- So a turn to four essential guideposts for a Catholic philosophy is necessary which enables one to see if the proposed instruction is either an education or an indoctrination.
Stated briefly, the four guideposts are:
- Creation metaphysics;
- Hylomorphic anthropology;
- Realistic epistemology; and
- Objective ethics.
NB sophists can be thought of an indoctrinators for purposes of our discussion.
Stated briefly, the four guideposts are: 1. Creation metaphysics; 2. Hylomorphic anthropology; 3. Realistic epistemology; and 4. Objective ethics. I did not originate these four categories but have found them to be very accurate and insightful. These guideposts help us to understand ‘why things are the way they are’. Equally helpful, these signs help us to identify sophists, those who engage in word-craft for self-profit and exploitation of others. Let us consider the meaning of each of these signs.
Creation metaphysics is concerned with the general causes of being. It answers the question why things are the way they are. It is rooted in or compatible with purpose, intention, the Divine Mind. The alternatives to creation metaphysics are a Cosmic Event or reductive materialism, Pre-Socrates notions. A cosmic event is one of random generation. Chaos produced the universe and whatever order one might find in it.
Reductive Materialism is a view of creation that everything real is material. One reduces what one can know about being to the level of those things that can only be measured. Love, justice, truth, person, freedom cannot be measured, thus not known, and are only at the level of opinion.
Hylomorphic anthropology is the idea that the human being is an embodied soul, soul and body together. Hylomorphic is from the two Greek words hyle which means matter, lumber, or stuff and morphe which means form, soul, essence, or that ‘which it is’. Anthropology comes from the two Greek words anthropos man and logos study. Together the words point to the study of man, and are concerned with the questions what is man, how should I live, what should I do, etc…
One contrasting point of view is that man is only a body, mechanical, robot. This philosophy is materialistic and is concerned with what gives me maximal pleasure now because when I die, I die. Suffering has no meaning and there is no immortality. Live for today for tomorrow we die. Final cause, telos, is discarded and ethics becomes situational.
The other point of view to holomorphic anthropology, one shared by Gnostics, in one form or another, is that man as a subset is only a form, thought or soul. The body is a shell or prison to be discarded; the only thing that matters is our soul. This is a tempting ideology when our bodies or those of our loved ones are suffering. The Incarnation and Ascension of Christ, points to the value of our body, both now and when glorified.
Vast majority of people coming to discussion, neutered level of education. People educated past 20 yeas, educate person with a computer disastrous, effects. Limitation of imagination. 100 % materialistic, only what it knows.
Researching and a paper in high school setting. Recall 40-50 yrs. Card catalogue, read many peoples, serendipitous learning, to get money quote. Research stumble own learning. Read more about it later.
Computer only brings sentence rather than book, tailored to desire.
Taking awesomeness of human intellect opened to, docere lead a person, human mind being shrunk. Ability to imagen being abridged.
Music chord melody patterns harmonic Bach diminished every pop song 3 or 4 chord pattern. Make them pleasing, not happy. Pleasant. Epicures.
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