0018 When Aquinas addresses original justice, he follows Augustine in jumbling together the two creation movements in Genesis.  The prelapsarian Adam and Eve are created as images of God.  

0019 What does Houck say?

First, original justice is natural.  Well, it is not merely natural.  It is “preternatural“.  In other words, it is not like the primal justice of the animals.  One animal may harm another in the pursuit of its own good.  In this, nature appears to be cruel, heartless and mechanistic.  We counter this reality with charity, empathy and cleverness.

Nature is full of goods and evils.  An evil is a privation of a good.  Each species appears designed to protect against certain evils.  Turtles have shells to hide in.  Each species is adapted to exploit some natural advantage (or good).  Some turtles love to eat veggies.  We are not so different than the turtle in this regard.  Our bodies are designed to avoid certain dangers and seek certain opportunities.  These active designs are felt in our bones.  They move our flesh.

They guide our senses.

0020 A movement of the sensate soul asks, in innocence, “Do I feel that I should avoid what I am sensing or do I feel like I should seek what I am sensing?”

The activity of the body [substantiates] the sensate soul.  Our bodies sense.  Our sensate soul feels.  So, the contiguity between them converts the operations of the five senses (along with internal proprioceptors) into qualia or feelings.

All this is natural, or maybe, a little more (preter) than natural.  Once feelings are triggered in the sensate soul, the active body serves as a sign-vehicle.  The active body stands for something other than itself.  The active body signifies what the sensate soul feels.

0021 Second, and in apparent contradiction, original justice is supernatural.  It takes us beyond the preternatural.

What does it mean for me to say, “Nature is scarce, horrifying and petty, leading me to sense futility, danger and nastiness.  I want to avoid the privation of goods.  At the same time, nature is bountiful, beautiful and awesome, inspiring me to sense thanksgiving, admiration and wonder.  I seek goodness.”?

0022 The secondary causality of active body [substance] sensate soul addresses the causal nexus between our five senses and our immediate feelings.

The primary causality of original justice (or something like original justice) places the actuality of our sensations and feelings into a category-based nested form.  Our ancestors adapt to the fact that our world presents itself as things and events₂ within normal contexts₃ and potentials₁.  Our active bodies register things and events₂ (including communicative gestures and words).  Our sensate souls conjure an appropriate, immediate, normal context₃ and potential₁.  But, not surprisingly, this immediate normal context₃ and potential₁ is… well… not necessarily what a scientist would have them be.  (But, there is a remedy that may please the scientist.)

0023 For example, before modern times, many people think that salamanders come from fire.  They notice a pattern.  When a log is thrown into a fire, sometimes a salamander runs out.  That is the actuality₂.  So, in the normal context of the four elements₃, the actuality of the salamander₂ emerges from the potential of one of the four elements, fire₁.

0024 So, what do the four elements do?

They provide a way to formulate (or explicitly symbolize) the normal context₃ and potential₁ that accompany an actuality₂.

0025 Aristotle proposes his four causes as an alternative to the four elements.  They work in the same manner, but they are far superior in elucidating the potential_1b of sensations and feelings_2a.

Here is how that looks.

0026 What do Aristotle’s four causes do?

To start, if one encounters a thing₂, that thing₂ may be regarded as a hylomorphe, composed of two contiguous real elements, matter and form.

Why matter?

Matter is what our active bodies sense.  If the thing is not present, then we cannot use our five senses to detect it.

Why form?

Form is what our sensate souls feel.  The sensate soul notices all the clues to form, such as shape, color, odor and so on.  In doing so, the sensate soul raises some questions, “Do I avoid?  Do I approach?  Do I safely ignore?”

0027 Next, Aristotle’s four causes allows one to synthesize what must be true for this actuality₂.

The thing₂ has matter, a physical aspect, and being, a relational aspect.  Matter and being are two poles of a continuum.  Material causes link matter and being to form.  The contiguity, labeled, “substance”, can be interpreted in a myriad of material ways.  Indeed, scientists love to fill this contiguity with the machinations of various neurons and glands and receptors and inhibitors and so on.  But, in the Arisotelian paradigm, a “substance” tends to eliminate contradictions to allow the two real elements, active body and sensate soul, to remain contiguous.

A thing₂ has its own operations, which can be observed with our senses.  These processes exhibit certain patterns, our senses trigger our feelings, and then we try to situate sensations and feelings_2a.  Instrumental causes follow the logic of secondness, the laws of contradiction and non-contradiction.  Instrumental causes bring the actuality₂ into relation with its potential₁.

The thing₂ has a purpose, a teleology, and an end.  Final causality entangles normal context₃, actuality₂ and potential₁.  With final causes, we begin to see the big picture.  We begin to understand.

The thing₂ has a formal design.  This design has formal requirements.  If these requirements are not met, then the good suffers a privation.

The question of evil, arises when a potential₁, a good, is not fulfilled as an actuality₂, within its normal context₃.  A common metaphor for sin is “missing the mark”.  The normal context₃ is archery.  The actuality₂ is arrow [strikes] target.  The potential₁ is accuracy.  Sin is a more than a failure of accuracy.  It is a failure to achieve God’s design.

0028 Aristotle’s four causes are one way to figure out what is true about an actuality₂.

0029 Now, I propose an intrepid question and ask, “If I apply Aristotle’s four causes to the actuality_2a, active body [substance] sensate soul₂, as if it is matter [substance] form, what type of understanding could I achieve?

In particular, could I generate an understanding that would make a scientist smile?

What happens when I apply Aristotle’s causes again, as if I am refining the actuality of sensations and feelings₂ into a content-level nested form, with an appreciation of scientific inquiry in mind?

0030 I start with the hylomorphe, active body [substance] sensate soul.  That goes into a content-level actuality.

Next, I turn to Aristotle’s four causes to weave a normal context_3a and potential_1a.

