First Published: 2022 February 25
As I mentioned yesterday, I failed to read the chapter for the week. But, today is a new day, so let’s try again.
In the view of the author, philosophy is an attempt to connect human experience to the whole of creation. As such, it is less focused on generation of new experience, but rather the attempt to connect these experiences to broader truths. Metaphysics, then is focused on creating a unified view of reality from these discrete points.
That is, we try to find what properties and laws all things within the whole (universe) of creation follows. This definition apparently comes from Aristotle, who coined the term. Or, metaphysics is “the study of all beings precisely insofar as they are real”1.
As in chemistry,2, we cannot directly inspect everything. We must find what connects that which we can measure and find a way to apply this to the whole of reality. Apparently we can also make an argument for the existence of G-d. The argument belongs moreso in natural theology, but it is apparently an outcropping of this metaphysics?
In the Christian Tradition, we hold that there are two major ways the Most High speaks to us, the Book of Nature (creation) and the Book of Revelation (Revelation). As both are created by Him, apparent contradictions between natural reason and theology must mean that one of the two is in error. Metaphysics differs from religion, however, as metaphysics is solely concerned with the intellectual, rather than the assent and action to conform to the Lord’s plan.
As cultures are limited in their understanding, so too are metaphysical explanations limited. As with cultures, though, these explanations can be informed by all peoples’ interactions with Creation.
There are3 some common objections to the concept of metaphysics. One is that metaphysics has no distinct subject matter. Chemistry studies chemicals, biology life, and so forth, yet metaphysics claims to study everything. However, metaphysics studies from only a single frame of reference, which is how all things are like all other things. One important way that things are like other things is that they are at all, which is something that most fields of study take as implicitly true. Even as I read this, it is difficult for me to conceptualize the question the author poses: “How come there is a real universe at all?”4
The second argument is that we, as part of Creation, cannot understand Creation because we are within it. Personally, that argument falls flat for me without reading the response, because scientists often claim to study systems from models or parts, rather than the entirety of the system. I think that’s similar to what the author argues, though he says moreso that we are endowed generally with an ability to do this.
Third, people argue that either empiricism, Kantianism, or relativism are better models of the universe. Empiricism claims that we cannot know without deriving from experience. Hume was a proponent of this. Mostly the author just goes “this is a bad take, if we accept this then philosophy fails.”5 Kantiansim, from Kant, claims that external reality does not shape our personal experience, rather our personal experience creates external reality. The author points out that Kant’s claim fails because if each person is creating the external reality, then how does that work when two people interact? Relativism claims that there is nothing truly transcendental, rather only socially true. Again, math’s apparent universality would suggest this to be untrue to me, but the author rather just says that the argument is self-defeating.
In short, the author claims that objections to metaphysics themselves start with a metaphysical stance, such as that there are no universal truths. That is still a statement about the nature of all reality.
Moving past the defense, the author claims that we would not seek knowledge if it did not appear good. Though we cannot know fully, we still search to know more. And, as we may have the desire to know, reality matches us by allowing itself to be known, the so-called “intelligibility of being”. He claims that nothing has yet been shown to be unintelligible, but I think I remember something in math that claims the opposite. Then again, math does not deal with the real, so it is not truly a contradiction.
There is the principle of non contradiction, which claims that things cannot both be themselves and not themselves at the same time. That feels fairly definitional to me, which makes me wonder why you have to defend it.
There is also the principle of sufficient reason, which states that things which cannot themselves explain their existence must owe their existence to something else.6
So there are apparently questions at the end of each chapter. Maybe next week I’ll just respond to each question rather than live-blog my reading.
First Published: 2022 February 24
Last week I said that I would be using today’s post to write about Chapter One of a book. But, I forgot it at work when I went home for the day, so no post today. Apparently last time a whoops moment was the focus of the blog I deleted something. At least this isn’t that!
First Published: 2022 February 23
When I’m not in mentally draining situations I often forget how easily mentally drained I am, and what situations can drain me effectively. Today I had a reminder of what can cause it very easily. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I was very engrossed in a book yesterday. I almost finished it before I went to bed last night, which was a little more than an hour past my bed time, itself an hour past when I like to be off of my devices.
So there is one effective way to set myself up for mental exhaustion: going to bed late.
