Wisdom (Metaphysics 2016)
4. Metaphysics I Proemium (cont.): Wonder, Chance, and the End of Inquiry; Wonder What and Why, Why God Has No Cause, and the Order of Sense, Memory and Experience
Class of 2016-06-09
https://berquistcourse.com/course/philosophy/7c-wisdom-2016/004-metaphysics-i-proemium-cont-wonder-chance-and-the-end-of/

[0:00] Now he talks about what happens at the end when a man comes to know the causes, right? It is necessary, however, to place the possession of this in the opposite for us of the searches in the beginning, for all begin, as we have said, from wondering if things are thus, as about things that happen wonderfully by chance, right? Now notice, things that happen by chance arouse wonder, right?

[0:29] But they're not really the most the best things to know, right? We talked before a bit about the order of wonder, right? You wonder about things that are closer to you, right? And people wonder, especially about chance events, right? And you can see how the poet makes use of this, right? He makes a what?

[0:54] Chance event, right? You know, Romeo went to that house to see what? Yeah. What a what a chance! And bumps into Juliet instead. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I know it was in the paper I heard one time, but I guess the guy hit a car in a you know car accident, and the other car was being driven by a girl, right? And in those days, you know, wasn't you know, it was a quick solution, right?

[1:28] There was a court, right? And so they had to go to court all the time, and and got to know each other. They fell in love and got married. So I used to say to my students now, I don't recommend if you see a nice girl in a nice car that you run into her, you know, the idea that this will lead to marriage, right? Because it's not apt to do, I don't think.

[1:50] You're kind of annoyed if someone runs into you. I think, you know, and and but this was chance, right? Now I heard another story that was supposed to have taken place in actually in the parish house. they were in a hurry and they bumped into each other. And that's not very pleasant thing to bump into somebody, you know, going very fast. And but that was that was a start, you know.

[2:13] And so our next door neighbor, the day that his wife was killed in a car accident, yeah, two of his sons went to the hospital. Yeah. And he was visiting with his son. One of his sons stayed in the hospital for quite a while. Yeah. And there was a young intern doctor there who was now his wife. Yeah. That's when he met her. Yeah. It was a chance.

[2:35] I mean, his first wife died. Sure, sure. His son's in the hospital, and that's when sure, sure, sure, sure. I remember at one time was in Quebec or something, but the the somebody was invited, you know, to out to dinner. Something they're going to meet someplace, right? He got down there, and the guy wasn't... there, He was you know, Waited around for a while so join up right.

[2:57] There's a bookstore there, right? A used bookstore. He goes in there and. He goes in there and he finds a book that we're all looking for. I mean, that is pure by chance, right? So, you know, something very good, something very bad could happen by chance, right? And there was this wonder, right? And Warren Murray was telling me about the guy there in Quebec. There, he he he was taking airplane flight, right?

[3:25] And he he called taxi and so on. Taxi cab driver was inexperienced, to say the least, right? Made the wrong turn, didn't get him to the airport in time. The airplane took off without him and crashed without him, right? Now, if he had had a good taxi cab driver, a normal, experienced taxi cab driver who's used to going to the airport, he would have been on the airplane and that would have been the end to him, right?

[3:50] Go into him, right? And so you say, you wonder about these things, right? So we can all think of things, but the poor will take something, you know, wonderful that is really, you know, strikes us, right? But that's what you're right, right? But then about the turns of the sun, because that's not by chance now, right? That's something deeper, right? The turns of the sun or the incommensurability, the famous example from mathematics, right?

[4:17] That the diagonal and the side of the square are not commensurable. You can't find something to measure both of them, no matter how small you make it. It's all these things seem wonderful to all who have not seen the cause that something is not measured by the smallest. I have an example there, the incommensurability. It is necessary, therefore, to finish in the contrary and the better, according to the proverb, right?

[4:43] You come to know the cause, then you cease to wonder, in a sense, right? Just as in these, when they have learned, for the geometry would wonder nothing so much as if the diagonal were to become measurable, right?

[4:58] Now you got to be careful there, because again, the word wonder has kind of two different senses, right? One sense of wonder can be admiration for something, right? And that doesn't correspond to ignorance, right? That's when you already know something, right? And the other sense of wonder is more like curiosity, you know, where you don't know something, right? Where you want to know it, right? So Aristotle's talking about that kind of wonder, right?

[5:24] The wonder that gave rise to philosophy. The men thought themselves ignorant, right, of why these things were so, right? They want to know why, right? And when they get to know why, then that kind of wonder starts to what diminish, right? When Aristotle knows in the twelfth book that God is what is the first cause, right? He starts to know something about God, then he says. It compels our wonder, he says.