The material cause concerns the contiguity between the active body and sensate soul_2a.  I know that the active body senses itself and its surroundings.  I know that the sensate soul expresses corresponding qualia.  So, I ask the questions, “If my active body encounters ‘something’, then what am I encountering?  What is it supposed to be?  Should I fear, approach or safely ignore?”

This implies that the hylomorphe may be understood as a foundation for a nested form for human psychology.  And clinical psychology.  And anatomy and physiology.  Indeed, nested forms can be constructed for almost any science studying animals, particularly mammals.

So, material causality tells me that humans are animals.  Animals adapt to their niche.  The niche is the potential of something independent of the adapting species in the environment of evolutionary adaptation.

0031 The instrumental cause connects whatever engages sensations and feelings_2a to a potential_1a.   As the original nested form stands, the potential is the image of God.  What do images require?  Interpretation?  Then, how do I interpret?  I need a framework in which interpretation is possible.  To the modern mind, the more scientific the interpretation, the better.

In the normal context of the Creation Story₃, God is the One who Signifies, or Speaks, and, in response, the earth brings forth. This source of signification is way beyond speech, even though the Creation Story makes it seem like God speaks like a person in our current Lebenswelt.  Yet, human evolution starts before language.  Language evolves in the milieu of hand talk.  So, if God is talking to nature at this time, He gives His commands in manual-brachial gestures, hand talk, and the earth sees what God intends and responds to His signs.

Okay, instrumental causality suggests that God’s handiwork involves signs.

That tells me that humans are semiotic animals.

For further discussion of this claim, consider Looking at John Deely’s Book (2010) Semiotic Animal, appearing in Razie Mah’s blog in October, 2023.

0032 Where do instrumental and material causes take me?

They take me to triadic relations.  The triadic relation, in the category of thirdness, brings actuality, the category of secondness, into relation with possibility, the category of firstness.  Signs are triadic relations.

According to the masterwork, The Human Niche, our genus adapts to the potential of triadic relations. If I look back at the first nested form, Aristotle’s instrumental, material, final and formal causes allow me to pass from secondary to primary causes (that is, from actuality to understanding).  Understanding comes at the moment that I comprehend an entire triadic relation.  So, I have the possibility of being an image of God₁ and I have the capacity to recognize triadic relations.  One potential appears in the first chapter of Genesis.  The other potential corresponds to the human as a semiotic animal.

Material and instrumental causes demystify the content level.  In the normal context of an evolutionary paradigm_3a, our active bodies [substance] sensate souls_2a come into relation with the potential of triadic relations_1a, the human niche_1a.  The human niche_1a is what hominins ultimately adapt to.  In doing so, our ancestors increasingly image God.

Yes, the human niche_1a is the potential of triadic relations.

Aristotle’s instrumental and material causes can start with the same actuality₂ that serves as a first approximation for the creation of humans in Genesis and produce a content-level nested form more palatable to modern biologists (who study nature as if primary causes are not relevant).

0033 Here is a picture of what happens when I apply Aristotle’s four causes to the dyadic actuality₂ of active body [substance] sensate soul with the intent (final cause) of pleasing biologists and with a formalism (formal cause) compatible with science.  Remember, for scientists, the positivist intellect has a rule that says, “No metaphysics”.

This content-level nested form appears free of that superstitious nonsense.

But, aren’t Aristotle’s four causes superstitious nonsense?

Uh-oh.

The content-level potential_1a shifts from the possibilities inherent in the image of God₁ to the human niche_1a.  A niche_1ais the potential of an actuality that is independent of the adapting species.  For humans, that actuality is triadic relations.  Triadic relations give us the potential to be images of God₁.  That potential is the human niche_1a.

0034 In regards to the content-level actuality_2a, I will, on occasion, compress our sensations and feelings_2a into one word, “sensations_2a“, in order to refer to the content-level actuality in future diagrams.

What does this mean for the first approximation to body [substantiates] soul?

The first approximation is active body [substantiates] sensate soul.

Well, there must be a second approximation, corresponding to a situation-level actuality.

In other words, there is a second, situation-level hylomorphe_2b.  The situation-level normal context_3b should complement the content-level normal context_3a.  This type of differentiation reflects a dichotomy familiar to modern academics, “the department of arts and sciences”.  The arts situate the sciences.

0035 Here, Aristotle’s four causes offer a way to clarify the content level, directly, and the situation level, indirectly.

I could say that Aristotle’s four causes hold the potential to situate the content level_1b. That would be correct.  But, not complete.

Aristotle’s four causes, as brilliant as they are, do not offer the only way to situate content.  Indeed, my use of the four causes in refining the original nested form is anything but standard.  I already mentioned that the four elements work in the same manner.  They are also paths to situate content-level actualities.

Understanding requires us to figure out the normal context₃ and potential₁ that attends to any encountered, sensed and felt actuality₂.  Civilized humans have devised many ways to accomplish this task, with varying degrees of success.  The process is synthetic, rather than analytical.  Consequently, the actuality_2b that virtually situates sensations_2a can be pretty crazy, but at least it_2b presents the subjective sensation_2a as an object that may later become intersubjective.

So, here is how the original nested form starts to differentiate into a two-level interscope

0036 I now consider the nature of the situation-level actuality_2b.

A human, like an animal, can be described as a hylomorphe, body [substantiates] soul.

Here, an old, traditional word, “substance”, gains a new technical meaning.  “Substance” grounds the contiguity between any two real elements in Peirce’s category of secondness.  In this use, the distinction between noun and verb dissipates.  The contiguity is both noun and verb, just like the word, “glue”.

0037 As it turns out, for humans, body [substantiates] soul is not equivalent to its commutation, soul [is substantiated by] body.  I already appreciate this with the content-level hylomorphe, active body [substantiates] sensate soul_2a, suggesting that the situation-level actuality is the commutation.

