Dmitry Chernikov’s Blog

And you thought Canadians were all welfare and no warfare.

Writes Quine: Wyman’s slum of possibles is a breeding ground for disorderly elements. Take, for instance, the possible fat man in the doorway; and, again, the possible bald man in that doorway. Are they the same possible man, or two possible men? How can we decide? How many possible men are there in that doorway? [...]

Consider the practice of so-called “price gouging” during emergencies, when stores raise prices on items in their inventories. Economically, this has two aspects: static and dynamic. Statically, the higher prices serve to some extent to channel goods into the hands of those who value them most. Suppose that as a result of a disaster the [...]

Is it true that one cannot prove God’s existence but only “argue” for it, as William F. Vallicella suggests? Now think of what this means. Proving the existence of God is equivalent to showcasing His attributes; we demonstrate that there must be a being who is the first cause and the designer and pure act [...]

Suppose a person you love has decreased in some important good, such as moral good. Are you supposed to love him less, more, or the same? … … hmm… … … thinking, thinking… … … Answer: love is divided into joy for the good possessed and desire for the good not yet possessed. If a [...]

Says Jonathan Bostwick. In other words, get the government out of making, enforcing, and interpreting laws prohibiting murder. If market anarchy can work in providing protection against murderers, arbitration over murder cases, etc. and more efficiently, then surely, it can deliver every other service now supplied by the state. Hmm… the major premise seems fine. [...]

If you are an atheist, then I imagine that you look at the world from a certain particular point of view. While you may acknowledge a semblance of order, you nevertheless perceive a great deal of disorder, disteleology (corruption of design), seemingly pointless evil, random fortunes and misfortunes, undeserved luck (good or bad), people ruining [...]

Distinguishing between the three levels of nature — necessity, voluntary self-interested action, and charity — allows us to solve several puzzles posed by the Incarnation. First, why did Jesus say: “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Mt 24:36) How can [...]

Why did I privilege charity as the driving force of creation which stirs the perfectly happy God to nonetheless create the world and interact with creatures? For what of power? God’s omnipotence is enough to satisfy Him perfectly. But is it enough to create out of nothing? It is not obvious that it is. Similarly, [...]

Intersubjectivity claims that it takes at least two for morality and for moral properties of actions and persons to come into being. Thus, morality is always between two or more persons; it is irreducibly social. In short, “intersubjective” here means accepted as valid or binding because agreed upon. The reasons for agreement are irrelevant and [...]

Morality is neither objective, as C.S. Lewis thought, nor subjective; it is intersubjective. In two senses. First, it is surely wrong, both morally and legally, for a man to rape an innocent child, but the wrongness requires the man and the child to be in their respective positions. It is wrong to default on a [...]

Aquinas writes that “without grace man cannot merit everlasting life; yet he can perform works conducing to a good which is natural to man, as ‘to toil in the fields, to drink, to eat, or to have friends’.” (ST, II-I, 109, 5) Yet later on he defines charity (which can only indwell in men by [...]

There is “an anti-interventionist wing of the GOP“? When I asked Lew: “The Republicans have spent the last 6 years building an empire and a police state at a much increased rate; why would they nominate someone who pledges to dismantle both?,” he replied with “only if it is a revolutionary moment.” Well, is it [...]

On p. 142 of Man’s Vision of God Hartshorne introduces the following quotation from Nicolas Berdyaev: It is extraordinary how limited is the human conception of God. Men are afraid to ascribe to him inner conflict and tragedy characteristic of all life, the longing for his other, for the birth of man. … Self-sufficiency, stony [...]

And now his monstrous “His Dark Materials” trilogy (whose dark materials? Satan’s?) — The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass — is going to be a movie starring Nicole Kidman. Now admittedly, when I read his books a number of years ago, I was more impressionable than I am today. But I still [...]

1. What is the relationship between charity and God? Reply: There are two possibilities. First, God is in some sense the first being “made” by charity. Second, just as in humans there is no “ghost in the machine” but rather, as Gene Callahan pointed out, the (1st-level) machine is an aspect of, a way of [...]

1. Aquinas, our author charges, had never had an idea of “pure actuality.” (Creative Synthesis and Philosophic Method, 70) Poor St. Thomas. He built his entire metaphysics and theology on the idea of the pure actuality of God. And, oddly enough, he did not know what he meant by it! Well, given the distinction I [...]