces, and Advocate."


* * *

8 December 2009
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

My Dear Brother Cardinals and Bishops,

On January 1, 2008, five cardinals wrote to all bishops of the world to notify them of the petition made by an international group of cardinals and bishops assembled at Fatima to His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, in humble request for the solemn definition of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Spiritual Mother of All Humanity, under its threefold aspects of Coredemptrix, Mediatrix of All Graces and Advocate. Already in the past, hundreds of bishops and millions of faithful have made this appeal. Again many bishops have recently responded. As one of those five cardinals who sent this global petition, I now wish to provide you with an update concerning this universal Church request.

Recently the Philippines submitted to His Holiness a petition for this solemn definition from Cardinal Vidal, Archbishop Lagdameo, President of the Philippine Conference of Catholic Bishops, and several other archbishops and bishops. The petition was accompanied by a personal letter from Philippines President, Madame Gloria Arroyo, in which she strongly supported the request of the bishops.

Also representative groups of cardinals and bishops from India and nearby countries, including Cardinal Vithayathil, President of the National Conference of the Bishops of India, have submitted their own petition for this fifth Marian dogma to Pope Benedict XVI. A similar petition has been sent from Africa by Archbishop Felix Job, President of the Catholic Conference of the Bishops of Nigeria, and various other African bishops. Bishops from Eastern Europe, including Archbishop Kramberger of Slovenia, have likewise sent in their own petition for this Marian papal proclamation. Along with bishops from numerous countries from Latin America, I have sent in our own petition to Pope Benedict for the papal definition of Our Lady’s Spiritual Motherhood.

All over the world, lay faithful have joined their bishops. Numerous prayer days, conferences, individual prayers and petitions to the Holy Father from the laity constitute a positive manifestation for this potential Marian dogma from the sensus fidelium.

We all perceive a worldwide urgency for the greatest possible intercession of our heavenly Mother for the unprecedented crises of faith, family, society, and peace, which marks the present human condition. We see the papal definition of Holy Mary's Spiritual Motherhood of all peoples as an extraordinary remedy to these global crises which today threaten a great part of humanity. The more we freely acknowledge Mary’s intercessory power, the more she is able to exercise this power for the peoples of the world entrusted to her care at Calvary.

I therefore invite you, dear brother, to join your brother cardinals and bishops from throughout the world in this renewed petition to our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, by sending in your own letter for his prayerful discernment of what might constitute a next positive step for the solemn proclamation of the Spiritual Motherhood of Mary. Thank you for your own prayerful discernment of this most important work in honour of Our Lady, which we believe could constitute a historic benefit of grace and blessing for all humanity.

+Luis Cardinal Aponte Martinez
Archbishop-Emeritus,
San Juan, Puerto Rico,
email:cardinalaponte@gmail.com

More:
The Fifth Marian Dogma: Co-Redemptrix, Mediatrix of All Graces and Advocate
Mother of All Peoples - Home - Petition for the Fifth Marian Dogma
Catholic Culture : Library : A New Marian Dogma?
Voice of the People for Mary Mediatrix
Mary: Coredemptrix, Mediatrix, Advocate by Mark I Miravale, S.T.D., Chapter 3
Dr. Mark Miravalle - The Official Home Page

The Western Confucian: We All Know Christmas Was First a Pagan Holiday, Right? \

I have earlier speculated that there is insufficient witness within Sacred Tradition to the humanity or personhood of the conceptum. But, if Christ was acknowledged as being fully human at His conception, might not that be an argument for human personhood? (Unless one wants to argue that Christ was an exception to normal human development.)

Dr. Peter Gilbert: The Filioque: a very basic introduction (via Eirenikon)

Roman Christendom: SPECIAL RELATIVITY:CHALLENGING THE DOGMATIC MAGISTERIUMOF MODERN SECULAR SCIENTISTS(Post 4)

The Theses of Christoph von Mettenheim

Thesis No. 1: The special theory of relativity rests on the premise that the velocity of light in a vacuum will be constant and cannot be influenced by the velocity of the source from which the light is coming. From this premise Einstein concluded that time itself must be relative.

Thesis No. 2: In everyday language the concept of ‘velocity’ will designate the relation of distance and time. This concept of everyday language has never been called into question in the theory of relativity. It implies, and presupposes, a concept of ‘time’.