0038 Here is a picture of the differentiation of the original hylomorphe.

0039 What is the reactive body?

It is the seat of the emotions.

Is there a name for the perceptive soul [informs] the reactive body_2b?

Yes, it_2b is called a “phantasm”.

Perceptive soul [informs] reactive body_2b virtually (not directly) emerges from (and situates) active body [substantiates] sensate soul_2a.

Phantasm_2b virtually (not directly) emerges from (and situates) sensations_2a.

0040 At this point, a final cause for the original nested form (of primary and secondary causation) comes into view.

The normal context of the Lebenswelt that we evolved in (revealed by Genesis One)₃ brings the actuality of body [substance] soul₂ into relation with the potential of the descriptor, “image of God”₁.

0041 The final cause is the purpose, the goal and the end of the original nested form.  Final causes entangle primary and secondary causations.

The formal cause harmonizes the normal context₃ and actuality₂, suggesting that the Creation Story puts the human body and mind into context.

The same final causes apply to the content-level nested form. 

The normal context of scientific inquiry into evolution_3a brings the actuality of the active body [substance] sensate soul_2ainto relation with the human niche_1a.

The final cause says that the human body and mind_2a situates the potential of triadic relations (such as sign-relations)_1awithin an evolutionary framework_3a.  The problem faced by evolutionary anthropologists is the troubling reality that triadic relations are immaterial beings.

Well, they_1a are immaterial beings that entangle material and instrumental causes.

Here is the difficulty.  For scientists, the formal cause, the harmonization of the evolutionary paradigm_3a and the human body and mind_2a, should not break the rule of the positivist intellect.  Metaphysics is not allowed.  Unfortunately, metaphysics is required when the human niche_1a is the potential of triadic relations_1a.

0042 So, the original actuality of body [substance] soul differentiates.

“Sensations_2a” (active body [substance] sensate soul) is a good word for the content-level actuality.

“Phantasm_2b” and “perception_2b” (perceptive soul [informs] reactive body) are good words for the situation-level actuality.

0043 A two-level interscope characterizes sensible thinking.

If I look at the original nested form for the Genesis Creation Story, I can start to figure out what the situation-level normal context_3b and potential_1b must be.  Note, the potential_1b will not be Aristotle’s four causes.  Rather, it will be a picture that encompasses them.

We humans think sensibly.  We rarely question the formal design.  Our incredible abilities to situate content are good enough.  Once we start to question what is sensible, then we begin to discern another level, the perspective level_c.

0044 Ah, that brings me back to Houck’s book, which brings Aquinas’s concept of original justice out of its slumber.

If I look at the elements that associate with primary cause for both the content and situation levels, I see original justiceat work.

The content level is preternatural.  From the very start, the human niche is not about some particular material feature of the environment of evolutionary adaptation. Triadic relations constitute an universal immaterial feature.  Our sensations and feelings_2a are tuned to the signs of nature (rather than some material thing in nature).

The situation level is full of grace.  Like water, grace may come in flavors. Is sanctification a flavor of grace?  I don’t know.

I do know that the production of a phantasm_2b, where the perceptive soul [informs] the reactive body_2b, requires synthesis, in addition to analysis.  That explains why it_2b is full of emotion.  The reactive body_2b externalizes what the perceptive soul_1b internalizes.  That accounts for why the phantasm_2b is subject to correction.  

Narrative_3b is a normal context that facilitates such synthesis and analysis.  Clearly, the Creation Story of Genesis does not ask us to situate our origins using Aristotle’s four causes.  Rather, chapter one of Genesis calls us to imagine a possibility.  Our phantasms_2b are snapshots of what we think is going on.  Imagination_1b labels the potential of situating content_1b.

Here is a picture with a noteworthy title.

0045 So, Aquinas’s notion of original justice is compelling, especially when it comes to appreciating the Creation Story of Genesis as a sign of the evolutionary record.

Original justice must occupy a slot on the perspective level_c.

Original justice_2c is intimated in the initial two-level interscope pictured above.

Original justice_2c touches base with primary causation on the content and situation levels.

Original justice_2c illuminates the normal contexts_3a,3b and the underlying possibilities_1a,1b.

0046 But, before I proceed to these topics, I want to step back and look at the actualities_2a,2b associated with secondary causation.  These actualities compose a model for the way that humans sensibly think, as they go about their daily lives, without paying attention to the perspective in which they operate.  I would go as far to say that humans do not evolve to directly represent actualities such as original justice_2c.  They evolve to live them_2c.

In the Lebenswelt that we evolved in, humans adapt to the potential of triadic relations_1a, by constructing phantasms_2bfrom sensations_2a.  Those sensations_2a are stimulated by nature.  They are also triggered by our own intentional manual brachial gestures_2a.  Our sensations_2a are attuned to external and internal significations.  Our phantasms_2b construct internal objects, which our bodies react to.

So, when I encounter a turtle, my sensations and feelings construct an object, hey, this will cook up nicely, that causes my mouth to water.  So, I gesture the words, here turtle, to a fellow teammate and my object_2b becomes intersubjective.

0047 In sum, the content- and situation-level actualities_2a,2b represent a portrait of the way humans are in the world.

Phantasms_2b virtually situate sensations_2a.

Here, I would like to pause an note that a scholastic diagram for how humans think appears in A Primer on The Individual in Community, by Razie Mah, available at smashwords and other e-book venues.

0048 Humans evolve to live in original justice_2c.

Yet, we do not evolve to image or point to this perspective-level actuality_2c.

We evolve to live within it_2c.

0049 I now want to explore a picture of the human in the world.

It looks like this.

0050 What world am I writing about?

Is this world, the Lebenswelt that we evolved in?

Is this world, our current Lebenswelt?

It must be both, even though our current Lebenswelt is not the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.

