Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

  • ‘Wankerati’ and Other Terms of Abuse

    I  picked up a new piece of invective from Mark Steyn.

    I believe he intends 'wankerati' to be coextensive with 'left-wing commentariat.'  Read his The Turning Point and see if you don't agree. The brilliant polemicist offers up other choice phrases such as "malign carbuncles on the body politic." That's a reference to Di Fi (Dianne Feinstein), et al. And there's "a chamber full of posturing tosspots."

    'Tosspot' is a general term of abuse that conjures up drunkard and sot. It puts me in mind of pot-valiant. One is correctly so described if one's courage derives from the consumption of spirits.

    There is a use for abuse. It is a mistake to think that verbal abuse ought never to be employed.

    Hands are best employed in caressing and blessing. But sometimes they need to be balled into fists and rudely applied to the faces of miscreants. 

    If one resorts to verbal abuse and invective one does not always thereby betray a paucity of careful thought informed by fact. Verbal abuse has a legitimate use in application to the self-enstupidated, the willfully ignorant, and those out for power alone regardless of truth and morality. 

    It is not reasonable to think that all are amenable to the dulcet tones of sweet reason; some need to be countered with the hard fist of unreason.  

    On the other side of the question, one should never resort to invective if one is trying to persuade a reasonable person. One should proceed as calmly as possible.  Any resort to billingsgate will cause the interlocutor to assume that one lacks good reasons.  

    ……………….

    If you studied the above properly you will probably have learned three or four new words.

    If you have a large vocabulary you will love my blog; if you don't, you need it.

    Bill Vallicella

  • Tribalism

    The incontinent Grey Lady becomes worse with each passing day.  Thomas Friedman whines about tribalism, but then lets loose with this tribalist outburst:

    Brett Kavanaugh defended himself the other day with the kind of nasty partisan attacks and ugly conspiracy theories that you’d expect only from a talk radio host — never from a would-be justice of the Supreme Court. Who can expect fairness from him now?

    Note first the gratuitous smear against talk radio.  In an hour of Dennis Prager or Michael Medved or Hugh Hewitt there is more wisdom and good sense than in all the piss-poor Op-Ed pages of the NYT on any given day.  

    Friedman is also doing the same stupid thing Hillary and Dianne Feinstein have recently done, namely, expecting Kavanaugh to behave in a super-calm judicial manner when he is defending himself against vicious smears.  If Kavanaugh had displayed his judicial temperament in his self-defense, his Democrat enemies would have taken it as proof of guilt.  "Any normal person would have defended  himself with passion against such grievous charges! So he must be guilty!"

    A judge in the execution of his judicial duties must be impartial, which implies that he cannot be party to the dispute he is adjudicating.  To demand that Kavanaugh display his judicial temperament in his self-defense would be like demanding that a defense attorney not advocate for his client but play the judge and present both sides of the case.

    Nasty partisan attack? K. is the victim of a nasty partisan attack. When he said that the animus against him was in part fueled by the desire for revenge by the Clinton gang he was simply pointing out what should be obvious to any objective observer.  Hillary was supposed to win. It was her turn.  But then along came Trump. The Left lost its collective mind. K. is a Trump nominee. Obviously, the Left's mindless hatred of Trump is part of the explanation of the vicious attack on K.

    Another and larger part of the explanation is that the Left cannot abide a SCOTUS justice who honors the Constitution as she was written.

    No link for you, buddy. 

    Bill Vallicella

  • The Left’s Kavanaugh Hate Fest

    The Andrew Klavan Show, Ep. 586.

    My best Klavan post: Klavan on Experience

    Bill Vallicella

  • Academentia and the Need for Fumigation

    Here:

    Everyone is buzzing today about the revelation of the three academics—James Lindsay, Helen Pluckrose, and Peter Boghossian—who placed over a dozen complete hoax articles with various premier “cultural studies” or “identity studies” academic journals. All three professors, it should be noted, consider themselves left of center, as does Alan Sokal, the New York University physicist who placed a hoax article about the supposed subjectivity of physics in the postmodernist journal Social Text 20 years ago. 