Thesis No. 3: If velocity is to be constant, then this concept of ‘time’ must not change on the distance observed. In the terminology of the theory of relativity it must therefore be ‘absolute’.

Thesis No. 4: Special relativity therefore presupposes in the premise of the constant
spreading velocity of light that time is absolute, and infers from this that time is not absolute. It therefore includes a logical contradiction.

Thesis No. 5: The formulae of special relativity were regarded by Einstein, and are still being regarded today, as practicable approximations to the formulae of general relativity for circular and elliptical motions.

Thesis No. 6: Whenever observations (experiments) were considered to be confirmations of a relativistic time dilation it was always a presupposed interpretation that the formulae of special relativity can be used as approximations to establish relativistic time dilation.

Thesis No. 7: Any application of the special theory of relativity to facts occurring in reality, in particular to measurements of a relativistic time dilation, presupposes some unit of measurement which must first be defined.

Thesis No. 8: Einstein and the adherents of the theory of relativity have never defined units of ‘relative time’ differing from conventional units of time. Where they make exact calculations, they employ ‘hours’, or ‘minutes’ or ‘seconds’, or units derived from these.

Thesis No. 9: ‘Hours’, and ‘minutes’ and ‘seconds’ have been derived from the conventional standard given by the Earth’s rotation.

Thesis No. 10: Any application of the formulae of special relativity in connection with the time units of ‘hours’, or ‘minutes’ or ‘seconds’ for calculating the relativistic time dilations of circular or elliptical motions will lead to logical contradictions.

Thesis No. 11: The same logical contradictions will arise from the application of other standards of measurement (e.g. caesium beam clocks), provided they are employed consistently.

Thesis No. 12: Hence, the mathematical formulae of special relativity are inadequate to establish the relativity of time. They are, however, logically consistent, and can therefore be employed to refute the original hypothesis that the velocity of light in a vacuum will be constant and cannot be influenced by the velocity of the source from which the light is coming.

Q. E. D.

Christoph von Mettenhem ALBERT EINSTEIN oder Der Irrtum eines Jahrhunderts
The hermeneutic of continuity: Statue of Galileo

Thomistica.net: John Deely Awarded for World-Wide Scholarly Achievement

Realism for the 21st Century: A John Deely Reader, Edited by Paul Cobley

Four Ages of Understanding: The first Postmodern Survey of Philosophy from Ancient Times to the Turn of the Twenty-First Century
Google Books

John N. Deely: Intentionality and Semiotics

Related links:
Semiootika osakond : John Deely
Dr. Deely Earns Aquinas Medal for Excellence in Christian Philosophy
Semiotic Bibliography
Semiotics and ontology: John Poinsot (John of St. Thomas)
Utopian Realism

Is the public good the same as the common good?

I believe "public good" is used in Dignitatis Humanae rather than the "common good." Can it be identified with the classical notion of the common good, or is it a subordinate good, akin to peace? One could argue that peace is an instantiation of the common good, in so far as it is not merely the absence of strife and violence (and injustice), but caused by the members of a community abstaining from such acts. On the part of the majority, such acts may not result from virtue, but from the fear of punishment--nonetheless, it would be the barest instantiation of the common good, as it is understood in Aristotle and Aquinas, since it can only come about through the compliance of the members with the laws, and the enforcement of the law by the public authorities.

I'm going to have to read Finnis again on the instrumental common good and see how he explains it.

Mark Shea posts this Zenit article: Scholars Aim to Disprove Darwin. Abstracts of the presentations. In the comments to Mr. Shea's post there is this message from Hugh Owen of the Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation:

Pax Christi!

As we reach the end of the Church year, I would like to thank you for your prayers and gestures of support which have opened so many doors for our apostolate during the past twelve months. In this letter, I would like to summarize some of the highlights of the past year, and introduce you to some new books that would make ideal Christmas presents for your friends and loved ones.

Thanks to your prayers and support, Pope Pius XII’s plea to Catholic scholars in his encyclical Humani generis (in 1950) to examine the evidence for and against the evolutionary hypothesis was finally answered when Catholic scholars gathered at four major academic centers in Europe during the “year of Darwin” to present the evidence against the evolutionary hypothesis. During the past 59 years, there has been no shortage of conferences in support of evolution, but now, for the first time, Catholic experts in natural science and philosophy have presented what a recent conference at Villanova University called “the untold story”—the fatal weaknesses of the evolutionary hypothesis. Perhaps more important than the actual conferences has been the publication of the conference proceedings. In the spring, the proceedings of the conference “A Scientific Critique of Evolution” were published by Sapienza University in Rome and, two weeks ago, the proceedings of a conference on evolution at the National Research Council in Rome were published by a major Italian publishing house, Cantagalli, under the title Evolution: The Decline of an Hypothesis.

