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https://www.innerexplorations.com/philtext/jeffkalb.htm By
detailing some of my interests and writings, I hope to hear from those whose interests
bear some resemblance to my own. I wish to thank Dr. Arraj for his kindness in giving
individuals such as myself a forum for our ideas.
My
Road to Thomism
I was born July 7, 1966. I studied materials science and electrical
engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. I graduated with a B.S. in
materials science in 1988 and then received a M.S. in materials science and a M.S. in
electrical engineering in 1989 while studying under a graduate fellowship from the
National Science Foundation. Somewhat disappointed with the state of modern physics,
increasingly hostile to its foundations, and lacking the patience of a good
experimentalist, I elected to terminate my fellowship and take employment as an engineer
in the semiconductor industry. In 2001 I enrolled at the University of Arizona, where I am
pursuing an M.A. in classics with a philology concentration. As regards my work in
philosophy I have no properly academic credentials, so my writing will have to speak for
itself.
I began to study natural
philosophy in response to an insight that both quantum and statistical mechanics are
ultimately unverifiable in the empirical sense. For the last twelve years I have expanded
my study, branching into many other areas, primarily within the triangle defined by
metaphysics, mathematics, and natural philosophy. My mathematical considerations led me to
conclude to the existence of form, which is implicitly denied by Cartesian mathematical
analysis and its progeny. As I was at the same time rediscovering and deepening my
Catholic faith, I was led to St. Thomas as the Church’s doctrinal norm. I was
fortunate in having picked up a copy of Etienne Gilson’s "The Christian
Philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas." It was difficult for me at first. The terms were
opaque after the first reading: substance, accident, essence, quiddity, prime matter,
substantial form, act-of-existence, etc. But I gradually absorbed this previously
alien perspective, only to find that my own speculations shed some light on contemporary
thomistic philosophy.
I consider myself to be part
of a wider movement to restore the cultural and liturgical patrimony of the Catholic
Church, especially the Tridentine Latin Rite. This extends to political reform to curb
personal license in view of the true liberty described by Leo XIII, and includes a
ressourcement of traditional mores, art, and architecture. This is primarily a movement of
young intellectuals today, but it will make itself felt as these enter into positions of
influence and authority.
My
Interests
My thinking is influenced by Etienne Gilson, Jacob Klein, David Rapport
Lachterman, St. Bonaventure, Jacques Maritain, St. Augustine, Plato, Blessed John Duns
Scotus, Proclus Diadochus, Antonio Rosmini-Serbati, and Gregory Palamas. However, I try to
judge all in the light of St. Thomas.
My interests include: The
Trinity, the Incarnation and Redemption, the theory of universals, the analogy of being,
points of debate between Orthodox and Roman Catholic theology, the liberal arts, the
theory of color, the ontological and epistemological foundations of geometry, music, and
arithmetic, and Marian theology.
Some
Characteristic Views of Mine
The importance of mathematical study: Traditionally, the liberal
arts were the portals to philosophy, and in the Theaetetus Plato goes so far as to
call geometry a form of philosophy. It was the corruption of the mathematical arts that
infected physics, and this in turn corrupted modern philosophy. St. Thomas spoke very
little about mathematics, and it is an area that is ripe for development. One of my
projects is to introduce a new Quadrivium: Arithmetic, Planimetry, Music, and the
study of the Form of Corporeity, a Scotistic borrowing reconciled to Thomism. This would
replace the mathesis universalis of Descartes, which poses as metaphysics, but is
in truth a confused theory of music. There is much to be learned from modern mathematics.
But there is also much that must be altered or rejected.
The order of mathematical
intentionality recapitulates the order of corporeality. – The totality of
mathematical forms is of itself sufficient to describe body as body. It is
insufficient to study body as living body or body as sensible body, but in
its own domain it is perfectly competent. It is a terrible mistake to effect an artificial
separation between mathematical physics and natural philosophy. Mathematical physics is a
part of natural philosophy; it is simply not the whole of it. If, as St. Thomas teaches,
mathematicals have both an intelligible matter and form, then there is no reason to
exclude mathematical physics from natural philosophy on the basis of its dealing with
"mere quantity." (It might be claimed that only a distinction has been made, but
in practice it has been a separation. Natural philosophy was redefined as the branch of
metaphysics that defines motion generically, and the metaphysician was thereafter free to
philosophize without an eye toward mathematical physics.) By distinguishing the various
intentional forms proper to each branch of mathematics and ordering them into a whole, it
is possible to constitute the intelligible analogue of body. Hence my claim at the head of
this paragraph.
