Wikipedia tells us that metaphor is: language that directly compares seemingly unrelated subjects. In the simplest case, this takes the form: “The [first subject] is a [second subject].” More generally, a metaphor is a rhetorical trope that describes a first subject as being or equal to a second object in some way. Thus, the first … [Read more…]
This entry is a supplement to Not Monism and Not Dualism but Unity of Creation. One form of dualism, strongly supported by Aristotle, is particularly attractive at first contact: the idea that things come into being when form is impressed upon substance. What’s wrong about this, and perhaps the real error underlying all dualisms, is … [Read more…]
Pilgrims travel paths, journeying from one location on earth to another, sometimes those places are fictional but usually quite concrete. To be sure, Dante’s pilgrim found (as some of the more recent translations of The Inferno attest) that the path could wander away from him, a strange event from a fully concrete view of paths. … [Read more…]
This is a summary of my thoughts on dealing with natural law from my viewpoint of updated Thomistic existentialism. There may be some new thoughts in this entry but mostly I’m aiming at two goals: Improving my presentation of my views of a truer natural law, that is, one that corresponds to modern improvements in … [Read more…]
In this summary article, Psychologists Show Experience May Be The Best Teacher For Infants, we read: Researchers have found that infants who had an opportunity to use a plastic cane to get an out-of-reach toy were better able to understand the goal of another person’s use of a similar tool than were infants who had … [Read more…]
I’ll be starting an occasional series of entries where I’ll be commenting upon the Bible’s treatment of some important issues, but I’ll be commenting from my own perspective which I’ve been developing in this blog, Acts of Being, and my other blog for less technical writings, To See a World in a Grain of Sand, … [Read more…]
A while ago I’d read that some wildlife biologists had speculated that there’s a regulatory gene for size in grizzly bears and that the mother could change the setting on that gene, setting it to BIG when there was plenty of food and grizzlies were dominant and to a lesser setting when the conditions were … [Read more…]
Today, August 21, is the feast-day of St. Pius X who was Pope from 1903-1914. A saintly man for sure, he was born into poverty and lived an ascetic and morally disciplined life, being greatly concerned about pastoral issues. He was greatly concerned with the needs of ordinary Catholics and also the needs of the … [Read more…]
In two earlier entries, The Christian in the Universe of Einstein: 2. God as the Creator of Truths and The Christian in the Universe of Einstein: 2. What is Mathematics?, I argued that God creates truths, though not in the sense that He could have created contradictions or the ‘truth’ of “1 + 1 = … [Read more…]
Einstein, Feynman, and perhaps other major scientists have made the claim that “philosophers of science” have contributed nothing that’s useful to scientists. While not sure exactly what the contexts of their comments really were, I’d generally say in response, “Yes, and why would anyone expect anything different?” I would think philosophers of science move in … [Read more…]