A second thing is that I procrastinated an assignment with a hard deadline of today until today. The homework was very mentally taxing, made more-so by the looming deadline I had while working. When I felt my mental strain start to build, I realized that I would not have time to finish the assignment before its due date.
Point two and three: Do mentally exhausting work and do not give yourself a break during it.
I also realized that I was missing some files that I really need, and I am still not totally sure where they went.
Point four: existential dread.
Finally, after I turned in my homework, I remembered that I have another, similar assignment due tomorrow.
Point five: knowing you will repeat it again. Anyways, I really hope that I will be better about keeping my schedule in mind in the future, because everything suffers in my life when I don’t take care of any part of it.
First Published: 2022 February 22
I’ve noticed recently that on days where I write more I have less of an interest in reading. This has been kind of nice, especially since I have lately been reading mostly web serials, which are massive time sinks for me. The fact that each chapter is usually five to fifteen minutes means it’s far too easy to lose hours.
Now today I’ve finally had the opposite. I started a new series, and it sapped most of my motivation to write, because the author’s system is really interesting and thought out. I only managed to write half of a chapter today before my ability to craft words felt like it would preclude writing this. As before, c’est la vie.
First Published: 2022 February 21
Yesterday I had the fantastic opportunity to watch the musical “She Loves Me” performed by the Madison Opera Company.1 It’s a fun 1960’s story about love and perfume and miscommunication. Since it’s not as much in the cultural zeitgeist as a lot of the shows I’ve reviewed before2 I’m not really sure how much detail I can give without spoiling major elements.
There were some really shocking pacing choices. Most notably, almost immediately after the darkest moment of the play, the scene hard cuts to a romantic restaurant where they perform a klezmer number. I liked it, but it was certainly a bit of a tonal whiplash.
I also had the opportunity to attend a pre-show talk about the show. It was written by the two creators of “Fiddler on the Roof”, which certainly helped the klezmer scene seem more reasonable. It was also based on a movie which is based on a play. I just thought that was amusing. The Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan movie “You’ve Got Mail” is also based on “She Loves Me”, which is pretty nifty.
All in all, it was a lovely show, made lovelier by my company.
First Published: 2022 February 20
1 Samuel 26:23 “The LORD repays everyone’s righteousness and faithfulness. Although the LORD delivered you into my hands today, I could not lay a hand on the LORD’s anointed.”
I find today’s readings beautiful, if hard to connect. The first reading speaks to me about the need to do the right thing even when it is not the easiest option. David could easily have slain Saul, and therefore saved himself a lot of trouble. Instead, he did not.
In the Gospel, we are reminded that doing good in return to good or in expectation of good is not virtuous. That feels somewhat self-evident, but is still hard for me to remember. I am reminded of the reading from earlier in the week, where in the Letter of James we are reminded that even demons have fear of the Lord. As easy as it is for me to intellectually know I need to forgive those who wrong me, I still struggle to do so. That’s something I can work on in the future.
First Published: 2022 February 19
Do I feel guilty that I almost exclusively write about the other writing I do? A little bit.
Will that stop me? Not today apparently.
I’ve finally gotten far enough into the novel that I feel comfortable breaking into chapters. This is a bit of a double edged sword, though. I want my chapters to be around 1500-2500 words a piece. I also want to write around 2000 words a day. If your mind is going to the same place as mine, that means I’d be writing about 7 chapters a week.
That doesn’t feel sustainable for me, if only because only one author that I follow publishes at that pace. However, I feel like right now I’m able to keep it up, and it’s1 always better to have more to revise from than less. I think I might try to use one day a week to edit, just so that everything flows well and the story arc works well, but who knows? Maybe I’ll just give up on the idea of a good story soon.
I think and hope↩︎
First Published: 2022 February 18
As I promised, I will be using my novel updates as a way of generating content when I’m mentally exhausted from writing a novel. Today I wrote almost 3000 words, not including the code I wrote so I knew what words to write.
If that sounds a little strange, I guess I should explain. I don’t remember if I have mentioned that the book I’m writing is a LitRPG, which stands for Literary RPG1 More or less, imagine a roleplaying game but instead of playing, you’re reading. That is to say, characters have statistics and can train and specifically watch numbers go up when they do. As a result, readers of this genre tend to be far more accepting of weird contrivances that are due to math.