[5:51] Right? That's the other sense of wonder, right? Of admiration, right? That proceeds from knowing the excellence of something, right? He says, I'm going to introduce you tonight to the most beautiful girl in the world. Oh, I don't know who she is. The guy is the guy is. The guy is going to find out who she is. Yeah, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But once he sees her, now he knows her, right?

[6:24] And now he just has some kind of wonder, admiration, right? So, so he's talking here about you know the wonder that is the start of philosophy, which was a sign that what interposing it out of knowledge, right? Because they were fleeing their ignorance of why it is so, right? And that ignorance will disappear once you know the cause, right?

[6:52] Now, like in the proemium to the De Anima, right? Aristotle's an epilogue, right? And he recalls what he's done in the proemium, right? And usually in the recalling the last thing he just did, and then the first thing he did, right? And there there are three things, I guess, in the De Anima. But here he recalls the thing he just did, right? What is the nature of the knowledge thought?

[7:21] Then has been said. It's looking knowledge, right? Huh? It's liberal, right, in the sense we defined. right? It's not a human possession, but a divine possession, and therefore it's most good, the most honorable knowledge there is, right? Because it's divine in the two senses in which knowledge can be divine, right?

[7:48] And what is the goal that the investigation and the whole knowledge of a road must reach? Well, it's the knowledge of the first what cause or causes whether it's one or many, right? Aristotle comes to conclusion that it's one. It's through all the reasons, and he quotes what Homer: "The rule of many is not good. Let there be one." Beautiful. What he quotes the the man he calls the poet.

[8:18] So what do you think of this proemium huh? Pretty good. Yeah, not bad. Once Ian gave a whole course on what a a proemium is. He took it so seriously, you know, huh? And I was pleased, you know, was it was at the was at the. February, they called a prelude, right? In the Latin, yeah, yeah, yeah. Calling it dactylic on the thing, huh? Introduction means leading one into.

[8:54] So you can have a whole course as an introduction, right? Introduction to this or introduction to that. But a proemium is something, you know, like a prologue, right? Aristotle compares it to a prologue, you know, or to even the overture into a to an opera or something, right? Huh?

[9:13] The overture to the Magic Flute of Mozart. You heard that? You know, what is it? Was Ceballos another famous composer? There, he gave us an example, you know, of a musician who achieved exactly what he wanted to achieve, you know, which they don't very well often do, right? You don't. The Mozart had done that, you know, with the overture, right? It's incredible. The overtures to those. My son Paul used to always play the overture to to Marriage of Figaro, you know, the piano.

[9:49] So for some reason, he got attached to it, you know. But the the overture to Don Giovanni and the overture to Così fan tutte but they really prepare you for it, right? Huh? But in Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare has you know a formal prologue, right? Which is in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet, right? It's got 14 lines and so on. Two households, both alike in dignity, you know, fair Verona, where we lay the scene, and so on.

[10:17] It's a beautiful thing, you know, but it prepares you the way, right, for a tragedy, right? Huh? And for he mentioned both pity and fear, right, in the prologue, which are the emotions that are purged by tragedy, right? Pity and fear.

[10:34] Pity these people for the horrible things that happened to them, and you fear that these things could happen to you, right? Unexpectedly, right? So we don't meet again till when? First September. First first first Thursday of September, or what? Is there some feast, some special feast of there or something? You'd be after the eighth. The eighth is the second Thursday because the first is on a Thursday,

[11:11] so the eighth would be on the second Thursday. So maybe not till the fifteenth then. Fifteenth. Okay, that's that's a Thursday the fifteenth. That'll be the third Thursday in September. Oh my goodness! You people will be left here and and no, that's terrible. That's Let's talk a little bit more about wonder, right? Okay. Um...

[11:34] Sometimes I distinguish in the philosophy of wonder, uh, two kinds of wonder, but they're very similar, right? Wonder what and wonder what why, yeah. And Aristotle, in the book of the Posterior Analytics, says, in a way, what and why are both answered by knowing causes, right? More obviously, the question why, right, huh? But what, you know, if you ask, you know, what is a, uh, a chair, right, huh?

[12:06] You could bring out the cause of the chair, intrinsic, right? Plus the extrinsic, you know, cause of sitting and so on, right, huh? And so, um,

[12:19] you know, it's a little, a little poem you probably heard. Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder. Yeah, yeah. That's very, very good, huh? Good. And, uh, look at that little poem there for a second. What meter is it in? I am now. I am it now. No. I don't know. I don't know. Shame. The De Koninck, De Koninck said that you should have read good literature, right, before you do philosophy, right, huh?