    There are termites everywhere, undermining the foundations of sanity, reason, and moral decency.  There is Bergolio and his bunch in the Roman church; the lamestream media is infested with the little buggers; the academic world is lousy with leftists; the deep state is corrupt to the core; Big Tech is inimical to free speech; the Democrat Party is the party of slander and senselessness, and Hillary is on the loose.  It's a stinking lousy mess all around.

    When I was a young man knockin' around in the years between college and graduate school I worked at various jobs. For a time I was an exterminator for Pan American Pest Control out of Santa Monica, California. The boss wanted to set me up in the business but I had my sights set higher.  I fancied philosopher a higher calling than bug killer.

    It occurs to me now that I am still working in pest control and fumigation. But on the ideal, as opposed to the real, plane.  I am out to exterminate willful stupidity, groupthink, the misuse of language, political correctness . . . .

    Bill Vallicella

  • The Pope as Supreme Being

    Is this what happens when a Jesuit becomes pope?

    Bill Vallicella

  • From the B-Theory of Time to Eternalism

    What is time?  Don't ask me, and I know.  Ask me, and I don't know. (St. Augustine)  This post sketches, without defending, one theory of time, the B-theory of time, and shows how it sires the position in temporal ontology called 'eternalism.'

    TenselessOn the B-Theory of time, real or objective time is exhausted by what J. M. E. McTaggart called the B-series, the series of times, events, and individuals ordered by the B-relations (earlier than, later than, simultaneous with). If the B-theory is correct, then our ordinary sense that events approach us from the future, arrive at the present, and then recede into the past is at best a mind-dependent phenomenon, at worst an illusion. Either way, not something that really occurs.  For on the B-theory, there are no such irreducible  monadic A-properties as futurity, presentness and pastness. There is just a manifold of tenselessly existing events ordered by the B-relations. Time does not pass or flow, let alone fly. There is no temporal becoming or temporal passage. My birth is not sinking into the past, becoming ever more past, nor is my death  approaching from the future, getting closer and closer.  Tempus fugit does not express a truth about reality.  At best, it picks out a truth about our experience of reality. 

    The B-theorist does not deny that there is time. He does not hold that time is an illusion or mere appearance. What he denies is that the sense we all have that time passes or flows is an ingredient in real time.  His claim is that real or objective time is exhausted by the B-series and that temporal becoming is at best subjective.

    If there is no temporal becoming in reality, then change  is not a becoming different or a passing away or a coming into being.  When a tomato ripens, it does not become ripe: it simply is (tenselessly) unripe at certain times and is (tenselessly) ripe at certain later times.  And when it ceases to exist, it doesn't pass away: it simply is at certain times and is not at certain later times.

    You could say that that the B-theorist has a static view of time that strips way its 'dynamism.'

    Employing a political metaphor, one could say that a B-theorist is an egalitarian about times and the events at times: they are all equal in point of reality.  Accordingly, my blogging now is no more real (but also no less real) than Socrates' drinking the hemlock millenia ago.  Nor is it more real than my death which, needless to say,  lies in the future.  (But this future event is not approaching or getting closer.) Each time is present at itself, but no time is present, period.  

    This is to say that the present moment enjoys no ontological privilege. There is nothing special about it in point of being or existence.  So, on the B-theory, you can't say that the present alone exists. You can no more say this than you can say that here, the place here I am now, alone exists.