In September, natural scientists and philosophers gathered at Gustav Siewerth Akademie, a Catholic university in Germany founded with the help of then-Bishop Josef Ratzinger, to present arguments from natural science and philosophy against evolutionary theory. In a letter to the Rector of the Akademie, through the Vatican Secretariat of State, Pope Benedict XVI gave his blessing to the conference. In the words of the correspondent:

Pope Benedict XVI has attentively taken note of the program and of the publication. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, may your scientific discussions during your event lead you to a deeper knowledge of Creation and of its divine plan.

In the near future, the proceedings of the Akademie conference will also be published in English. Finally, on November 9, 2009. the conference “The Scientific Impossibility of Evolution” was held at St. Pius V University in Rome to an audience including quite a few priests and seminarians studying at various Pontifical universities.

As Christmas approaches, I would like to draw your attention to several important new publications that will greatly enrich the holiday season for your friends and loved ones. For those interested in the scientific evidence against the evolutionary hypothesis, the proceedings of the Sapienza University conference “A Scientific Critique of Evolution” are now available in English for a suggested donation of only $10.00.
Thanks to the generosity of several benefactors, we have also been able to publish a second edition of Fr. Victor Warkulwiz’s masterpiece The Doctrines of Genesis 1-11. If you are looking for a Christmas gift for a priest or educated layman, this is a reference book that changes lives—now reduced from $32.95 to a suggested donation of $19.95, and available on a special website of its own www.genesis1-11.org

For those who would like a clear, readable introduction to the origins controversy from a Catholic perspective, an experienced director of religious education from the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, Olivia McFadden, has written just such a book. Entitled A Bird in Hand, Mrs. McFadden’s little book provides an excellent summary of the case for the traditional Catholic doctrine of creation—available for a suggested donation of $15.00.

Finally, thanks to the hard work of Fr. Victor Warkulwiz and the excellent scholarship of translator Craig Toth, the Kolbe Center is pleased to announce the publication of the first ever English translation of St. Lawrence of Brindisi’s Commentary on the first three chapters of Genesis. Named a Doctor of the Church by Blessed Pope John XXIII in 1959, St. Lawrence was perhaps the most eminent commentator on the Bible of the past 500 years. A master of all of the Biblical languages, St. Lawrence is said to have known the entire text of the Bible by heart. His commentary on Genesis 1-3 firmly upholds the traditional, Catholic doctrine of creation, and answers many of the principal objections to that doctrine which had already been raised before his time. With the help of Fr. Victor’s footnotes, you will find this work by a great Doctor of the Church a rich source of wisdom and spiritual insight—available this Advent for the first time, for a suggested donation of $20.00
Many of you have noted that our recent conference “The Scientific Impossibility of Evolution” received favorable coverage from secular and Catholic news outlets and blogs all over the world, including Zenit News and EWTN news. With the help of your prayers and sacrifices, we are determined not to slacken our efforts, but to seize every opportunity to further expose the scientific bankruptcy of the evolutionary hypothesis and to defend the traditional Catholic doctrine of creation, which is the foundation of the Gospel. As a major new initiative, several Kolbe advisors have spent countless hours designing a new website for our apostolate, one which will undoubtedly attract many new visitors and greatly extend our influence throughout the world. Please keep their sacrificial labors in your prayers.

In the final analysis, the primary purpose of our apostolate is the salvation and sanctification of souls, and the protection of souls from evolutionary errors that weaken and often extinguish the Faith. On my recent trip to Estonia on the western border of Russia, one of my hosts told me of a young Catholic boy at a local school who had just announced to his mother that he was not going to go to church any longer—he had studied enough evolutionary “science” to know that the Christian account of creation and the Fall was a “fairy tale”! How sad it is that all over the world, millions of young people renounce the “sacred history” of Genesis, for what the great philosopher and critic of evolution Larry Azar rightly called “a fairy tale for adults.” But how beautiful it is to see the faith renewed in souls who rediscover the truth of the traditional doctrine of creation and who regain an unshakable confidence in the perfect goodness of God!