[12:57] And, uh, now, um, she's writing in the form of Shakespeare in sonnet here, right? That's iambic. That's iambic, right. Now, you know my little device for remembering the four major ones? Add it, okay? So, um, it has two letters, I and T, and there are two meters. iamb and trochee, And the word it has how many letters? Two. Yeah. So, an iamb or trochee, they have, what, two syllables, right?

[13:35] But they're just reverse. Iambic is accent or the length, you know, in the Greek, but ours is the accent. It's on the first or second of the 2 syllables.

[13:48] Must be on the second. Yeah. That time of year, that must, you know. Um... So, uh, Shakespeare's, 150-or so of them sonnets, right, written in, uh, iambic pentameter, right? Pente meaning five, right? So there's five feet, five, iams,

[14:13] right? Five two syllables, right? And so it's called pentameter. Um, now trochee is just the opposite, right? So in the trochee, the accent is on the first syllable, right?

[14:35] Now, a lot of times in trochaic verse, and they will not complete the last foot, the last foot, because our mind, our, our, we're going to end on the accented things, right? But now, they point out in Shakespeare, you know, that he will tend to use the trochaic meter more for, um, very solemn moments, right? Very tense moments sometimes, but for unusual creatures, you know? Um, so the witches there, right?

[15:13] And I always quote that thing, fair is foul, and foul is fair. Hover through the fog and filthy air, right? Give a lecture on that one time at St. Anne Sims. Because he's talking about two mistakes, right? Fair is foul, the good is bad, right? And foul is fair, the bad is good, right? And then the two causes of it, hover through the fog and filthy air.

[15:42] You're deceived into thinking that the bad is good or the good is bad, uh, because your mind is in fog, right, huh? Or because your appetite is filthy, you know? And then, okay. But no, that's in touke, right? Hover. Well, hover, the accent is on the first syllable. Hover through the, it's more through than the, the fog and filthy, but then the last one is not completed, right?

[16:10] Air, right? Okay. And, uh, so, um, the witches are more wonderful than ordinary human beings, right? You know, you see what I mean? And so, um, it kind of rouses your wonder there, right? This different meter. Aristotle says that the ambic meter is closest to daily speech, and that we sometimes fall into ambic, you know, not trying to be a poet, we fall into it without realizing it.

[16:41] Um, so twinkle, twinkle, little star, see? You got, uh, four feet there, but the last one is not completed, right? So you'd say this is, uh, tetra or something like that, you know, prochaic incritic nouns with the last syllable not completed, right? But it's appropriate that you do this because this is about wonder, right? Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are. It was beautifully said, right?

[17:17] Uh, Mozart has a- has a variations on this melody, right? She has other words to it besides this one, you know, that we have it in from, from kindergarten or from, from Mother Goose or whatever it is. Maybe I seem to have heard that sometime in my life, I guess. Mm-hmm. Twinkle, twinkle. Because he, you know, you want to ask, say, does the star really twinkle, or is that because of the atmosphere, you know?

[17:40] Yeah. Might be, you know, that's the atmosphere doing this, right? So, uh, but you're wondering why here in this case, right? But, uh, but you're wondering what it is, right? Now, Thomas, when he was a young student there, he was known for saying, what is God? Bring out in class, what is God? So the philosopher has this, what, wonder what and why. That's really the kind of wonder he has, right?

[18:12] And wonder what is a wonder about the universal, really, isn't it? You wonder what motion is, you wonder what time is, you wonder what place is, huh? So on, huh? You wonder what the soul is, right?

[18:27] And, uh, you wonder why the human soul is immortal and the dog's soul is not immortal. In the, in the post-Nean litics, Aristotle distinguishes four questions, right? Does it exist? And then, if it does exist, what is it? And then the question, is this that? If this is that why is this that right

[19:02] So when you speak about God huh The first question is does God exist right And if you answer, yes, he does exist, then what is God, right?

[19:15] If this question is not, um, appropriate at this time, uh, please let me know and maybe I ask you ahead of time, but I was wondering if today, with the way the culture is going, Mm-hmm. has, um, uh, wonder been neutralized, do you think? Do you think that wonder could be used, uh, for evangelical purposes, uh, to evangelize, or do you think that it's been somehow neutralized or short-circuited, the sense of wonder that leads one to finally seek God?