    This is not to say that the B-theorist does not have uses for 'past,' 'present,' and 'future.'  He can speak with the vulgar while thinking with the learned.  Thus a B-theorist can hold that an utterance at time t of 'E is past' expresses the fact that E is earlier than t.  An old objection is that this does not capture the meaning of 'E is past.' For the fact that E is earlier than t, if true, is always true; while 'E is past' is true only after E. This difference in truth conditions shows a difference in meaning. The B-theorist can respond by saying that his concern is not with semantics but with ontology. His concern is with the reality, or rather the lack of reality, of tense, and not with the meanings of tensed sentences or sentences featuring A-expressions. The B-theorist can say that, regardless of meaning, what makes it true that E is past at t is that E is earlier than t, and that, in mind-independent reality, nothing else is needed to make 'E is past' uttered at t true.

    Compare 'BV is hungry' and 'I am hungry' said by BV. The one is true if and only if the other is.  But the two sentences differ in meaning. The first, if true, is true no matter who says it; but the second is true only if asserted by someone who is hungry. Despite the difference in meaning, what makes it true that I am hungry (assertively uttered by BV) is that BV is hungry. In sum, the B-theorist need not be committed to the insupportable contention that A-statements are translatable salva significatione into B-statements.

    The B-theorist, then, denies that the present moment enjoys any temporal or existential privilege.  Every time is temporally present to itself such that no time is temporally present simpliciter.  This temporal egalitarianism entails a decoupling of existence and temporal presentness.  There just is no irreducible monadic property of temporal presentness; hence existence cannot be identified with it.  To exist is to exist tenselessly.  The B-theory excludes presentism according to which there is a genuine, irreducible, property of temporal presentness and existence is either identical or logically equivalent to this property.  Presentism implies that only the temporally present is real or existent.  If to exist is to exist now, then the past and future do not exist, not just now (which is trivial) but at all.  The B-theory leads to what is known in the trade as 'eternalism' according to which the catalog of what exists is not exhausted by present items, but includes past and future ones as well.

    Please note that the B-theory is incompatible not only with presentism, but with any theory that is committed to irreducible A-properties.  Thus the B-theory rules out 'pastism,' the crazy theory that only the past exists and 'futurism,' the crazy view that only the future exists.  It also rules out the sane view that only the past and the present exist.

    Why be a B-theorist?  McTaggart has a famous argument according to which the monadic A-properties lead to contradiction.  We should examine that argument in a separate post.  The argument is endorsed by Hugh Mellor in his Real Time.

    Another consideration is that the physics of Einstein & Co, has no need of temporal becoming.  So if physics gets at the world as it is in itself apart from our subjective additions, then real time is exhausted by the B-series.

    Bill Vallicella

  • Vanitas Vanitatum. Omnia Vanitas

    Kerouac Vanity 1But, wifey, I did it all, I wrote the book, I stalked the streets of life, of Manhattan, of Long Island, stalked thru 1,183 pages of my first novel, sold the book, got an advance, whooped, hallelujah’d, went on, did everything you’re supposed to do in life.

    But nothing ever came of it.

    No ‘generation’ is ‘new’. There’s ‘nothing new under the sun’. ‘All is vanity.’ (268).

    Bill Vallicella

  • It’s a War: The Democrats’ Behavior Proves It

    Let's begin with a very simple distinction between the behavior one would rightly demand of a judge who was adjudicating a dispute between two parties, and the behavior of a citizen defending himself against very serious but groundless accusations. From a judge one expects and demands impartiality.  The demand is reasonable and can be met because judges are not themselves parties to the disputes they mediate. A judge with an interest in the outcome must recuse himself.

    But it is unreasonable in the extreme to expect a citizen who is defending himself from a scurrilous, potentially career-ending  attack to display a calm judicial temperament as if he were above the fray and not precisely being attacked. 

    In fact, if Judge Kavanaugh had not defended himself with passion and righteous indignation, his enemies would have taken it as proof of his guilt. "You see, he is guilty! Any normal person would have vigorously contested the accusations brought against him!"

