vol VII: Notes

1999

Notes

[Notebook DB 52A Mathesis]

[Sunday 7 November 1999 - Saturday 13 November 1999]

Sunday 7 November 1999

[page 77]

Monday 8 November 1999

Roman Catholic Church treats human souls as some sort of terra nullius which it has an inherent right to invade in order to erect its own tributaries.

Fides et Ratio John Paul II. John Paul II

SALVATION: a learned intellectual stance designed as a dual of the pain and lonliness that entered the [human] world with consciousness (The Fall).

The fullness f the world is proved by the duality of motion.

FAITH is a form of IMPRINTING. The scribes etc are self and institutionally selected in that one has to join and believe n the organization to get an education paideia. Paideia - Wikipedia

[page 78]

The empirical content of Xianity basically comes from the needs of administrators rather than scientific study as such (Knowledge guided by practice, ie learn by you mistakes).

Belief = credible teacher
Science = taught by personal experience

Pneuma = active - Phenotype Air/Fire
Logic = formal = Genotype Earth/Water.

The power of instant withdrawal of livelihood.

Tuesday 9 November 1999

One sees deep in the Church a fear of the world and its creativity. One sees a fear of women, inherited from antiquity.

What are we trying to do? Question the drive fr unity.

. . .

[page 79]

Is unity a product of diversity or similarity>

Evolutionary guidance is local.

Exile pneumatology. Catechism of the Catholic Church: 769

We are not exiles but locals.

. . .

Wednesday 10 November 1999

Thursday 11 November 1999

Friday 12 November 1999

The link between simplicity and complexity is modelled by the relationship between dynamic

[page 80]

and static.

Despite its delusions of grandeur, the Church is a human organization which has had imperial designs since the very beginning SPIRITUAL COLONISATION. Like all of us, it is welcome to its delusions, but its public face must be acceptable in fact, not in delusion, so, for instance it must recognise that it has been a big user of military force throughout history even if it has only been by proxy.

. . . Design for a free church.

Real communication links carry matter (ie closed processes), (energy) and information in varying ratios whose unit is Planck's constant which links one unit of matter to one unit of information.

The function of religion is to supervise the download of the human operating system to new children. This shows clearly [in the importance religions place on childhood education].

[page 81]

At the root of the universe are units with identities but no internal structure. are numbers, not numbers mapped to sheep, but naked number.

The practical problem is that the Roman Catholic Church is not, by modern standards, an altogether good citizen.

. . .

This position is to some extent deliberate in the fundamental constitutional principle of the Church [absolute monarchy]. Code of Canon Law 333: The Roman Pontiff

. . . <.p>

[page 82]

. . .

Have stopped reading Environmental Impact Statements and started reading encyclicals. Still driven by the same desire: to confront and correct the error inherent in the Church.

I am a stakeholder in Church a) as baptised Catholic who devoted precious years of my youth seeking clerical office in the Church; and b) as an inhabitant of the environment occupied by the Church who feels that the Church is missing opportunities to be more useful to the community that suports it, from both inside and outside.

LOYAL OPPOSITION

'The churches are the fruit of a massive extinction in human religious diversity.

Different drum
Historical fixation
Fear of death = fear of life.

[page 83]

If the universe is divine then the death and pain that we experience in life are part of the divine reality, That is the bad news. The good news is that instead of the very tenuous and unreliable links to the other world of eternal existence provided by the major ancient religions, we [are] directly part of the divinity and have [some] control over its workings.

Biological studies show that each human individual is a loose federation of genetically identical (or nearly identical) cells. All these cells work together to constitute an animal, the living individual, through an elaborate system of signalling all of whose endcoding and decoding algorithms are passed on from generation to generation written in DNA.

All information transmission requires transmission of energy. [Information is physical, Landauer Rolf Landauer]

The mathematical problem with the Church: unconstrained recursion = explosion [? what was I thinking ?]

Saturday 13 November 1999

Copyright:

You may copy this material freely provided only that you quote fairly and provide a link (or reference) to your source.

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Further reading

Books

Click on the "Amazon" link below each book entry to see details of a book (and possibly buy it!)

Armstrong, David, A Combinatorial Theory of Possibility, Cambridge University Press 1989 Amazon product description: 'David Armstrong's book is a contribution to the philosophical discussion about possible worlds. Taking Wittgenstein's Tractatus as his point of departure, Professor Armstrong argues that nonactual possibilities and possible worlds are recombinations of actually existing elements, and as such are useful fictions. There is an extended criticism of the alternative-possible-worlds approach championed by the American philosopher David Lewis. This major work will be read with interest by a wide range of philosophers.'  Amazon   back

Armstrong, David, A Combinatorial Theory of Possibility, Cambridge University Press 1989 'David Armstrong's book is a contribution to the philosophical discussion about possible worlds. Taking Wittgenstein's Tractatus as his point of departure, Professor Armstrong argues that nonactual possibilities and possible worlds are recombinations of actually existing elements, and as such are useful fictions. There is an extended criticism of the alternative-possible-worlds approach championed by the American philosopher David Lewis. This major work will be read with interest by a wide range of philosophers.'  Amazon   back