0051 So, what is the difference between our current Lebenswelt and the Lebenswelt that we evolved in?

So far, the Biblical Creation Story tells me this.  God declares that the Lebenswelt that we evolved in is good.  So the primary causes, which are now empty slots, touch base with original justice.

But, once I pass Genesis 2:3, the Story of the Garden of Eden suggests that, with Adam’s rebellion, original justice is lost.  It is just like a fairy tale, where an enchantment is lost, from one point of view, and insights are gained, from another point of view.

0052 So, the normal contexts_3a,3b and possibilities_1a,1b are empty for a reason.

In the Lebenswelt that we evolved in, these actualities_2a,2b address hominins in the world.

In our current Lebenswelt, these actualities_2a,2b present a picture of human subjectivity.

0053 Human are sensible.  They take the perspective level for granted.  Only when the situation goes horribly wrong do humans question their perspective.  Indeed, our current capacity to question our perspective suggests that our situation has already gone horribly wrong.

0054 So I ask, “What give rise to sensations_2a?”

Sensations and feelings_2a emerge from (and situate) the potential of ‘something’_1a in the normal context of what is happening_3a.

0055 What about phantasms_2b?

Emotional responses_2b emerge from (and situate) the potential of situating content_1b (that is, our imagination_1b) in the normal context of what the content means to me_3b.

0056 Here is a picture of human subjectivity (as opposed to God’s subjectivity).

0057 Human subjectivity covers adaptations within the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.  The Lebenswelt that we evolved inassociates to original justice and the Edenic tree of life.  This sensible structure for human subjectivity remains intact as it passes to our current Lebenswelt.

Yet, there is a difference between our originating and current Lebenswelts.

In the first, our hominin ancestors live within a perspective level that they cannot image or indicate with their hand (and later, hand-speech) talk.  So, the question arises concerning how our ancestors experience the signs of an unnamable perspective-level actuality_2c.

In the latter, we have a way of talking, speech-alone talk, that is primarily symbolic.  Consequently, we can explicitly abstract and label the elements of our perspective-level actuality_2c.  Uh-oh.  Does that suggest that we can generate our own perspective-level actualities, that don’t even come close to the originating original justice_2c?

0058 With that question left on the table like an apparently dead turtle, allow me to introduce a picture of the content and situation levels along with the currently obscured perspective level for human subjectivity.

0059 Okay, back to the is-it-still-living turtle.  It has yet to start um… becoming less fresh.

It is on the table, but no one in our current Lebenswelt knows what to do with it.

Back in the Lebenswelt that we evolved in, I suspect that we would just eat it without delay.  Or, we would take it back to camp and throw it in the fire.  Then, everyone would eat it.

Sharing food is one of the hominin’s adaptations.

0060 At this juncture, two interscopes are presented.  Human subjectivity ends the previous section.  Divine suprasubjectivity starts this section.  Or, is it the other way around?

Here is a picture of what I know so far, as it applies to prelapsarian Adam and the images of God in the Creation Story,associating to the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.

0061 When I open the scroll of Genesis, I first encounter the Creation Story.  The Creation Story ends at Genesis 2.3.  Then, I read into the story of the Garden of Eden, starting at Genesis 2.4.  Adam and Eve are specially created in the Garden of Eden.  Should I suppose they must be the Creation Story people who come forth as images of God?

Saint Augustine presumes this to be the case.  Adam and Eve are the first humans.  That means that all humans are direct descendants of this original pair.  Augustine’s construction of original sin currently comes under fire by evolutionary biologists, because there is no evidence for a genetic bottleneck of the magnitude expected from a species arising from two individuals, male and female.

Of course, biological research cannot hold a candle to Augustine’s literary flame.  So, they rely on the oxygen-deprivation of scientific respectability.

Augustine is the first theologian to propose a mechanism for the transmission of original sin.  Technically speaking, that mechanism is not plausible, given modern science.  Surely, Augustine’s words capture the imagination.  But, in the era of science… gasp… they cannot breathe.

0062 That is not all.  Despite the asphyxiation of scientific discourse, I have my own petty criticisms.  Here is one.  The Creation Story says that God created them, male and female.  Adam and Eve are not “they”.

The Story of the Garden of Eden cleverly starts with “them”.  The name, “Adam”, means (more or less), “Earthman”.  “Adamah” is a general term for “humanity”.  But, the drama ends up with the eviction of two pathetic individuals from the presence of the tree of life.  So, Adam and Eve turn out to be real people, who are remembered in a fairy tale.

0063 Back to the previous figure.

From the God-eye point of view, the human niche_1a virtually underlies the potential for appreciating humans as images of God_1b.  For biologists, the human niche_1a consists of the potential of triadic relations_1a.  Triadic relations are actualities that exist independently of the adapting species.  The human niche_1a is not material.

Human sensations and feelings_2a are adaptations that exploit the human niche_1a.  Our active bodies and sensate souls_2aserve as instruments for detecting and taking advantage of triadic relations, such as signs.

Biologists may be satisfied with this content-level nested form, as long as the metaphysical terminology is kept in check.

0064 That check is immediately set aside upon entering the situation level.

What is another word for the potential of situating our evolved sensations and feelings_2a?

One word is “creation”.  Another term is “creation of humans in the image of God”.

In the normal context of the first chapter of Genesis_3b, a phantasm_2b, where a human perceptive soul [informs] its reactive body_2b, emerges from (and situates) creation_1b.  Creation_1b is the potential_1b of situating our evolved sensations and feelings_2a.  Genesis portrays humans as images of God.

0065 The phantasm_2b is virtually contextualized by original justice_2c.

Now the picture is adjusted to fit.

0066 The bare-bones image of the human, where phantasm_2b virtually situates sensation_2a, seems to arrive from two separate sources, one natural and one divine.

The natural source associates to the content level.  The natural source is preternatural.  It includes nature’s (as well as our own) significations.  The natural source is immaterial, even though it entangles the material world.  Our evolved nature is tuned to signs.

