Perspectives Spring Vocab

Level 1 desire

physical gratification

Level 2 desire

ego-affirmation (sometimes takes the form of ego-comparative)

Level 3 desire

Human love-service

Level 4 desire

transcendence

Sublation

lower level good is elevated to higher level; lower is both preserved and enriched

Sacrifice

giving up one level good for the sake of another

Discernment

the process of distinguishing, identifying, and ranking desires (feelings) and the goods/values they tend towards

“Our hearts are restless until they rest in You, O God.”

St. Augustine

‘Confession’

Not just admitting sins, but rather an exercise in interpreting one’s life, and particularly God’s presence and providential role in all aspects of one’s life, the good and the evil

‘Intellectualist’ account of evil

no one performs an evil deed because it is evil, but because they (wrongly) consider it good in some fashion

Sin as disintegration

Sin in the soul disorders ordo amoris, leading to greater unhappiness and more desperate attempts to use sin to bring relief

‘Ordo amoris’

Latin for ‘order of loves’; refers to the hierarchy of levels of happiness as orienting one’s life

Privatio boni

Latin for “the privation/absence of good.” Augustine’s doctrine that evil is not an intelligibility or form or substance but rather the absence of intelligibility and form where it should be found (example: a broken bone is not a ‘thing’ like a bone is, but the absence of the form/proper function of a bone)

Conversion

In ancient philosophy and Christianity, refers to the soul’s journey back to an original state of purity or to God.

Academic Skepticism

Philosophical school that doubted the human mind can access certain truth; recommended intellectual humility and suspending judgment.

Concupiscence

Latin term for strong Level 1 desires; in Augustine’s theology, it refers to the human soul’s inner turbulence and moral weakness, hindering our ability to choose higher-level goods.

Insight studies / Self-appropriation

the discovery, verification, responsible use of the inner structure of our minds

Evil as parasitic on good

the notion implicit in privatio boni that you can’t rightly judge some act or reality to be ‘evil’ unless it’s leeching off some pre-existing good

“Everything that exists is good, and so evil is not a substance, because then it would be good.”

St. Augustine

Natural evil

the evil that concerns the dissolution of finite goods (e.g., aging, decay) and pain that this occasions; ‘natural’ because of the nature of finite things

Moral evil

the evil of a rational will turned towards vice; a person disintegrated in internal contradiction to their nature

Natural evil

the loss or disintegration of the goodness of a nature; this kind of evil is always compensated for, and is natural to a finite nature that is not self-existing but conditioned by another

Moral evil

the disintegration of the soul through disordered desires (disordered ordo amoris). The evil humans cause to themselves that is unnatural because against our proper function, against our flourishing and that of other humans

“What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate.”

St. Paul, Romans 7:15

Grace

Greek for ‘gift’; the action of the Holy Spirit in the soul (‘inner’ special revelation) by which we receive new feelings, insights, and strength of will to become more deeply converted; works in tandem with ‘outer’ divine special revelation mediated through Christ and saints who are mimetic models

‘Give what you command, and command what you will’

Augustine’s teaching on how grace converts a person

‘Saved by grace’

even the desire to ask God for help, and the asking, is already grace, in addition to the receiving. God fulfills the ultimate condition for a person’s salvation.

Coincidence

typically a part of experience of discerning divine providence in one’s life

Scholasticism

a style of theology that arose in the early middle ages, centered on monasteries and eventually universities, which pursued theological knowledge through structured questions and answers

Soteriology

the theology of how God saves humans and the world from sin through Christ and the Spirit

“Faith seeking understanding” (fides quaerens intellectum)

Anselm’s principle that faith and understanding work together in the Christian life, but faith precedes and yet seeks understanding

Doctrine of double effect

a principle of moral and legal reasoning which distinguishes between the undesired but known side-effects and the known and intended effects of an action

Divine command theory

the philosophical position that if God commands something, that makes it morally good. “Divine Might Makes Right.” Anselm rejects this position as logically contradictory.

The “Divine dilemma”

if God does not save humanity, God’s intentions for the human fail and God is defeated by creatures; if God does not punish sinners by depriving them of their destiny of glory, God lets the world become disordered

Free will

the power of acting for reasons that are present to your consciousness, even if you don’t notice them

Final End

the ultimate reason for which you choose something - what provokes your appetite or desire to choose means to the final end

Volitional Intentionality analysis

an introspective exercise performed by asking “what for? For what purpose?” about an action to discover the ‘structure’ of all human choosing

Two acts of the will

desiring what is not attained, and resting in delight when it is

Beatific vision

the eschatological act when we understand God’s essence/form; fulfills unrestricted human desire to know and brings ultimate delight

Arguments for wonder being unrestricted

i) further questions never stop in this life, and ii) no question that cannot be asked in principle

Speculative reason

the aspect of our wonder that is directed towards knowing the truth

Practical reason

the aspect of our wonder that is directed towards knowing and doing the good/what is right

Aquinas’ simple definition of Law

a measure and rule of actions and prohibitions of action

The common good

the end or goal of law: the common good encompasses/includes both the means for and the end of common flourishing for the community

Promulgation

the community making its laws public to itself

Aquinas’ full definition of law

an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by those who have care of the community, and promulgated.

Human law

concrete determinations of what is good and evil in particular circumstances of a culture and community; only a real ‘law’ if conditions are met (grounded in natural law, properly promulgated by legitimate authorities)

Natural law

the natural inclination towards a being’s proper acts. For us, it is our natural inclination towards knowing truth and doing good, by which we discern good and evil: natural law in us is wonder in its dynamic structure towards the true and the good

Direct insight

the mind's intelligent grasp or understanding of the intelligibility of data; can be correct or incorrect

Reflective insight

the mind's intelligent grasp of the sufficiency of evidence for a judgment as to the correctness or wrongness of a direct insight

Question for understanding

"quid sit?" ("What is it?"); aiming for a direct insight

Question for verification

"an sit?" ("Is it so? Is that true?"); aiming for a reflective insight

“Knowing is not like taking a look”

Bernard Lonergan