[19:47] Yeah, kids, the school doesn't really encourage wonder, huh, by what they do, right? Um... Thinking back to my geometry class, you know, in sophomore high school, I wasn't very good at all, you know? And then when I was graduating from college, Kasurik said to me, Dwayne, go out and get Euclid's elements. And I said, why? Go out and get Euclid's elements, he said. He didn't argue with me.

[20:16] He knew I'd see the point after I read it, you know? And, uh, and, uh, from time to time I go back and I read Euclid, you know? But that really arouses in, what, wonder, you know, these simple things, huh?

[20:32] A angle inscribed in a semicircle is what? Right. It's always right, yeah. It's one of the wonderful things, huh, that in the di- I mean, you know, in a right angle triangle, the square and the side opposite the, uh, right angle is exactly equal to the squares. Wow. Yeah, yeah. And it's something you admire about these things in geometry is the simplicity of them, right, huh? Yeah.

[21:01] And, uh, there's a theorem there in geometry there. The straight line be cut into equal and unequal segments, right? Is the rectangle contained by the equal segments or by the square, which is going to be greater? You would think maybe

[21:34] the unequal No, the square. The square. Yeah. And but how much more is it greater? You saw I don't know I don't remember Yeah these are the square on the line between the points of section. That's so simple, right? You see. Now I was reading. I knew you guys before. I read you for a class here, you know. I was reading one of my another one of my granddaughters.

[22:10] Rosa says, "Let's give her a copy of of the Little Flower here, the one of Saint Thérèse Well, I had two copies of it. One here falling apart, and one in perfect condition, right? So she got the perfect condition, right? But I was talking before class there about how um

[22:32] Therese here is not like Saint Anselm so much. We define theology as belief seeking understanding, right? But this is hope seeking what love, right? But nevertheless, he touches upon

[22:50] these things here and about God, huh? And she says here in one place, "talking about her mistresses and her mother's there in the spiritual life. Our mistress was truly a saint, a perfect type of the first Carmelites. She had to teach me how to work, and so I was constantly with her. You know how they they they are pretty rough coming in, you know. Who cleaned this?

[23:20] Don't you know how to clean a room? Don't you know how to dust? No, I don't. Anyway, yet kind as she was beyond all I can say, and much as I loved and appreciated her, my soul did not expand under her guidance. Words failed me when I spoke to her of what passed in my soul, and thus my time of spiritual direction became a torture and a real martyrdom.

[23:45] Apparently, understanding my difficulty, one of our former mothers once said to me during recreation, "I should think, child, you have not much to tell your superiors. Why do you think that, dear mother? " I asked. Because your soul is extremely simple, and when you are perfect, you become still more so. For the nearer one approaches God, the simpler one becomes. That's beautiful, right? So the more perfect you become, the more you become like God, right?

[24:22] But the same time, you become more what simple, right? I think that's going to be the amazing thing there with God, right? That his perfection is altogether what? And say, how can that be? Because the fully formed man has to have this virtue, that virtue, this knowledge, this knowledge, this, you know, you got to have many things to to be a full man, right?

[24:55] That's all his parts, as they say, right? You know, but God is altogether simple, you know. What's he going to strike us? I was reading Thomas there in the third volume of Summa Contra Gentiles, and he's talking about why these souls never become bored with seeing the same thing, right? And that's because they never what comprehend God, right? And so they always are filled with wonder, right?

[25:26] And this is part of the wonder, right? See how so perfect a thing can be so simple. How it can be, you know, so unlike the things in this world, right?

[25:41] Now sometimes you know you find something, you know, like a very simple proof and example, right? It kind of amazes you, right? You know, you can see such a profound, true, interesting truth, so simple. But God has this, you know, most of all, right?

[25:59] Shakespeare says, "Brevity is the soul of wisdom," right? Something is smaller or shorter, you know. It's not even size, though, right? That's kind of beautiful that they see this, right? Now I was mentioning, I was reading a little bit later on in here, and she's saying, "Huh? I understood that without love, even the most brilliant deeds count for nothing. Far from doing me any harm, these gifts which our Lord showered upon me drew my soul more closely to Him and made me see that He alone is unchangeable.

[26:40] That's interesting, huh? That's one of the main attributes of God, huh? You know, in in the Summa Contra Gentiles, the order is a little different than in the Summa, you know. But in the Summa Contra Gentiles, you have five arguments of the existence of God before you take up what his substance is, and the first argument. in both Summas is from motion, right? But in the Summa Theologiae, there's two arguments from motion, right?