Our hominin ancestors talk in manual-brachial gestures, which image and indicate their referents.  Word-gestures of hand talk picture and point to their referents.  Our hand talk has the same iconic and indexal semiotic qualities as nature’s significations.  Our hand talk joins nature’s significations.  So, it is only sensible to imagine that nature’s signs are like manual-brachial word gestures.  “Someone” sign-talks nature.

The divine source associates to the situation level.  This is where God calls His creation, “good”.  The Creation Story belongs to our current Lebenswelt.  The people who live before the start of our current Lebenswelt do not know this story.  They know their phantasms, built on an awareness that signs mean something to me.  There is a certain grace that flows into us, allowing us to imagine that “someone” talks to us in the signs of nature.

0067 Sensations and feelings_2a are both subjective and universal.

Phantasms_2b are objective.  They are judged according to their intelligibility.

Original justice_2c brings these two into relation.

0068 Judgement has a triadic structure, consisting of three elements: relation, what is, and what ought to be.

Original justice_2c names a judgment, where original justice (relation) brings the intelligibility of phantasms (what ought to be) into relation with the universality of sensations (what is).

Uh-oh, “original justice” also labels the relation.

Okay, to remove the redundancy, I will substitute the term, “holistic intellect”, into the slot for relation.

0069 Here is a picture.

0070 In a contemplative judgment, each element is not imbued with a Peircean category.

In order for the contemplative judgment to become actionable, categories must be assigned.  There are three elements.  There are three categories.  The assignment of two elements determines the third.

0071 To me, the holistic intellect (relation) goes with thirdness.  Thirdness is the category for triadic relations.  

This is not the only option.  If the holistic intellect is fixed, unwavering, unbending and so forth, then original justice (relation) would be assigned to the category of secondness, the realm of actuality.  If the holistic intellect (relation) is not fixed, and also vague, then it could be associated with firstness, the realm of possibility.

0072 An example of the latter is an “extra-credit” question that I put on the final exam in my most difficult courses: “For 10 points: Guess what I’m thinking.”

Of course, flummoxed students complain, but that is because they would rather not think in terms of judgment.  Oh, they want justice, but they have no judgment.

Take a look at the question.  “Guess” (relation) brings “what” (what is) into relation with “I’m thinking” (what ought to be).  “Guess” is a relation that belongs to firstness, the realm of possibility, because it is indeterminate.  That leaves the other two categories.

“What” (what is) is imbued either with thirdness (the realm of normal contexts, whose logic exhibits exclusion) or secondness (the realm of actuality, whose logic endorses the elimination of contradictions).  Once “what” (what is) is assigned to either thirdness or secondness, then “I’m thinking” (what ought to be) gets the last remaining categorical assignment.

So, the question has two correct answers.

To which many students respond, “That question is evil.”

Evil is a privation of a good.

0073 Now, I return to the challenge at hand.  If the holistic intellect (relation) associates to thirdness, then what about the categorical assignments to what ought to be and what is.

Well, since I expect sensation and feeling to be open to nature’s significations, as well as our own manual-brachial hand talk, what is should go with firstness.  The assignment fits the iconic and indexal semiotic properties of natural signs and hand talk.  The match also fits the notion that what is is weighed on the basis of universality.

0074 That leaves what ought to be with the category of secondness.  This assignment means that phantasms are so imbued with actuality that they are subject to the logic of noncontradiction.  In other words, phantasms are subject to correction.  What ought to be is weighed on the basis on intelligibility.

0075 These assignments circle back to the relation, in thirdness, called “the holistic intellect”.  A holistic intellect parallels a rational intellect, which also weighs intelligibility and universality.  At the same time, this parallel-to-rational intellectis more than rational, because intelligibility comes with grace and universality is preternatural.

A holistic intellect is greater than the sum of its parts.

Plus, I am no longer using the term, “original justice”, twice.

How does that smell?

My nose tells me that the turtle is starting to rot.

Maybe, it just pooped.

0076 Here is a picture of original justice_2c, as formulated in this discussion.

0077 Original justice_2c is a judgment, appearing in a divine, suprasubjective interscope.

Do I have that correct?

Is original justice_2c also a judgment characterizing human subjectivity?

The perspective-level actuality_2c seems to go into both boxes.

0078 It_2c is sort of scientific.  Evolutionary psychology depends on cognitive psychology’s observations and measurements of sensations and feelings_2a in response to stimuli.

In these experiments, stimuli act as sign-vehicles, then sensations and feelings_2a constitute sign-objects.  We humans are attuned to sign-relations.

Can scientists study human responses to signs?  Cognitive psychologists can observe and measure our sensations and feelings_2a, but they cannot detect our phantasms_2b.  They cannot use stimuli to trigger our imaginations_1b.  

0079 In addition, phantasms_2b are real and depend on the situation.  The suprasubjective Genesis Creation Story_3b offers a setting to address the question, “What does human evolution mean to me?”  It offers creation_1b as the potential of our evolutionary history_1b.

0080 The medieval theologians who come up with the idea of original justice perform a great service.  They offer us an avenue to appreciate a facet of human evolution that psychologists cannot directly investigate.  A situation-level actuality, perceptive soul [informs] reactive body_2b co-evolves with the content-level actuality, active body [substantiates] sensate soul_2a.

Still, phantasms_2b are problematic.

Why?

They are supposed to be intelligible.

But, phantasms_2b associate to opinion (in Greek, doxa), which, to me, seem intelligible, until I have a conversation with Socrates.  Once Socrates starts asking questions, then my opinion does not seem intelligible at all.

Medieval theologians want to use their philosophy to transcend phantasms_2b.  For good reason, phantasms are mind-dependent beings.  They are emotional.  They are often crazy and always subject to correction.  They can be associated with wanton desires and ambitious flights of fancy.