I decided that I wanted there to be some way that hard spells are more difficult than easy ones. What I decided on is layers of connections between the points which make up the spell. The first level is fairly simple, energy flows from each point to its neighboring point. The second level has energy flowing from each point to the square of it mod the number of points. So, the first point flows to itself, the second to the fourth, etc.
Since the spell I had him learn has2 25 nodes, the sixth piece connects to the 25th slot and the 11th slot, since those add to 36. The eighth connects to the twenty fifth one twice, since 64>25+25. Somehow I wrote almost 3000 words of a character learning this himself, and I really hope that my alpha reader doesn’t find it too boring.
That’s about all the writing I have space for now, since it’s already past my bedtime and I completely lost track of time writing.
First Published: 2022 February 17
As I made my daily commute to work today, a few thoughts went through my head. The first1 was that the ice seemed maybe too crackly for me to have chosen to walk on the lake. The second2 thought was that I could use this platform as a way of keeping myself more accountable for the projects I want to do.
One project I think will fit really nicely here is my goal of learning Scholastic Metaphysics.
“But Jonathan”, you may be saying, “why would you care about Scholastic Metaphysics?” Mostly I’m reading about it because one of the priests at the student center suggested it could be a fruitful discussion to think about the intersection of Scholastic Metaphysics and Chemistry. I agreed, and he lent me a few books to read.
“But Jonathan,” you may be saying, “why now?” The conversation happened in August3, but I kept not really reading the book, because things come up. Yesterday night, though4, he asked me if I’d had a chance to start them yet, so this seems like a good excuse to start again.
I’ll be reading through The One and the Many: A Contemporary Thomistic Metaphysics by W. Norris Clarke, S.J., if anyone wants to follow along. The book has nineteen chapters, so assuming that each chapter is understandable in a week5, I’ll have twenty posts in this series, since today I’m reading the introduction.
Without further ado: my reflection on the Introduction to the book.6
The goal of this book is not to provide an insight into St. Thomas Aquinas’s specific metaphysical system. Instead, the goal is to “provide an advanced textbook of systematic metaphysics”7. One issue with Thomas’s writings, according to the author, is that he uses Aristotle-like dense and technical writing, which is fairly inaccessible.
Apparently Kant and Hume and the like pushed for the idea that a systematic metaphysical understanding to all of creation is not workable, which is interesting. This book will not be comparing Thomistic approaches to other schools of thought, which seems reasonable to me. That’s most of the introduction.
Come back next week to watch me try to piece my way through philosophy for the first time!
irrelevant to this essay but legitimate nonetheless↩︎
relevant↩︎
or the summer, I’m unsure, wait I have my log let me check. Hey nice it was 24 August↩︎
isn’t it weird how yesterday night feels wrong but last morning also does?↩︎
One of those assumptions I have no clue how good it is↩︎
250/55 in↩︎
p1↩︎
First Published: 2022 February 16
Every so often enough ideas start percolating in my head to create a post for me. Today’s came to me from reading “Don’t Teach Coding”1, thinking about the research I’m doing, a conversation with one of the readers of this blog, and being in a Catholic Church. My thoughts, being percolated, are not yet coherent, so I apologize to whoever is reading this.
One issue with communicating high level information in a field to outsiders is that the language is necessarily formalized in a way that requires enough learning that outsiders cannot access the information without first becoming insiders. As an example of this, our group makes “amorphous solid water”, not ice. Why? Because ice as a term encompasses far more than what we do, and the different ways ices behave is relevant to our research. Amorphous ice is different than crystalline ice, and water ices are different than other ices made from other liquids.2
More than novel vocabulary, though, there is also the issue of redefined words. As an example, the term “melting” seems fairly straightforward in day to day conversation. In material science, though, it only refers to crystalline solids turning liquid. In chemistry, though, it refers to any solid to liquid transition. I’m sure in other fields it has other terms as well.
Computer scientists are of course intimately familiar with this issue. Logic gates take common terms, like if, and, and not, and redefine them to mean exactly one thing.
Both of these issues, new words and redefining old words, have incredible benefits though, which is why it’s so hard to be a beginner. There’s no way to talk about chemistry without electrons, but before knowing what electrons are, you have to define it. That brings the second issue, which is that teaching a formal language using informal language requires a leap of understanding, which is never guaranteed. I don’t have any solutions, and I’m still not sure what I’m trying to say here, but I think it’s fun how words work I guess.