Newton, Isaac, and Julia Budenz, I. Bernard Cohen, Anne Whitman (Translators), The Principia : Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, University of California Press 1999 This completely new translation, the first in 270 years, is based on the third (1726) edition, the final revised version approved by Newton; it includes extracts from the earlier editions, corrects errors found in earlier versions, and replaces archaic English with contemporary prose and up-to-date mathematical forms. ... The illuminating Guide to the Principia by I. Bernard Cohen, along with his and Anne Whitman's translation, will make this preeminent work truly accessible for today's scientists, scholars, and students.  Amazon   back

van Inwagen, Peter, and Dean W Zimmerman, Metaphysics: The Big Questions (Philosophy: The Big Questions, Wiley-Blackwell 2008 Amazon Product Description 'This extensively revised and expanded edition of van Inwagen and Zimmerman’s popular collection of readings in metaphysics now features twenty-two additional selections, new sections on existence and reality, and an updated editorial commentary. Collects classic and contemporary readings in metaphysics Answers some of the most puzzling questions about our world and our place in it Covers an unparalleled range of topics Now includes a new section on existence and reality, expanded discussions on many classic issues, and an updated editorial commentary.'  Amazon   back

Papers

van Inwagen, Peter, E J Lowe, "Why Is there anything at all?", Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 70, , 1996, page 111-120. 'The question that is my title is supposed to be the most profound and difficult of all questions. Some, indeed have said that it is a dangerous question, a question that can tear the mind asunder. But I think we can make some progress if we do not panic. Let us begin by asking what would count as an answer to it. One sort of answer, the best if we can get it, would consist in a demonstration that it was impossible for there to be nothing. Or so I would suppose: if showing that it is impossible for a certain state of affairs to obtain doesn't count as answering the question why that state of affairs does not obtain, I don't know what would count.'. back

Links

Aquinas 261, Whether an angel is altogether incorporeal, 'I answer that, There must be some incorporeal creatures. For what is principally intended by God in creatures is good, and this consists in assimilation to God Himself. And the perfect assimilation of an effect to a cause is accomplished when the effect imitates the cause according to that whereby the cause produces the effect; as heat makes heat. Now, God produces the creature by His intellect and will (14, 8; 19, 4 ). Hence the perfection of the universe requires that there should be intellectual creatures. Now intelligence cannot be the action of a body, nor of any corporeal faculty; for every body is limited to "here" and "now." Hence the perfection of the universe requires the existence of an incorporeal creature.' back

Catechism of the Catholic Church: 769, The Church - perfected in glory, '769 "The Church . . . will receive its perfection only in the glory of heaven," at the time of Christ's glorious return. Until that day, "the Church progresses on her pilgrimage amidst this world's persecutions and God's consolations." Here below she knows that she is in exile far from the Lord, and longs for the full coming of the Kingdom, when she will "be united in glory with her king." The Church, and through her the world, will not be perfected in glory without great trials. Only then will "all the just from the time of Adam, 'from Abel, the just one, to the last of the elect,' . . . be gathered together in the universal Church in the Father's presence." ' back

Code of Canon Law 333, The Roman Pontiff, 'Can. 333 §1. By virtue of his office, the Roman Pontiff not only possesses power offer the universal Church but also obtains the primacy of ordinary power over all particular churches and groups of them. Moreover, this primacy strengthens and protects the proper, ordinary, and immediate power which bishops possess in the particular churches entrusted to their care. §2. In fulfilling the office of supreme pastor of the Church, the Roman Pontiff is always joined in communion with the other bishops and with the universal Church. He nevertheless has the right, according to the needs of the Church, to determine the manner, whether personal or collegial, of exercising this office. §3. No appeal or recourse is permitted against a sentence or decree of the Roman Pontiff.' back

Ian Ramsay Centre for Science and Religion, The Evolution of Morality and the Morality of Evolution, 'In 1876, the great utilitarian philosopher Henry Sigwick announced that the theory of evolution ‘has little bearing on ethics’. This opinion held sway among philosophers and biologists for almost 100 years, bolstered by the belief that the naturalistic fallacy had foreclosed on this question. From the 1970s, however, new work on kin selection, altruism, and co-operation reopened the debate. The same period witnessed growing interest from elements of the philosophical community interested in exploring questions raised for moral philosophy by evolutionary psychology and ethology. Theologians, too, have been concerned to assess whether this burgeoning field has implications for traditional theological doctrines. As a consequence of these developments evolutionary ethics is now a lively interdisciplinary field that seeks to address both the explanation of moral behaviours and their justification. This conference seeks to explore these new developments concerning the evolution of morality and their broader ramifications.' back

John Paul II, Fides et Ratio: On the relationship between faith and reason. , para 2: 'The Church is no stranger to this journey of discovery, nor could she ever be. From the moment when, through the Paschal Mystery, she received the gift of the ultimate truth about human life, the Church has made her pilgrim way along the paths of the world to proclaim that Jesus Christ is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6).' back

Paideia - Wikipedia, Paideia - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia, 'In the culture of ancient Greece, the term paideia (/ Greek: παιδεία) referred to the rearing and education of the ideal member of the polis. It incorporated both practical, subject-based schooling and a focus upon the socialization of individuals within the aristocratic order of the polis.' back

Rolf Landauer, Information is a Physical Entity, 'Abstract: This paper, associated with a broader conference talk on the fundamental physical limits of information handling, emphasizes the aspects still least appreciated. Information is not an abstract entity but exists only through a physical representation, thus tying it to all the restrictions and possibilities of our real physical universe. The mathematician's vision of an unlimited sequence of totally reliable operations is unlikely to be implementable in this real universe. Speculative remarks about the possible impact of that, on the ultimate nature of the laws of physics are included.' back

Ross Gittins, Labor's bluff called on bank competition, 'There are no good guys in the fuss over "unofficial" rises in mortgage interest rates. Each of the players is on the make: the greedy banks, the self-pitying punters, the commercially driven media and the insincere pollies.' back