Avoiding phantasms is no solution.  Indeed, medieval scholastics keep running into questions about phantasms throughout their centuries of inquiry.

0081 The questions remain alive today.  The situation-level of the interscope of divine suprasubjectivity places them_2bfront and center.

In the environment of evolutionary adaptation, hominin cultures discover techniques for channeling the imagination_1b, so that the perceptive soul_2b trains the reactive body_2b within the normal context of a traditional discipline or team activity_3b.

The recitation of the Genesis Creation Story_3b is a good example.  It_3b channels the imagination_1b.  My perceptive soul_2bsynthesizes the words that I hear_2a into a message that trains my body_2b to react in a disciplined manner.  Here is a grace-filled technique_2b for situating my preternatural sensations and feelings_2a.

0082 Medieval theologians do not have today’s advantages.  They struggle to figure out the nature of original justice.  Yet, they offer insights not available from modern archaeologists, who have no convincing theories for interpreting religious symbols of the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic.

0083 According to Houck, prelapsarian Adam could have lived under original justice_2c in two ways (A and B).

The first way (A) is through natural original justice, offering three benefits (A1-A3).  The first benefit (A1) is that prelapsarian Adam’s higher power of reason is subject to God.  The second benefit (A2) is the soul’s lower powers are subject to reason.  The third benefit (A3) is that the body is subjected to the soul.

Aquinas notes that these natural benefits are given to the human species.

0084 In order to appreciate these natural benefits, I unfold the actionable judgment of original justice_2c into a category-based nested form.  A judgment “unfolds” into a category-based nested form on the basis of assigned categories.  Thirdness enters the slot for normal context₃.  Secondness goes to actuality₂.  Firstness becomes possibility₁.

I label the resulting category-based nested form with the term, “commitment_2c“.

0085 How does this cohere to the scholastic insight into the natural benefits of original justice_2c?

First (A1), prelapsarian Adam’s higher power of reason associates to formal causation.  Formal cause pertains to the normal context₃ contextualizing the actuality₂.  Our holistic intellect₃ is characterized by God’s original justice.  Our holistic intellect₃ harmonizes with intelligible phantasms₂, but not with unintelligible phantasms₂.

Second (A2), prelapsarian Adam’s soul (sensate and perceptive) are subject to reason.  That is reason, not philosophy,because philosophy requires speech-alone talk.  The reason of the Lebenswelt that we evolved in practices implicit abstraction.

So, the second benefit goes with final causality.  The entire nested form of commitment_2c is built into the human body and soul as adaptations to the potential of triadic relations.  Our sensations and feelings₁ must be attuned to recognize sign-vehicles from nature and from our own manual-brachial gestures. Our perceptions₂ must intelligibly address the question, “What does this mean to me?”  But, phantasm₂ depends on the normal context₃, an intellect₃ that is holistic, not analytic.

Holistic contexts₃ characterize constrained social complexity.  Individuals within a social circle enter into the same holistic context₃.  This event-space₃ encourages particular sensations and feelings₁, guiding awareness in the perceptive soul₂, which informs and trains the reactive body₂.  The roles of social circles in human evolution is found in Comments on Clive Gamble, John Gowlett and Robin Dunbar’s Book (2014) Thinking Big.

Third (A3), prelapsarian Adam’s body is subject to his soul.  This keys into the way that instrumental causality binds actuality₂ to potential₁.  The instrumental causality becomes apparent in the interscope of human subjectivity when the body and the soul appear on both the content and situation levels.  Plus, instrumental causality is brought to completion with its incorporation into the final causality that includes a holistic intellect₃.

0086 The second way (B) that prelapsarian Adam lived under original justice_2c is due to sanctifying grace.  Aquinas waffles on this claim, eventually coming down in favor of the presence of sanctifying grace.

0087 Does this resonate with original justice_2c as actionable judgment?

Commitment_2c is how original justice_2c manifests in the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.  Original justice_2c unfolds into commitment_2c.  Hand talk cannot image or point to commitment_2c.  Nevertheless, one’s commitment_2c guides behavior.  One’s behavior can be tracked by others.  The resulting feelings_2a give rise to phantasms_2b.  Feelings_2a and phantasms_2bare implicitly abstracted in original justice_2c, inspiring commitments_2c in others.

This looks like a feedback loop to me.  Plus, there is something interesting about this feedback loop.  It originates in divine suprasubjectivity.  Yet, it describes a loop within human subjectivity.

What does this imply?

Perhaps, sanctifying grace demands a comparison of the interscopes of human subjectivity and divine suprasubjectivity.

0088 Here is a picture of human subjectivity, with commitment_2c as the nested form derived from the judgment of original justice.

0089 Here is a picture of divine suprasubjectivity, with original justice_2c as a judgment.

0090 The first comparison to be made concerns the perspective levels.

0091 How does grace operate?

Grace inflows nature.

Here, original justice_2c is a grace that sanctifies (makes holy, sets aside for the divine) human judgment_2c.  The human intellect (relation, thirdness) holistically weighs the intelligibility of perceptions (what ought to be, secondness) and the universality of sensations (what is, firstness).

The evolutionary anthropologist may claim that human commitment_2c has nothing to do with the revelations that are written into the Bible (both Old and New Testaments).  But, that ignores the fact that the Bible exists.  The Creation Story stands at the opening of the first scroll.

0092 The second comparison to be made concerns the situation levels.

The situation level of human subjectivity is an adaptation into the human niche.  The situation-level normal context_3b and potential_1b of divine suprasubjectivity pours grace into the actuality_2b. Grace inflows nature.  The situation level is like consecrated bread and wine.

0093 The third comparison to be made concerns the content levels.

Does this fit the character sanctifying grace?  The content level is like bread and wine before consecration.