Occasional Causality
– I take this to be the most general structure of efficient causality. The form is:
"The coincidence of A and B is the occasion for C to exercise its efficiency in act
D." Do not confuse this with Occasionalism, which treats the coincidence of
two causal chains (i.e. chance) as though the act in one chain were in some way the
cause of the coincident act in the other chain. What is being said here is that a
coincidence of acts is the sine qua non of the exercise of an agent’s
efficiency. Through this structure of causation, I believe it possible to demonstrate the
necessity of a first cause in any chain of efficient causes. The traditional statement is
that as every effect requires a cause, so there must be a first cause for the subsequent
ones to be actuated and the final effect produced. But this is merely to state the
conclusion, not to demonstrate it. A very special logic is required to demonstrate that
there must be a first cause. Not every causal scheme admits such a demonstration. The
simple "A is the efficient cause of B" does not. In order to demonstrate this,
it must be shown that every infinite chain of causes implies the existence of a cause
prior to them all, taken in toto. This can be done, but it requires both an
extrinsic formal cause (efficient cause) and an extrinsic material cause (occasion). I
call the first formal because, like the intrinsic formal cause, it is the principle of
determination. And I call the second material because, like the intrinsic material cause,
although necessary, it does not supply a determination. This scheme answers in a broad
sense to the mediaeval distinction between essential causes and accidental causes.
Apprehension versus
Intuition – It is sometimes said that we have an intuition of being (Maritain) or
an innate intuition of the idea of being (Rosmini). I do not subscribe to these views. The
agent intellect (intellectus agens) possesses an innate formality for apprehension
prior to judgment, and this is the formality of being. It must be presupposed for
the very possibility of a judgment reaching out to the act-of-existence (esse). The
attributes that Rosmini attaches to the "idea of being" really apply to this formality
of being. Apprehension, or laying hold of a thing, is different than intuition.
Intuition often follows upon and perfects apprehension, as in the case of corporeal
vision, but this does not apply to being according to our natural mode of knowing. As
Saint Thomas says, knowledge begins in apprehension and concludes in judgment.
Transcendentals –
There are many subsequent formalities that determine the intellectual apprehension of an
object. Some of these, such as those of geometry, determine the apprehension to a
particular form. Those that transcend the categories are called transcendentals. These
include Unity, Goodness, Truth, and Thing (Res). Every judgment presupposes the
innate formality of being. So we say: "It is one. It is good. It is true. It is a
thing." Whereas the absolute judgment of existence says merely: "It is."
One can see that the transcendental formalities add something to the innate formality of
being, and that this is reflected in our language. There is a logic, in the wide sense of
the word, corresponding to each transcendental formality, which serves to distinguish the
several adjunct sciences.
Esse et ordo convertuntur. – The transcendentals can be
defined as notions that transcend the Aristotelian categories. The study of order holds a
pivotal position in any doctrine of the transcendentals, particularly in the Trinity,
where there is no distinction in the order of act and potency, but a real distinction of
divine Persons founded on the order of origin. One may legitimately ask: How are esse,
essentia, forma, suppositum, and potentia activa, convertible
with ordo? Further, how does their convertibility with order determine their mutual
relations and therefore a coherent metaphysics? I have developed a theory of order, a taxology
of being, that in turn yields a taxonomy of being in remarkable conformity with
the metaphysics of St. Thomas. I have found this approach more fruitful than the
application of Aristotle’s Organon. By elaborating the Trinity in this manner,
created being can in turn be elucidated and the causal structure of creation uncovered.
The real relation of creature to God is found to be threefold, not as three relations to
the three divine Persons, but as three different ways of relating to the unique divine
Essence: a vestige of the Trinity in the creative act. More recently, I have found that
this New Organon shows clearly the real foundation of ens commune – without
overturning the analogy of being – and answers in detail Heidegger’s critique of
onto-theo-logy from within a thomistic framework.
Completed
Writings
I retain copyright over this material, but I extend complete license to
reproduce and circulate it.
A Short Treatise on the
Mathematical Principles of Harmony (22 pages) – This is a preliminary work
addressed primarily to mathematicians and physicists. The central premise is that music
has been ill defined. It is the science of the measurable. It thus stands mid-way
between arithmetic (the science of the countable) and geometry (the science of the
extended). I divide music into two parts, meter and harmony. Meter treats measurable
quantity by means of number. Harmony treats measurable quantity through species of numbers
(e.g. the odd). Therefore, I call the theory of harmony eidetic. The first
part of the work investigates the foundations of harmony, deriving the unison, octave,
perfect fifth and fourth, and major and minor thirds and sixths from infinite ensembles of
natural numbers. An ordering principle holds such that the inclusion of one species within
another yields harmonious ratios. It explains such interesting qualitative features as the
"sameness" of tones separated by an octave, and the distinction between major
and minor intervals. And it predicts new, as yet unexplored, intervals. The second part of
the work traces the connections between music and fractal geometry, quantum mechanics,
statistical mechanics, and the psychophysical function. A complete understanding requires
knowledge of infinite series, least common multiples, and some basic limit theory of the
sort used in differential calculus.
Rhetoric and the Language
of Nature (6 pages) – This short essay investigates the consequences of the
ubiquitous modern expression, "The book of nature is written in the language of
mathematics." If mathematics does not concern form, but rather language, if it
belongs not to the Quadrivium, but to the Trivium, what are the implications
for subsequent philosophy? The essay traces in outline those consequences.