    You can see from this just how vicious Senator Feinstein and her colleagues are. The simple distinction explained above is obvious and of course they understand it  They would deploy it themselves if it were to their advantage. They are not stupid; they are willing to play dirty if it  assures them of victory.  They are obviously out to stop the Kavanaugh confirmation by any means. Schumer has in fact said precisely that.

    The hypocrisy is to preach the importance of impartiality while failing to practice it oneself. Feinstein and her gang are supposed to be impartially evaluating the nominee, not accusing him of impartiality in a matter in which it would be inappropriate for him to be impartial!

    But it may be worse than hypocrisy. To preach impartiality is to have at least some  commitment to it. But there is increasingly little reason to think that the Dems are committed to the values we cherish. It certainly looks as if they want one thing only, power, any way thy can get it. And impartiality be damned.  If impartiality is to their power advantage, then they are impartial, if not, not.

    They have one goal: power and total control. The Constitution, interpreted as written, stands in their way. That is why they will do anything to destroy the textualist/originalist Kavanaugh.

    So it's a war. It's a war because there s no common ground.  One cannot compromise with people who will do anything to win and who reject such bedrock principles as the presumption of innocence.  

    Feinschwein

    Bill Vallicella

  • Univocity, Equivocity, and the MOB Doctrine

    Here at Maverick Philosopher: Strictly Philosophical

    Bill Vallicella

  • Paul Gottfried on the Destructive Left

    Here:

    The pulling down and defacing of statues by the cultural Left has now spread from the states of the onetime Confederacy to the West Coast. There, Democratic politicians in alliance with various leftist activists are removing what we are told are offensive images from public view.

    This iconoclastic fury has spread from removing statues of Columbus from municipal buildings and parks to dismantling memorials and plaques put up to honor Spanish missionaries. The attack on missionary settlers is justified by citing their use of native Indian labor as well as the more questionable claim that they forcibly converted the native inhabitants to Catholicism.

    The missionaries who are now being dishonored created much of the Hispanic culture embraced by Latino minorities, including their language and majority religion. Latinos may have Aztec or Mayan blood, but they are also descended from Spaniards and took on much of a recognizably Spanish way of life.  

    Has that miserable termite Bergoglio spoken against this?  Or is he too busy worrying about straws in the ocean? Defund the evil-doers.

    Have you ever wondered why the Catholic bishops oppose border control? It is pretty clear: they think they can keep their organizational hustle going if plenty of illegal Hispanics are allowed to flood in.  Am I being fair? Do some research and decide for yourself.

    Bill Vallicella

  • ‘Catholic’ Universities More of a Joke than the Roman Church Itself

    Defund the cultural polluters! They understand money if nothing else.  Dreher:

    Christine Fair is a Provost’s Distinguished Associate Professor at Georgetown University, and a troubled person, judging by her Twitter feed. For example:

    Read it all, as Rod would say. If you can stomach it.

    Bill Vallicella

  • This Just In

    Caesar completes conquest of Gaul.

    Bill Vallicella

  • Years Pass, Dates Repeat

    You were born only once but every year you have a birthday. Equally, you will die only once but every year you have a death day, the date on which you will die. It is just that you don't know what it is.

    Suppose you could know the date of your death but not the year. Suppose that date is 16 October.  Then on that date you would be a little worried and especially careful, both physically and morally. And then on the 17th you could relax for a whole year.

    But even this comfort is not granted us.

    Bill Vallicella

  • LIfe is for Living

    Kerouac Climb Mountain

    Bill Vallicella

  • The Great Revolt: Understanding Real Trump Voters

    An excellent article  at Public Discourse, a very good website. I am tempted to excerpt passages, but if I start quoting, it will not be easy to stop. 

    Read it!

    Bill Vallicella

Latest Comments

  3. And then there is the Sermon on the Mount. Here is a list of 12 different interpretations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sermon_on_the_Mount

  10. Bill, One final complicating observation: The pacifist interpretation of Matt 5:38-42 has been contested in light of Lk 22: 36-38…

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