The evolutionary scenario_3a and the human niche_1a is the stuff of science.  A direct comparison to the content-level of human psychology is telling.  Ask any biologist about the normal context.  Evolution_3a is what is happening_3a.  But, think again, when it comes to potential_1a.  Ask a biologist about the human niche_1a and the answer will sound like, “We do not use the word ‘niche’ anymore.”

0094 Why?

Scientists feel comfortable with actuality.  Adaptations are actualities.  Ask why an adaptation evolves, and the biologist hesitates.  The answer deals with potential.  A niche is the potential of an actuality independent of the adapting species.  How can one identify that underlying actuality along with its potential?

0095 In summary, original justice_2c in divine suprasubjectivity unfolds into commitment_2c in human subjectivity.  This unfolding calls to mind a boundary-crossing intrinsic to the notion of sanctifying grace.

But there is something missing.

The normal context_3c and possibility of ‘something’_1c for the perspective levels of both interscopes remain veiled.  In the figures, they appear in the lightest of colors.  The faint labels are my humble guesses.

0096 What is the primary cause_3c,1c for the secondary cause_2c that is original justice_2c in divine suprasubjectivity?

I suspect that the normal context is Gods Will_3c and the potential is God’s Presence_1c.

What is the primary cause_3c,1c for the secondary cause_2c that is commitment_2c in human subjectivity?

Perhaps, the normal context is a question_3c, “does this make sense_3c“, and the potential is consilience_1c.  What is consilience?  It is the hope_1c that all situations can be contextualized.

0097 In the Lebenswelt that we evolved in, our ancestors adapt to the niche of triadic relations.

What are the sources of these signs and mediations?

One source is nature.  Nature broadcasts significations.

Another source, working in tandem with nature, are intentional manual-brachial gestures (which I call, “hand talk”).

Another source is our behavior, which signifies our commitments_1c.  Prelapsarian commitments_2c cannot be broken down into beliefs, intentions, practices and so on.  They are holistically conceived and experienced, just like nature’s signs and hand talk.

0098 Finally, there is another source, which is not a source, but built into our (human) adaptation to triadic relations, especially signs.  Whenever someone reads signs, there is always the presumption of ‘someone’ who generates sign-vehicles.  This ‘someone’ is obvious for hand talk, less obvious for committed behaviors (because the ‘someone’ is actually an actionable judgment) and obscure for natural signs.

0099 Well, maybe an interlude is called for.

Two interscopes are in play.  In the last section, I start with divine suprasubjectivity and end with human subjectivity.  One interscope swerves into another.

0100 Once again, here is the working interscope for divine suprasubjectivity.

0101 Clearly, I use the theology of Thomas Aquinas in a manner that does not appear um… theological. Nor is it scientific.  It is both.  It is neither.

I know intellectuals.  Surely, they desire to attach the proper label to whatever goes on.  To name it is to know it, as they say.  Once the intellectual grasps the desired label, then no more mental labor is required.

So, here is a word for you: “The approach is noumenal.”

0102 Science studies phenomena.  Scholastics contemplate noumena.

The two are related in the style of Peirce’s secondness.  They are two contiguous real elements.

A noumenon [cannot be objectified as] its phenomena.

The contiguity is [cannot be objectified as].   A noumenon cannot be turned into its suite of phenomenal objects, such as size, color, shape, properties, motions, responses to stimuli and so forth.  Nor can a suite of phenomenal objects be translated into their noumenon.

0103 Maybe, this boils down to word-play.

What other options do I have besides the term, “object”?

How about “subject”?

A noumenon may be considered the subject of an inquiry.

Its phenomena are objects for scientific investigation.

But, what is the subject?

Human subjectivity?  Divine suprasubjectivity?

0104 For the content-level of human subjectivity, the subject is active body [substantiates] sensate soul_2a.  The discipline of cognitive psychology investigates phenomena related to this noumenon.  Psychologists apply stimuli and observe bodily responses. The stimuli correspond to ‘something’_1a in the normal context of what is happening_3a.  Cognitive psychologists correlate their technical observations to self-reports of sensations and feelings_2a.

Human subjectivity cannot be not objectified by the phenomena studied by cognitive psychology.

But, don’t tell the cognitive psychologists.

Then, evolutionary psychologists propose how the correlations observed by cognitive psychologists might serve as hominin adaptations to a Pleistocene environment.  Presumably, natural selection solves problems in the environment of evolutionary adaptation.  Since these problems can be inferred from archaeological data, they may be considered phenomena.  So proposed hominin adaptations are models, accounting for what cognitive psychologists observe, in terms of Neodarwinian evolutionary theory.

0105 Divine suprasubjectivity cannot be objectified by the phenomena studied by evolutionary psychology.

But, don’t tell the evolutionary psychologists.

0106 In short, the study of phenomena associated to the content-levels of human subjectivity and divine suprasubjectivitybelongs to cognitive and evolutionary psychology, respectively.  Plus, these content-level actualities_2a cannot be objectified as the phenomena that these two sciences study.  They_1a must be identified as noumena.

But, don’t tell this to the scientists.

They cannot see that empirio-schematics of their disciplines somehow resonate with the two noumenal content-levels, but do not compose them.

0107 The situation level of divine suprasubjectivity presents a worse conundrum for science.  The revelation in the Genesis Creation Story presents a normal context_3b and potential_1b for a phantasm_2b.

Phantasms_2b are associated with opinion.  Opinion, in Greek, “doxa“, is precisely what ancient philosophers try to transcend.   Socrates does such a good job of dispatching doxa that he ends up wildly popular among the Athenian youth.  Socrates uses the symbolizing power of speech-alone words with such a flair that every opinion flounders in its own contradictions.

Why do they flounder?

Spoken words generate their referents, rather than the other way around.  Once one begins to critically examine the referent of any spoken word, the magical spell is broken and the word, ideal, slogan, curse, omen, promise and rhetorical position falls into contradiction.  A (mind-independent) referent does not define the spoken word.  Instead, a word is only as good as the symbolic order that it belongs to.