Writings
in Progress
Mathesis, Self-Knowledge and Apodictic Certainty – This work
will examine the views of both ancient and modern philosophers about the origin and mode
of universals, using planimetry as a test case. It will propose a new kind of abstraction
that can account for the necessity intrinsic to mathematical reasoning, overcoming the
critique of induction. And it will show how mathematics, studied properly, leads to
self-knowledge. It will also defend the epistemic credentials of Euclid’s fifth
postulate in view of this new manner of abstraction. Finally, it makes a preliminary
enquiry into the role of sentiment as a mediator between will and appetite.
An Enquiry into
Metaphysics – The work will begin by investigating the analogy of being in the
light of being’s convertibility with order. It will examine the real foundation for
analogy and show in what limited sense analogy admits a kind of univocity. It will examine
the role of the supposit (hypostasis) in creation metaphysics, and the nature of
communicativity and receptivity. Using angels and material being as test cases, it will
use the thomistic metaphysics of participation to elucidate and confirm the
"uncreated energy" of God as posited by the Greek Fathers and Orthodox
theologians, taking Gregory Palamas as the foremost proponent of this doctrine. It will
examine the manner in which prime matter shares in existence through substantial form.
Finally, it will investigate divine grace and the beatific vision in relation to these
previous topics.
For copies of manuscripts or to express comments, I can be reached by
email at: jckalb@email.arizona.edu
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13 comments:
Is it not just modernism - the synthesis of all heresies?
Not much to add here but that I agree.
We live in grave times.
Yes, you’ve nailed it. The big difference with this heresy is that it is coming from the top, from someone who is twisting everything that went before to make it seem that this one man alone has the power of office to simply declare and impose it. We’re in serious trouble and I almost think that Bergoglio and his gang welcome the sexual abuse scandal because it is distracting us so that we look at the effects rather than the cause. Which, of course, is heresy and the loss of the Faith.
If he were alive today, Cardinal Newman would have plenty of material for a second volume, to be called "An Essay on the Devleopment of Christian Heresy".
Rosica's declaration seems to me to go well beyond heresy into apostasy--because it nullifies the ONLY two sources of revelation.
Another way to put it is the Sin Against the Holy Spirit, in that it locates the revelatory activity of the Holy Spirit outside Scripture and Tradition.
May God bring a "merciful, welcoming, accompanying" end to this disaster of a Pontificate .
Probably off-topic but I am always trying to understand the thinking of clerics whom one suspects of modernism. To-day I was talking to a grandmother who mentioned that none of her children or grandchildren practised the faith. I said this was the common experience of most parents of our generation. She said she had mentioned this to her parish priest who replied to say she should not blame herself as that probably they they were all leading good lives. In her view they probably are. Perhaps people can lead good lives without practising the faith. However are there not moments in these lives where there is a clear choice to be made between good and evil? Would the Devil be content with leaving people to lead quiet undisturbed good lives?
Is the modernist cleric content to leave these people leading apparently good lives just to carry on? Are they happy with mediocrity? I increasingly find the modern church and its liturgy banal and mediocre. Sermons are just about niceness and being agreeable to one's neighbour - not that such is not important but any idea that there is anything more dramatic in the spiritual life just does not aired. There is no challenge. Clerics seem to be content to leave people where they are. I suppose it allows for a quiet life. So why bother to practice the faith if there is no challenge?
Well said!
People who send me brusque two-liners ordering me just to say that PF is a heretic are wasting their time. Canon Law is not as simple as that.
Is Graf von Schoenborn still being touted as the Pope-To-Be waiting in the wings for the next act? He would seem a natural to explicate the "novelties" promulgated by the current Bishop of Rome, as well as more slickly introducing new ones.
Or will the graf's natural slipperiness be his undoing? Unfortunately probably not, judging by recent papal conclaves.
Dear Father, you have already on more than one occasion pointed out that PF and his cronies are not reliable guides to Catholic faith and morals. Caveat emptor! Just turn the liturgical and catechetical pages back to 1962 and rest secure. Everything after that is, at best, suspect. Any good in it was most likely already there, at least implicitly, in 1962.
When I was a young man the highlight was a pastoral congress in Liverpool in 1980 but I doubt if the children or grandchildren or whatever of those there present attend Mass today.
When in a hole stop digging was the advice of a British politician all those years ago. In truth we are as a Church unwilling to lay down the shovel. Presumably the Cardinals recognised in Papa Bergoglio a man keen to continue digging. His latest missive on sex abuse is just more of the same and yet not one line to the Irish Church on abortion during the referendum campaign.
The hole was already massive in 1980 and the poor Holy Father's only response is to keep his head down and dig.
That is indifferentism really: all roads lead to heaven. No doubt, there are many good folks leading "good" lives by today's standards (hard to do).
But that is very far from fighting the devil, the flesh, and the world. We are in an all out battle, now more than ever. The lines are clearer by day, and that battle has never been more hopeless, except that God's mercy is infinite and all things are possible with Him. We will soon have a rude awakening as the get-along-with-the-world life comes crashing down as it has recently in several other countries.
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