If you have contact with any contemplative communities in your area, please ask them to pray for our apostolate, and please unite your prayers with theirs for the success of our mission. If you are in a position to become a regular financial contributor, please do that, too. By the grace of God, our little apostolate has accomplished a great many things with modest financial resources. But we could accomplish much more, if we had more monthly contributors.

As we enter the holy season of Advent, let us keep our eyes fixed on Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word and the Lord of history, who is faithful and true.

Yours in Christ, through the Holy Theotokos,

Hugh Owen

James Chastek: "the division of act and potency" as a reflection upon power, part 2, part 3

On the editor's intro on the back of The Mystery of Joseph, by Fr. Philippe, OP, it is written that St. Joseph is "the greatest of saints, after Mary." I thought that position was held by St. John the Baptist? But he was put in the Roman Canon after the BVM by John XXXIII...

Zenit: Adding St. Joseph to the Eucharistic Prayer

Thomas Hibbs reviews The Modern Philosophical Revolution: The Luminosity of Existence by David Walsh

More bad intellectual history?

A review at NDPR.

Dr. Hibbs has his own website now.

If the voters merely vote what is in their own private best interest (especially financially), then the form of government which they comprise is a bad regime. It is easy to forget this when dealing with contemporary politics, in which the rhetoric of freedom is bandied about. Nonetheless, democracy is excoriated by Plato and Aristotle for good reason. For many American voters, the ultimate criterion for deciding how to vote is how a proposed law or a politician's platform will affect one's bank accounts.

How would Aristotle judge the beliefs of personalists and proponents of the NNLT that the common good is an instrumental good, ordered to the good of the individual (or of the family)? How is that any different from a society in which the good of the family is privileged over that of society? One could argue that in the former, if it is corrupt, some sort of injustice is being committed against others or society at large by those in power for the benefit of their families. However, in a personalist society, there are laws which punish these sorts of acts.

Is it possible that the legislation produced by a personalist understanding of the common good could turn out to be the same as one produced by an adherent of the classical understanding? Perhaps the "instrumental" common good is not the same as the "classical" or "holistic" common good.

The latest issue of Living Tradition: TWENTY-THREE YEARS OF NEO-PATRISTIC ACTIVITY

Some notes by James Chastek on creation and generation (and evolution).

The more I think about it, the more I think that subsidiarity is emphasized within Catholic Social Teaching not only because it is a sound political principle, but as a reminder to the secular rulers that they should be prudent and not over-extend themselves in their legislation. It is a more pragmatic approach to over-sized polities, to the world as it is, rather than focusing on claims of justice and rights, which may be true but will nonetheless be ineffectual, given who has power and the inertia of political culture.

Is it true that the Church would sympathize with those who aspire to a more humane political arrangement, appealing to rights or self-determination or secession? Where is the balance between obedience to a legitimate authority (poorly exercised) and political reform (or even dissolution) to be found? In the impact upon the common good.

James Chastek, One response to “the present king of France”

James Chastek, Experimental physics and first physics

Eirenikon: Are the Ratzinger Proposal and Zoghby Initiative Dead?

Zenit: Pope's Address to Assembly of Catholic Universities

Pope's Address to Assembly of Catholic Universities

"Be an Instrument of the Evangelical Proclamation"



VATICAN CITY, NOV. 19, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI delivered today to the participants in the 23rd general assembly of the International Federation of Catholic Universities. The audience took place in the Paul VI Hall.

* * *

Cardinals,
Venerated Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
Illustrious Rectors, Academic Authorities and Professors,
Dear Students, Brothers and Sisters,

I receive you with joy and thank you for having come "ad Petri Sedem," to be confirmed in your important and committed duty of teaching, study and research at the service of the Church and of the whole of society. I cordially thank Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski for the words he addressed to me on presenting this meeting, in which we recall two particular anniversaries, the 30th of the apostolic constitution "Sapientia Christiana," promulgated on April 15, 1979, by the Servant of God John Paul II, and the 60th anniversary of the recognition by the Holy See of the Statute of the Federation Internationale des Universites Catholiques (FIUC).

I am happy to recall with you these significant anniversaries, which offer me the possibility to manifest once again the indispensable role of ecclesiastical faculties and Catholic universities in the Church and in society. The Second Vatican Council underlined it clearly in the declaration "Gravissimum Educationis" when it exhorted ecclesiastical faculties to deepen their knowledge in the various sectors of the sacred sciences, to have an ever more profound knowledge of revelation, to explore the treasure of Christian wisdom, foster ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, and respond to the problems that are arising in the cultural realm (cfr No. 11).