This is the condition of our current Lebenswelt.

0108 This is not the condition of the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.  Hand talk words are icons and indexes.  They are symbols, too, because they are linguistic.  But, they are effective because they image and indicate their referents.  There are no contradictions within hominin word-gestures, because the referent defines the word, not the other way around.

With hand talk, gesture-words_2a are encountered in the same way as nature’s signfications_2a.  Sensations and feelings_2aalign.  Then, when a phantasm_2b virtually situates sensations and feelings_2a, it_2b seems to be true_1c, rather than an opinion_1c.  Plus, that truth_2b is tested in the crucible of a commitment_2c, an actionable judgment.

0109 Currently, is there a science that corresponds to the noumenon that is presented in the situation level of divine suprasubjectivity?  Or… human subjectivity?

Sociology?  Anthropology?  Cultural studies?

Shall I mention that the turtle has stopped moving and may be decomposing?

Here, it becomes apparent that the stimuli imposed by cognitive psychology mimics nature’s significations and hand talk.  The quizzical implication is that these signs are generated by a suprasensible being.

The corresponding sensations and feelings_2a should be adaptive.

Then, the imagination_1b attempts to situate these sensations and feelings_2a, in the normal context of what does this mean to me_3b.

0110 Does cognitive psychology apply?

Can cognitive psychology manipulate a situation well enough as to observe reproducible phantasms?

Or, do experimental psychologists only succeed in producing, in human subjects, the phantasms that they expect to see?

If this is the case, then do they act in the place of the hypothetical suprasensible being, mentioned above?

Hmmm.

Or, do they illuminate innate operations of the imagination_1b in response to particular sensations and feelings_2a in conditions_3a,1a mimicking the environment of evolutionary adaptation?

However one answers these questions, those productions, actions and illuminations highlight the revelatory nature of the situation level of divine suprasubjectivity.

0111 The situation level of divine suprasubjectivity poses an amazing challenge for Sociology, Anthropology and Cultural Studies.

I observe the turtle.  It seems dead.  I can conduct an experiment.  I can place it in a body of water, like the pond outside.

The normal context of the Creation Story_3b and the potential that is creation_1b appear as primary causation to a secondary causation that changes dramatically when humans pass from the Lebenswelt that we evolved in to our current Lebenswelt.  Phantasms_2b in our current Lebenswelt are not the same as those in the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.

0112 Why?

Our current phantasms_2b are not virtually contextualized by original justice_2c.

The phantasms_2b of the prelapsarian Adam, as well as those who live in the world of hand-speech talk, are.

These phantasms express the same hylomorphe, perceptive soul [informs] reactive body_2b.

0113 Surely, phantasms_2b have facets that can be observed and measured.  These noumena should have corresponding phenomena.  Is there an academic discipline that observes and measures these phenomena, builds models and discusses the topic in its own specialized language?

Personally, I do not think that any social science that adheres to the Positivist’s judgment satisfies this expectation.

0114 Here, I close the interlude with a sigh.

Aquinas and Peirce defy the rules of the positivist intellect and offer unexpected insights into who we are.

What is the potential₁ of a turtle₂?

It depends on the normal context₃.

0115 What is the structure of a sign?

A sign is a triadic relation, where a sign-vehicle stands for a sign-object in regards to a sign-interpretant.

0116 How does this correspond to Peirce’s categories?

As a first approximation, Peirce assigns the sign-vehicle to firstness, the sign-object to secondness, and the sign-interpretant to thirdness.

That is a good start.

0117 How do the elements of sign correspond to the category-based nested form?

First, both the sign-vehicle and the sign-object are actual₂.

This implies that the sign-relation entangles two category-based nested forms.

Peirce’s first two assignments suggests that the two nested forms are separated by one level.  One expects that the sign-vehicle is on level n and the sign-object is on level n+1.  There is one exception.  If n=3 then n+1=1, rather than 4.

Peirce’s third assignment suggests that the sign-interpretant belongs to categories that are different than the sign-vehicle and the sign object.  Both the sign-vehicle and the sign-object are actual₂.  They both belong to secondness.  This leaves the sign-interpretant encompassing both thirdness and firstness.

Consequently, the sign-interpretant corresponds to the remaining categories on level n+1.  The sign-interpretant consists of the normal context_n+1 and the potential_n+1 for the actuality_n+1 corresponding to the sign-object.

0118 Here is a diagram of the general pattern.

0119 I intend to apply this pattern to the interscope of human subjectivity.

However, I cannot start with human subjectivity.  I must start with southern apes walking in mixed forest and grasslands in Africa over two million years ago.  The australopithecines walk.  Their feet are enslaved and their hands are freed.  They are about to be drawn into the niche of triadic relations.

Why?

They can address one another with manual-brachial gestures.  They pantomime.  In doing so, they image and point to natural things and events.  Their gestures are not words, yet.  However, they join in nature’s broadcast of signs.

0120 Nature’s significations decide what is happening.  So, I call them “interventional signs”.  Nature intervenes.  Nature’s significations draw our attention.

0121 The process proceeds as follows.

First, things and events themselves_2c (SV_i, sign-vehicle) stand for sensations and feelings_2a (SO_i, sign-object) in the normal context of what is happening_3a (SI_i, sign-interpretant).  

Second, these events and things_2c (SV_i) have consequences.  Consequences mean ‘something’_1a (SI_i).  Roughly, ‘something’ corresponds to the meaning of a conjunction of sign-vehicle and sign-object.

0122 In sum, nature’s broadcasts_2c (SV_i) intervene to produce a particular state of active body [substance] sensate soul_2a(SO_i) that is bound by the normal context of what is happening_3a and the possibility of ‘meaning’_1a (SI_i).