[27:09] There's only one in the Summa Theologiae, right? And even the ones that are, you know, common to, the two, they're much more expanded in the Summa Contra Gentiles. So when he takes up, you know, God's substance, the first thing that you naturally do is talk about his being unchangeable, right? And then about his being eternal, right? And you go on to his perfection, simplicity, right? But those kind of three fundamental things about the substance of God, right?

[27:41] But Thomas, you know, will separate out the unity of God, right, which you want to emphasize in the treatise. We're going to talk about the Trinity later on. and then the infinity of God, right? But the simplicity of God, I mean, the the unity of God really pertains to the simplicity of God, and the infinity of God, you know, it doesn't mean you know that he's overweight or spread out and all that kind.

[28:16] of thing. But it means that his perfection is what endless, right? There's no end to his perfection, and Thomas will talk about that, right? And so, in the compendium of theology, it, puts the unity of God with the simplicity, right, and the perfection of God, the infinity of God, through this perfection sense, right? Huh? So she has those three things there, right? Huh? Just kind of actually, she comes to them, right?

[28:43] She doesn't give any reasons why God is unchangeable. So, but yeah, ask a little trick question, right? Huh? And if you're talking about the eclipse of the sun, right? If you'd never seen an eclipse of the sun, you'd say what? Well, I wonder if that never takes place, as far as I know. And the Connecticut Yankee and King Arthur's court, right? If you know the story, right?

[29:18] He's about to be executed or something, and he looks at his little almanac and he realizes there's an eclipse of the sun, right? So he makes use of that to get out of this horrible situation. But anyway,

[29:37] suppose then you you show the guy an eclipse of the sun, right? Okay. So the first question is: Does is the light of the sun eclipsed sometimes?

[29:49] Kind of frightening thing, I suppose. Certainly a thing that rouses wonder, right? Huh? I was talking about how I told you about this business friend of my father, his son, and made his own telescope, and my father's company put it on a stand, and he had had a little little observatory, you know. And so we went out to the observatory one time, one night there, and we're going to look at the moon, you know, in his telescope, you know, and then clouds were over and covering up the moon.

[30:20] So he turned the telescope on Saturn, right? And I had seen pictures of Saturn and the rings in you know astronomy books, but never seen it through a telescope. He looks at the telescope. My God, it rouses your wonder, right? Huh? So when the first, guy sees it in the eclipse of the sun. You might probably be frightened or something, you know. But suddenly, there's wonder when you get used to it a little bit.

[30:41] Still, but then you wonder why is the light of the sun being what Cut off? cut off? Yeah. So somebody might wonder, does God exist? Right.

[30:59] Now, after you come to know in some way that God does exist, right? Would you ask why does God exist? Some might be tempted to do that, right? You know. See, if God exists, why does He exist? Right. It seemed like a, you know,Just like saying, if the eclipse of the sun exists. Why does it exist, right? But what's the what's the fallacy in asking, why does God exist?

[31:39] Is it there's some well what's the fallacy What are you looking for when you ask, why does the sun get eclipsed? So, why does God exist if you're caught? In the first case, God would not be the first cause, right? And he would have a cause he doesn't have, right? Yeah, yeah. So it's in danger, right? Now, with the other question, you say, "Does God exist?" Yes.

[32:18] Then, what is God? Does that make sense, right? But you find out that God is "I am who am," right? So, is there a cause for God exists?

[32:42] I don't think so. You find sometimes conversation people, you know, everything has a cause, you know, which is just about everything does. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[32:59] But what does it mean to say that I am who am? How does he say that? You know, I mean, this Moses asked him. You know, tell me who you are, so I can, you know, tell the Egyptians or tell the people down there, you know, who sent me. And he says, "What? Yeah.

[33:20] Why does he say that? Well, he told Saint Catherine of Siena, 'Who is she Who is not she? Who is not? ' And I am who I am. Yeah, yeah. " It's the same thing he told Moses, huh?

[33:45] Well, you see, someone asked me, "Who are you, Berquist? I'd say, "Well, I'm a man." You know, I say, "I am." You know, see. So he's asked what he is, right? By Moses, he says, "I am who I am," right. He's saying that his what, what he is—that is, his nature, his substance, right—is being itself, right? His nature, his substance is to be. There's no difference between to be and the substance of God, right?

[34:27] You got to be kind of careful. You see, That's why you must be. And some statements, like the, you know, theorems in geometry, are known through other statements, huh? But there must be some statements that are known to themselves. Otherwise, you wouldn't know any statements, right? Yeah. Now, what does it mean to say a statement known to itself? Because you seem to be saying that the statement proves itself, right?

