Warning: in our contemporary setting the word I am going to use has been so ill-used in so many ways that it will likely repulse. Let’s try. “Faith”. Are you still here reader? I ask you to stay. There will be no alter call. There will be no promises that everything will be ok. There …
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4.9, The Paradox in Self-Production
The setting: he who has poverty of spirit desires to be more. He desires to develop. What is he? He is rational (potentially) animal (actually). But what has he found? The animality is actual and the rationality is potential. At least, that is how things look from down here. He knows what Aristotle would say. …
4.8, The Cardinal Virtues as Guides
For he who goes in for production there must be a model to aim at. Aristotle calls this the practically wise (prudent) man. From Aristotle: “Virtue, then, is a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean, i.e. the mean relative to us, this being determined by a rational principle, and by that …
4.7, The Aristotelian Insight on Virtue Production
How do I know when I have a virtue? This is a part of measuring for progress, and though I am leery about the over-emphasis of measuring for progress, it is not in itself wrongful. Why leery? An analogy: one cannot at the same time make money (produce) and count money (verify progress). Attention and …
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4.6, The Prize of Patience
So, I aim, in my better moments, to produce. And of that which I can produce, I have decided that the production of the producer is first and foremost for its own sake and also for the sake of any earthly prosperity that is made possible by forces I cannot control. Call it fortune or …
4.5, The Great Metaphor of Death to Self
Virtue is everything in a way. It is necessary for the good life but insufficient for earthly maintenance. Food and oxygen come to mind as other necessities for earthly maintenance. But, even though virtue is insufficient if we gather all the insufficient necessities and rank them we find that virtue stands out. Is there anything …
4.4, Virtue Production and Expectation
A reflection on the role of expectation in the production of virtue which makes the production of goods and their preservation most probable. I keep connecting virtue and goods such that it may sound like I am trying to motivate the pursuit of virtue thru its role in the production of gold (goods). There is …
4.3, The good news (euangelion) regarding production
I am quite fond of the notion of gospel, good news. I (the better me who now thinks he speak) long for it. But, and this is a very weighty but, I (the actual me in the in-between of production of the better me) am very cautious, even suspicious, about the false prophet–he who proclaims …
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4.2, The Hierarchical Ranking
Here we mark the hierarchical ordering of virtues and goods. We are interested in production of both. In 4.1 we distinguished between virtue (moral good) and goods (material good). We noted some of distinguishable characteristics between the two. Below a table of difference. But first, the similarities: neither virtue nor goods are given. They must …
4.1, The Necessity of Production
It is one of the great tragedies of the production of the recent past that it has resulted in such excess that production feels or seems unnecessary. So “we” make all kinds of demands on producers when we can find and identify them. We hang weights around their necks in the form of restriction and …
