There is nothing like a good examination of conscience. I say this in a very different spirit than that of one who has just enjoyed a homemade meal. And yet, after all is said and done, I have been nourished. On the daily commute, I listen to audio books, and it so happens that I recently began … Continue reading Lent, Jonathan Edwards & The Freedom of Conviction
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim his handiwork. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the … Continue reading Other Kinds of Speech: Images & Originals Part V.B
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim his handiwork. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the … Continue reading Other Kinds of Speech: Images and Originals Part V.A
Recognition is a fundamental element of art and life. We delight in seeing, in being seen, and in seeing afresh. This is the reality of good art and the false allure of mere entertainment. But the possibility of recognition is present in small ways every day. For myself it is there when rising in the morning with … Continue reading In Him: Images and Originals Part IV
The ideal audience for this blog will not wish to read this post. This is for my more problematic readers. Of course, seeing that this blog is about four days old, I am taking some poetic license when I use the terms reader or audience. My ideal audience, those who will get the most out of … Continue reading The Problem of Universals: Images and Originals Part III.B
Photograph by Sebastian Wahlhuetter If you have been following this series, you may be wondering what this is all about. Does the renaming of ‘form’ as ‘look’ really mean anything? Why all this talk about Platonic forms? Didn’t Aristotle discredit the ‘forms’ or ‘looks’ about 2300 years ago? What kind of relevance does this have today? … Continue reading Where are We Going?: Images and Originals Part III
It is a snow day at New College, and maybe even UPS, so I have a bit of time to reflect on the weekend. Beatrice, and to a lesser extent her older brother Elijah, has a habit of making certain announcements: ◊ “Daddy, I am hungry” ◊ “Drink.” ◊ “Give me___.” ◊ “I’m thirsty.” ◊ … Continue reading Minding Our Manners vs. The Imperative Mood
In the first post, the idea of ‘form’ (also called a ‘look’) was introduced. A ‘look’ or ‘form’ was described as a dual entity: ◊ one which makes something what it is (the look of a bee is what makes a bee a bee) ◊ and it is that which allows us to recognize what a thing is; … Continue reading Double Vision: Images and Originals Part II
Confronted with the question of sameness, first year Arithmetic students considered yesterday what it means that bees of different shapes, sizes, and beauty, are all still bees. Bumble, Carpenter, Honey, etc… They all look like bees, for they all are, and yet they are each different. What does it mean for us to recognize sameness and otherness? Prompted by … Continue reading The Being of a Bee: Images and Originals Part I