[35:10] Is that what you mean when you say it's known to itself, right? You you mean that it's known not through another, right? Okay. Just like when we speak of the the the last end, it's what? Its own sake. It's for its own sake, yeah. What does that mean?

[35:37] It's not for the sake of anything else Yeah, yeah. Doesn't really mean it's a division for the sake of a division. If that's its purpose, because, um, you know how we talked about before how to see a before and after you have to see a distinction, right? Huh? And one important sense of before and after is cause and effect, right? So, really, to have a cause and effect, we must have a distinction between the cause and the what effect, huh?

[36:09] So God cannot be strictly speaking the cause of his own existence, huh? That's hard for us to understand, huh? So a little danger in saying why does God exist, right?

[36:23] But if his substance is to be right, then we can see that he must be right, and he must be to himself, right? See, why the angels must be through God, right? Thomas is always quoting the great thing that Plato pointed out that the to itself is the cause of to another, yeah.

[36:51] Kept on thinking about this idea that it belongs to the wise man to order things, right? And I said, well, God is wise, right? But not only is God wise and wiser than us, but he's wisdom itself, right? Because he's altogether simple, right? So God and his wisdom can't be two different things.

[37:19] Well, if God is wisdom itself, he must really be responsible for the order of things, right? And it kinda s makes you see that the providence, right, Of God, whereby he orders things, right. It comes in sense from his what, wisdom, right. But belongs to wisdom to order. As Aristotle says, right, and as you can see from what Shakespeare's definition of reason, right.

[37:50] Do something. I think there is some confusion there in in some of those philosophers nowadays. Who is it? the guy. What's his name. Heidegger Yeah, yeah, people like that. If you're influenced by him, you know, they want to.

[38:12] They want to know why God exists, right? Well, you could say there's a reason why we think he exists. There's a reason why we think he must exist, right? But there's no reason in things why he exists, huh? Because then there would be in things a cause of his existence, right? But for him to be God is to be, right?

[38:42] And therefore, he can't have any cause. huh? The statement of Vatican II would mean something to understand carefully when it says that man is the only creature God wills for his own sake, for the sake of himself. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[39:17] Now, what does Aristotle do in the rest of Book One after the premium? What do you think he does? Well, he recalls what his predecessors right said about causes, right?

[39:42] And then shows that there's something more to be investigated here, right? Now, why does he do that, right? The thing I notice when I study the the modern philosophers, right, they often disagree with something that Aristotle said. Let's say. And they will not recall what he said much. But they'll say something opposite to what he said, right? And they won't recall what he said and why he said it, right?

[40:22] I think a reason why that reason he had is not sufficient. Is that something wrong with that? Isn't it? Well, in the politics of Aristotle, right? Going back now to the book, the politics, right? And this is, you know, political philosophy, right? Political wisdom in a sense, right? Well,

[40:55] Aristotle is going to talk about one part of the politics there about the best city. City, he says, according to a prayer, because you have to have unusual circumstances to establish the best city, right?

[41:15] But he considers, you know, before right, the city that Socrates had proposed, right, and the cities that. Had been what praised as being great cities like like Sparta and so on, and he saw what defects in these cities, right? And he pointed out those defects, right?

[41:45] And he says something about you know it was not simply to put forward himself or seek praise, you know, in considering what the best city is, but there really were difficulties about the cities that had been proposed or the cities that had been praised, right? the existing cities, right? right, the same thing he's doing, right? In the rest of Book One, right? In other words, given the excellence of wisdom, right, that exceeds all other knowledge, right, the most honorable knowledge is, right?

[42:27] Why should he pursue this most honorable knowledge if other men have already arrived at it, right? If other men have already arrived at wisdom, then the reasonable thing to do would be to what learn from them, right?

[42:50] It's only if they have not, you know, arrived at the goal of wisdom, right? Is there something insufficient what they they said about causes that you must undertake your what your own investigation, right?

[43:07] And so he he recalls what all his predecessors have said and why they said it, right? And shows something of the insufficiency of what they said, right? And then

[43:21] he's got a reasonable reason, right? Yeah, yeah, to continue the investigation. And in the second book, right? Thomas I think speaks in one place here as the second premium, but he's going to talk about you know the way of proceeding, you know, must be fit the matter and so on. What you're talking about and so on, but he's also going to talk there about how you're dependent upon other men, right?

