0133 The specifying sign begins where the interventional sign leaves off.

0134 A sensation_2a (SV_s, sign-vehicle) stands for a phantasm_2b (SO_s, sign-object) in regards to the potential of situating content_1b (SI_s, sign-interpretant) in the normal context of what this means to me_3b (SI_s, sign-interpretant).

0135 As discussed in Comments on John Deely’s Book (1994) New Beginnings, as well as in Looking at John Deely’s Book (2010) “Semiotic Animal”, scholastics describe this situation-content mixing sign as specificative extrinsic formal causality.

Why?

I suppose that the sensation_2a (SV_s) appears to specify the phantasm_2b (SO_s), not from within the phantasm, but from the outside (extrinsic).  The conjuring of the phantasm_2b (SO) is formalized by a normal context_3b and its potential_1b (SI_s).  So, the single effect of the sign-object embodies two qualifications to its causality, an extrinsic and specifying sign-vehicleand a specifying and formal sign-interpretant.

0136 What about original justice?

Interventional and specifying signs are honed in the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.  They provide a conduit from nature’s broadcasts_2c to human phantasms_2b.  The interventional sign associates to preternatural awareness.  The specifying sign associates to grace.  After all, grace involves an openness to sign-relations.

Plus, I suppose that grace is active when hominins collaborate in teams.  Grace inspires the team to be productive.  Grace allows everyone on the team to have fun.  This grace is not adorned with the adjective, “sanctifying”, even though the prelapsarian Adam is apparently blessed with sanctifying grace.

0137 No, this use of the term, “grace”, recalls a use that precedes modernism.

Grace inflows nature.

I suspect that Henri de Lubac is correct in assessing that the prescholastic use of the term, “grace”, as a real element that flows into real nature, fades during the latter part of the Latin Age.

Typically, we now think of “grace” in terms of a normal context or a potential.  As normal context₃, the qualifier, “sanctifying” seems to apply.  As potential, the qualifier, “inspirational”, for some, and “bogus”, for others, might work.

0138 Yes, according to Houck, even 13th century Thomas Aquinas wrestles with the question of whether prelapsarian Adam is endowed with preternatural awareness or blessed with sanctifying grace.  The contiguity between the terms, “grace” and “nature”, already sublimates from the solidity of secondness.  A civilizational intellect declares, “Supernature and nature are distinct.“  This claim separates grace and nature.  This claim dominates the relation between grace and nature.

0139 What does this imply?

This relation of separation is one element in a judgment.  Plus, this element associates to secondness.

Nature goes with what is.  Grace associates to what ought to be.

Now, I start to see why the word “sanctifying” qualifies “grace”.  Sanctifying grace belongs to thirdness.

0140 The only category left is firstness.  Nature belongs to firstness.  Why?  Nature is contingent.

Here is a picture, following the template of original justice_2c.

0141 This judgment lasts for centuries.

The mechanical philosophers of the early 17^th century broadcast this judgment in their writings_3a,1a.  Galileo famously states that there are two books, the book of revelation and the book of nature.

0142 If I unfold this judgment into its category-based nested form, I get the following:

The normal context of sanctifying grace₃ brings the actuality of the distinction between the book of nature and the book of revelation₂ into relation with the potential of creation (that is, nature)₁.

Many scholastics of the late Latin Age would agree with this statement.

0143 Then, during the next three centuries, Galileo’s fig leaf gets torn to shreds.

Science marches during the 17^th, 18^th and 19^th centuries.

Now, in 2020, Daniel W. Houck publishes a book entitled, Aquinas, Original Sin and The Challenge of Evolution.

The power of science and technology imbues nature with thirdness.  Indeed, the rule of the positivist intellect within the Positivist’s judgment states, “Metaphysics is not allowed.”

0144 Nature becomes like a normal context.  Modernism inquires about nature excludes the divine.

What happens to grace?

Grace is whatever makes the universality of scientific discoveries intelligible… er… palatable.  How does one swallow science?  Some people can swallow science.  They fashion their own styles of grace, signaling the virtues of standing with science.  Some people refuse to give up on the primacy of sanctifying grace.  Society divides into two groups.  Those who abide by sanctifying grace and those who fashion their own, sanctimonious grace.

0145 Here is the modern judgment, dethroning sanctifying grace.  Note how the assignment of categories has changed.

0146 If I unfold this judgment into a category-based nested form, I obtain:

The normal context of nature, as revealed by science₃, brings the actuality of the distinction between the book of nature and the book of revelation₂ into relation with the potential of grace, fashioned in my own image₁.

This is a judgment that the academics of modernism would agree with.

0147 Over the course of eight centuries, a separation between nature and supernature is broadcast to our sensations_2a and re-constituted in our phantasms_2b.  The distinction between nature and supernature is an actuality that tears the curtain of Western civilization and exposes a cruel division.

Which is the boss, sanctifying grace or inevitable nature?

Those who raise the banner of sanctifying grace are called “ignorant”.

Those who gather under the banner of inevitable nature are called “educated”.

Hmmm, I wonder where this is trending?

0148 This digression offers a clue as to the nature of our current Lebenswelt.  The grace that inflows nature does not suffer elevation to thirdness or diminution to firstness.  This grace is neither sanctifying nor sanctimonious.  Rather, it belongs to secondness.  Secondness is the realm of actuality.  The grace of original justice finds its home in the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.