The same conciliar document recommend the promotion of Catholic universities, distributing them in the various regions of the world and, above all, taking care of their qualitative level to form persons versed in learning, prepared to give witness to their faith in the world and to carry out tasks of responsibility in society (cfr No. 10).

The council's invitation found a vast echo in the Church. Today there are, in fact, more than 1,300 Catholic universities and almost 400 ecclesiastical faculties, spread over the five continents, many of which have arisen in the last decades, in testimony of a growing attention of local Churches to the formation of ecclesiastics and laity in culture and research.

The apostolic constitution "Sapientia Christiana," from its first expressions, shows the urgency, still present, to overcome the existing breach between faith and culture, inviting to a greater commitment of evangelization, in the firm conviction that Christian revelation is a transforming force, destined to permeate ways of thinking, criteria of judgment, and norms of behavior. It is able to illumine, purify and renew the customs of men and their cultures (cfr Proemio, I), and must constitute the central point of teaching and research, in addition to the horizon that illumines nature and the objects of every ecclesiastical faculty.

From this perspective, while underlining the duty of the cultivators of the sacred disciplines to attain, with theological research, a more profound knowledge of the truth revealed, encouraged at the same time are contacts with the other fields of learning for a fruitful dialogue, above all for the purpose of offering a precious contribution to the mission that the Church is called to carry out in the world.

After 30 years, the basic lines of the apostolic constitution "Sapientia Christiana" still keep all their current importance. What is more, in today's society, where knowledge is increasingly specialized and sectorial, but which is increasingly marked by relativism, it is even more necessary to be open to the wisdom that comes from the Gospel. Man, in fact, is incapable of understanding himself fully and the world without Jesus Christ: Only he illumines his true dignity, his vocation, his ultimate destiny and opens the heart to a solid and lasting hope.

Dear friends, your commitment to serve the truth that God has revealed shares in the evangelizing mission of the Church: It is an ecclesial service. "Sapientia Christiana" quotes, in this regard, the conclusion of the Gospel according to Matthew: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20).

It is important for everyone, professors and students, never to lose sight of the end pursued -- to be an instrument of the evangelical proclamation. The years of the higher ecclesiastical studies can be compared with the experience that the apostles lived with Jesus: Being with him, they learned the truth, to become later heralds everywhere.

At the same time it is important to remember that the study of the sacred sciences must never be separated from prayer, from union with God, from contemplation -- as I reminded in the recent catechesis on Medieval monastic theology -- otherwise reflections on divine mysteries run the risk of becoming a vain intellectual exercise. Every sacred science, in the end, appeals to the "science of the saints," to their intuition of the mysteries of the living God, to wisdom, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit and which is the soul of "fides quaerens intellectum" (cfr general audience, Oct. 21, 2009).

The International Federation of Catholic Universities (FIUC) was born in 1924 by the initiative of some rectors and was recognized 25 years later by the Holy See. Dear rectors of Catholic universities, the 60th anniversary of the canonical erection of your federation is a most propitious occasion to evaluate the activity carried out and to outline future commitments.

To celebrate an anniversary is to thank God who has guided our steps, but it is also to take from one's own history a further impetus to renew the will to serve the Church. In this connection, your motto is also a program for the future of the federation: "Sciat ut Serviat" -- to know in order to serve.

In a culture that manifests a "lack of wisdom, of reflection, of thought capable of operating a guiding synthesis" ("Caritas in Veritate," 31), Catholic universities, faithful to their own identity that considers Christian inspiration as valid, are called to promote a "new humanistic synthesis" (ibid., 21), a learning that is "wisdom capable of guiding man in the light of its first principles and of its ultimate ends" (ibid., 30), a learning illumined by faith.

Dear friends, the service you carry out is valuable for the mission of the Church. While I express to all of you sincere wishes for the academic year initiated a short while ago and for the full success of the FIUC's Congress, I entrust each one of you and the institutions you represent to the maternal protection of Mary Most Holy, Seat of Wisdom, and am pleased to impart to all the apostolic blessing.

[Translation by ZENIT]

Zenit: Benedict XVI's Address to Artists
"You Are the Custodians of Beauty"