[44:00] Both those of whom you've got some part of the truth, but even those you disagree with, because you developed your own thinking and you know arguing against what you thought was defective in their things, right? You know, it's such a different thing from what you find the modern philosophers, right? They start off, you know, saying just the opposite of what the ancients said, right? What Aristotle might have said.

[44:25] Without recalling what Aristotle said, hardly. without alone recalling the reasons he gave, and not you know showing the insufficiency of those reasons, kind of you know, it's kind of a

[44:39] pride. I started to read this John of Avila there, you know, he's talking about. Guy got to the point there where he's talking about the the devil right Down the devil and pride and how he he he encourages us, you know, in the same way that he went down. And that seems to describe the modern philosophers, huh?

[45:09] It's amazing how Thomas will recall the opinions of you know men who are kind of gone astray, but recall what they said and why they said it, and then he'll refute the position and refute the arguments, you know. You know, it's a very very trivial thing, right? It's kind of it's kind of.

[45:29] Yeah. Is there any utility in most of contemporary philosophy? And I ask that because I've been interested in anthropology, and I was hearing about the best graduate programs were all focused within cultural anthropology on abstract theory, which and it didn't have any real application to real life humans, which are supposed to be studying anthropology. And there was a very low level on the hierarchy of anthropology programs, study of anthropology called applied anthropology, which is applying the theory to practice to reality to try to solve problems.

[46:15] But that was not highly regarded at all. So it seemed to me that the whole practice of anthropology, there was no real utility to it. Yeah. And I'm wondering about with philosophy, so much of the moderns. What's the point? Is there any benefit that it gives the human race aside from tenure to certain individuals in departments? Well, Aristotle and Nicomachean ethics, and he talks about the useless hearer of ethics, right?

[46:42] Useless hearer. And a man who doesn't want to live in accordance with reason, right, is a useless hearer of ethics, right? He's going to find what's reasonable, right? And and then then he talks about two different, and the others who have the defect of lack of experience, right? Talk about such things, right? The young, right? So you can be you know not a suitable hearer for either the lack of experience or because you don't have the intention of of living in accordance with with reason, huh?

[47:27] So in the second book, huh, it's kind of short book, you know, much shorter. But he will start to talk about the road, you know, the follow and so on, and how man is towards knowing the truth, right? And how one man depends upon other men, right? The investigation of truth and so on. And then when he gets to the third book, right,

[47:53] then he gives the reason why you have to proceed dialectically before you find the truth, right? He gives all the beautiful reasons. And then he has in in book three a universal dialectic about all the problems of wisdom, really. And Thomas points out that for the reasons he gives for doing dialectic, right,

[48:18] this is the reason why in in all of his books, right, Aristotle has some dialectic. And but what's unique in the metaphysics is you have a kind of universal dialectic, huh? Well, in the other parts of philosophy, Aristotle will have a particular dialectic, and then he'll solve and establish some part of the truth, and then he go on to another part, and you know. But here he has a kind of universal one, right?

[48:45] Because the fact that the wise man has to see the things, you know, all things in some way, it's kind of interesting. And then in the fourth book, that we find out what the subject of wisdom is, That's being in one, right?

[49:05] In the fourth book, we find out that the subject of wisdom is being in one. To manifest that, then we find out that being in one and these other things that are spoken of are all equivocal, right? Then the whole fifth book is devoted to what? The senses The senses of the words used, and these are the words used both most of all in the axioms, right?

[49:30] And most of all in wisdom because of its universality, right? There's a whole book devoted to that, right? The commentary. I mean, the other people, you know, philosophical dictionaries are called. That's so stupid, you know. But Aristotle will, you know, distinguish the central senses of these words, right, and and think out their order, you know.

[50:10] Now, thinking here, you know, just go back now to the text we had today, recalling the you know this order of sensing, memory, experience, understanding, universal. Well.

[50:30] What would you say about the order of sensing and memory? Just take that right. Sensing is before memory in time. In time, yeah. Now, what about the second sense of before?

[50:53] I suppose you can have, let's say, at least immediately, a sense without a memory. but you can't have a memory without a sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Now, what's the third sense? Reason. Yeah, third sense is. Discourse, reason. Yeah, so you're talking about the the order in our knowledge, right? Okay. Okay. Sensing comes before memory, right? Okay.

[51:23] Now, which is better, sensing or memory? I'm inclined to say memory because it's in some way, higher Yeah, say removed from sense. it's something in some way. Okay. It's more it's more universal than sense, I should say. That's probably the reason why Yeah, but now don't you like to see your friend face to face? You know, it's interesting. he's that way of expressing the beatitude vision, right? Seeing God face to face, and you know, I was down here seeing my grandchildren, right?

