"Distributive Justice"?, XI: The First Principle of Reason, Continued

“No thesis in the philosophy of St. Thomas is clearer than that which asserts that all knowledge rests upon a single first principle.  To it all other principles of thought may be reduced.  Upon it all depend for their validity.  Without it there can be no certitude, but only opinion.(1)  Whether we choose to express this absolute, first principle in the form of an affirmation — the principle of identity — or in the form of a negation — the principle of contradiction — it matters not.  The point is, that unless our knowledge hangs upon this basic principle, it is devoid of certainty.  Wherefore, causality — efficient, formal, material or final — must attach itself in some manner to the principle of identity.  In the Thomistic view, the connection is immediate.  Its very immediateness gives to the notion of causality the absolute necessity and complete universality of the ultimate principle.

"Distributive Justice"?, X: The First Principle of Reason

In the previous posting in this series we saw that, in orthodox Christian belief, the “grant” of the natural rights of life, liberty, and property is not, and could never be separated from the act of creation or existence itself.  To argue otherwise is to claim that natural rights are not, in fact, part of nature at all — a contradiction in terms.  They would be, rather, a later “add-on” that is not, strictly speaking, essential for human beings to be able to conform themselves to their own human nature.

News from the Network, Vol. 6, No. 44

Every day it becomes more and more obvious that only the Just Third Way holds the promise of a solution for the unabated stream (call it a river) of crises afflicting the world that never seems to end.

"Distributive Justice"?, IX: The Universal Destination of Goods

In the previous posting in this series we saw that the so-called “logic of gift” that seems to have achieved currency in many circles actually reverses the roles of God and man.  By implicitly imposing the duty of giving on God so that we can comply with His command to give to others, we put man in charge; man (in a sense) creates God.

"Distributive Justice"?, VIII: The Problem of Being

As we saw in the previous posting in this series, many people have the idea that human rights come from God or the State as a grant or gift.  That is, they believe as an article of faith that first humanity exists, and then is endowed with rights from some source.  This accounts (at least in part) for the current movement to replace “exchange” (based on the natural right of justice) with “gift” (based on the infused virtue of charity) as the basis of economic activity, a demand based not on reason, but on faith.

"Distributive Justice"?, VII: The Source of the Problem

In The “Dumb Ox” (1933), G. K. Chesterton commented that the great conflict between Aquinas and Siger of Brabant concerned a dispute over “a theory which most modern newspaper readers would instantly have declared to be the same as the theory of St. Thomas [Aquinas].”  (G. K. Chesterton, Saint Thomas Aquinas: The “Dumb Ox”.  New York: Image Books, 1956, 92.)

"Distributive Justice"?, VI: The Fruits of Arrogance

Given that one of the reasons the Catholic Church canonizes people is as an example for members of the “Church Militant” (as people in the Church living on earth are called), it matters a great deal what sort of example people set who are venerated as “saints.”  After that, a great deal depends on how people apply the example set.

News from the Network, Vol. 6, No. 43

Just because we took off a day and a half to spend some time in Pennsylvania last week doesn’t meant nothing’s been happening in the Just Third Way.  There are some very significant happenings:

Money Humor, But Nobody's Laughing

Here's a letter we sent to the Wall Street Journal this past Monday:

If, as Jonathan Wright is quoted in Brenda Cronin’s and Ben Casselman’s “Sharper Focus, Tools Fortify Economists” (The Outlook, 10/21/13, A-3), “economics is in about the same state as medicine in about the 18^th century,” it is because mainstream schools of economics — Keynesian, Monetarist/Chicago, and Austrian — are based on a theory of money and credit as outdated and fallacious as that of Galen’s theory of the four humors, and that has degenerated into economic remedies as insane as bloodletting as cure-all.

"Distributive Justice"?, V: The Chestertonian Establishment

As we saw in the previous posting in this series, when the Catholic Church “canonizes” somebody, it has good reasons for doing so.  Similarly, when the Catholic Church doesn’t canonize somebody, it has equally good reasons for not taking action.  In the case of Robert Cardinal Bellarmine, the Catholic Church delayed canonizing him for over three centuries — and all because a great many people simply couldn’t get a rather simple theory correct.  They were trapped in one paradigm relating to the natural law when Bellarmine was operating from within another.

"Distributive Justice"?, IV: The Strange Case of the Missing Saint

In the previous posting in this series we learned that, while a specific candidate for canonization may be absolutely orthodox (at least according to the beliefs of the Catholic Church), the interpretation or understanding that other people put on the candidate’s thought or writings may not be quite so orthodox or consistent with Catholic belief.  It may, in fact, be 180 degrees from what the candidate actually meant — and from the understanding of the Catholic Church.

"Distributive Justice"?, III: Some Problems

In the previous posting in this series I hinted that, despite the enthusiasm shown by the Chestertonian Establishment, especially the neo-distributists and Professional Chestertonians, at the prospect, we probably won’t be seeing G. K. Chesterton canonized any time soon — assuming that things continue to go as they are now in the Chestertonian Community.

"Distributive Justice"?, II: Saints as Models

In the first posting in this series I began a discussion regarding the canonization of G. K. Chesterton.  After someone brought the matter up, I investigated.  It turned out to have been something of an enthusiastic “over-sell.”  The world does not (yet) have a “Saint Gilbert Keith Chesterton of Beaconsfield” or anywhere else.  Further, from the evidence, a canonization will probably be after a very long wait, if it happens at all.

News from the Network, Vol. 6, No. 42

Interest in the new Just Third Way Edition of Fulton J. Sheen’s 1940 classic Freedom Under God remains strong, and now that the latest government crisis is “settled” we can expect more people to begin searching for real solutions instead of stopgap actions that ultimately only make things worse.  Naturally we recommend that people begin investigating the claims of the Just Third Way:

“Distributive Justice”?, I: What’s All the Fuss?

Not long ago as of this writing, somebody asked me what I thought about the canonization of Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936), the English essayist and journalist, revered by many as one of the founders of the “distributist” school of social thought, and characterized by his followers as the “Apostle of Common Sense.”

America Delenda Est?

The worse things get in American society, the more frequently you hear comparisons with ancient Rome.  Evidently unaware that (assuming you accept the traditional date for the founding of the city) “Rome” lasted from 753 BC to AD 1918, albeit much transformed (still a pretty good record), people today — as they have for thousands of years — claim that these are the worst times that the world has ever experienced, and there is absolutely no hope of recovery.  The world is doomed.

Business as Usual

A number of people have complained that the U.S. Catholic bishops have pretty much rolled over and played dead for “Obamacare.”  A few commentators have gone so far as to claim that the bishops are traitors and hypocrites for either soft-peddling the dangers or talking tough but doing nothing.  Are they really, however, as black as they’re painted?

An Immodest Proposal — A Halloween Horror Special

There have been one or two comments about our (presumed) failure to post the annual series of “Halloween Horror Specials” on the blog this year.  While we hate to break tradition, do we really want more horror than we already have in the world today?  Still . . . tradition is tradition.  As the Irish say, “Neither make nor break a tradition.”  Consider this an attempt to keep the tradition alive.

News from the Network, Vol. 6, No. 41

With all the political and economic lunacy floating around this week (and the week before, and the week before that, and the week before that, ad nauseam) it should be a great relief to find that the people in the Just Third Way keep plugging along and moving forward:

A Little on Social Justice

Recently someone posted a rather insightful comment on Facebook to the effect that society will only change (for the better) when people are motivated by good will, and that the best way to build this good will is prayer, fasting, and love.  Those are all very good things — properly understood and implemented.  The problem is that they are not, in and of themselves, sufficient to get the job done.