[51:59] I like these pictures of them, you know, and I kind of remember them, you know. But it's nice to see them face to face, isn't it? Yeah. Nice to see your friend face to face. Yeah. So you you sure that memory is better?

[52:16] I can go home now and play a CD of Mozart, right, and get the music, and I can kind of remember music a bit, you know. And but is is remembering the music as good as hearing it? right?

[52:37] Is even the CD as good as having the orchestra right there, you know. Nothing like that. Incomparable You know. Or just you know seeing a beautiful sunset, you know. I told you I was down in Virginia one time, Rose and I went down there on spring break and eating a kind of an outdoor restaurant kind of thing. The sky, I've never seen the sky like that? You know, like it folds a red all the way up the sky.

[53:07] You know, and I said, I said, I said to the waitress, I said, I said. She kind of looked like I was crazy, you know. I've never seen it like that, John. I I I I suspect that the southern sunsets are more striking than ours are here, you know. And

[53:25] I remember one time we went to Quebec, you know, and we were going to Quebec the boardwalk there, you know, and there was a it was after rain and there was a you know a rainbow, rainbow, you know, and

[53:41] oh yeah, that reminds me. What Socrates says about wonder? He says it's not a bad genealogy. The man who said that that the rainbow was the offspring of Thaumas. Yeah. And so I said, what does Socrates mean by that? Why is that a good genealogy to say that the father or parent of the rainbow is wonder?

[54:21] Well, the rainbow unites what. Heaven and earth, right? See, so wonder leads us to pursue the cause, right? To pursue the cause, so unites heaven and earth, right? Isn't you know we have it in the Old Testament there after the the flood, right? And it's a reconciliation between man and God there. And does he point to the rainbow as a sign? Yeah, yeah. But why is the rainbow a good sign of that, right?

[54:55] Because it unites heaven and earth It unites heaven and earth, yeah. And in a different way, philosophy, right, the investigation of causes, right, unites heaven and earth, right. So it's kind of a beautiful, beautiful thing Socrates says, right? But um, I don't know if anybody sees it like I see it, you know, It'd be a profound. thing you know, It wasn't a bad genealogy he said

[55:23] But whoever you know was it Hesiod I think maybe someone you know said that wonder is the father of the rainbow. You know, but you know I remember this rainbow because the boardwalk was open and you had the St. Lawrence there and so on. You never really see that rainbow. so we were all kind of struck. It's like after dinner, you know, you know, came out and it rained or something, and this rainbow was there.

[55:49] Isn't that better than you know? my memory of it now isn't it greater to be there in the boardwalk, you know, and see that isn't something. Yeah, yeah. In the Caribbean, I right after a rainstorm. I saw the most brilliant rainbow I've ever seen. It's astonishing. Yeah. And it's it seemed to come down very close to where I was. So I was laughing as I did it, but I ran over to see if I could get that far.

[56:17] And it kept on receding, but it was. Yeah, well, there's gold at the end of it too. Yeah, they say you know there's gold in it. So

[56:32] now, if take memory and experience, right? Well, memory is before experience in time, right? And can memory be without what experience? But can experience be without memory? No. So in those two senses, right? And in the third sense, which is the order in our knowing, right? I mean 2G, you know. But now, what about the fourth sense, which is better, memory or experience? Experience. Yeah, in terms of knowledge, yeah, it's an advantage, right?

[57:07] And now, can experience be without the knowledge of the universal? It comes before the knowledge of the universal, right? And it can be without it, right?

[57:18] Okay. But you know, again, the knowledge of the universal, then you start to know also maybe. Why, too, right? And then you have superiority of knowledge, right? So you can see that you know all so much of this. Bring them, you know, about the order there, the natural order, the natural road is the road from the senses into reason, because man is an animal that has reason, right?

[57:47] Well that comparison is the one that seems to be different between sense and memory. Yeah. Yeah. In terms of being better, the others all seem to be. Yeah. We see. You see, one knowledge is better than another because it's about a better thing, or because it's more certain, right? And the senses are more what? Certain. Yeah, yeah. And so they say after an accident, right? You get people make their statement right away, so to speak.

[58:13] And two weeks later, they're going to help. It's going to be more and more divergent the longer the you know they go, right? Because memory is not as certain as sensation, right?

[58:27] Yeah Am I giving you your thing or So we yeah we can we can conclude for the day. Yeah.