“That practical matter whose proper establishment is of greatest importance for the common sufficiency of the citizens in this life, and whose poor establishment threatens harm for the community, must be established only by the whole body of the citizens. But such a matter is the law. Therefore, the establishment of the law pertains only […]
Entries Tagged as 'Medieval Philosophy'
You get to have a say in it
January 28th, 2014 · No Comments
Tags: Lit & Crit · Medieval Philosophy · Politics & Law
The family of man
January 27th, 2014 · No Comments
“Every citizen must be free, and not undergo another’s despotism, that is, slavish dominion. But this would not be the case if one or a few of the citizens by their own authority made the law over the whole body of citizens. For those who thus made the law would be despots over the others, […]
Tags: Lit & Crit · Medieval Philosophy · Politics & Law
Effective internalization of the superego
January 26th, 2014 · No Comments
“That law is better observed by every citizen which each one seems to have imposed upon himself. But such is the law which is made through the hearing and command of the entire multitude of the citizens.” – Marsilius dei Mainardi, The Defender of Peace (trans. Gewirth)
Tags: Lit & Crit · Medieval Philosophy · Politics & Law
For instance, a law against protesting
January 25th, 2014 · No Comments
“That at which the entire body of the citizens aims intellectually and emotionally is more certainly judged as to its truth and more diligently noted as to its common utility. For a defect in some proposed law can be better noted by the greater number than by any part thereof, since every whole, or at […]
Tags: Lit & Crit · Medieval Philosophy · Politics & Law
Power from the people
January 24th, 2014 · No Comments
“The legislator, or the primary and proper efficient cause of the law, is the people or the whole body of citizens, or the weightier part thereof, through its election or will expressed by words in the general assembly of the citizens, commanding or determining that something be done or omitted with regard to human civil […]
Tags: Lit & Crit · Medieval Philosophy · Politics & Law
Pre-coffee Kantian precursor
January 23rd, 2014 · No Comments
“No act is perfectly virtuous unless the will through that act wishes what is dictated by right reason just because it is dictated by right reason. For if the will should wish what is dictated by right reason, not because it is dictated, but because it is delightful, or because of something else, it would […]
Tags: Lit & Crit · Medieval Philosophy
Close-edged reasoning teetering over the abyss
January 22nd, 2014 · 2 Comments
“If you say that that which does not exist is not the cause of everything, I say, that is false; but one must add that it does not exist, nor is it loved, nor desired. And then indeed it does follow that it is not a cause. But an end can be loved or desired […]
Tags: Lit & Crit · Medieval Philosophy
Show ’em the whip
January 21st, 2014 · No Comments
“Man has a natural aptitude for virtue; but the perfection of virtue must be acquired by man by means of some kind of training. Thus we observe that a man is helped by diligence in his necessities, for instance, in food and clothing. Certain beginnings of these he has from nature, viz., his reason and […]
Tags: Lit & Crit · Medieval Philosophy
So high, you can’t get over it
January 18th, 2014 · No Comments
“Perhaps not everyone who hears this name God understands it to signify something than which nothing greater can be thought, seeing that some have believed God to be a body. Yet, granted that everyone understands that by this name God is signified something than which nothing greater can be thought, nevertheless, it does not therefore […]
Tags: Lit & Crit · Medieval Philosophy
A secular trinity
January 14th, 2014 · No Comments
“Every artificer, indeed, aims to produce a work that is beautiful, useful, and enduring, and only when it possesses these three qualities is the work highly valued and acceptable. Corresponding to the above-mentioned qualities, in the pattern of life there must be found three elements: ‘knowledge, will, and unaltering and persevering toil’. Knowledge renders the […]
Tags: Lit & Crit · Medieval Philosophy
Got ’em while they were young
January 13th, 2014 · No Comments
“Know that in every man there is necessarily the faculty of courage. Were this not so, he would not be moved in his thoughts to ward off that which harms him…. This faculty of courage varies in strength and weakness, as do other faculties, so that you may find among people some who will advance […]
Tags: Lit & Crit · Medieval Philosophy
Mystics top the charts
January 8th, 2014 · No Comments
“It is above all the mystics who walk on the road of God; their life is the best life, their method the soundest method, their character the purest character; indeed, were the intellect of the intellectuals and the learning of the learned and the scholarship of the scholars, who are versed in the profundities of […]
Tags: Lit & Crit · Medieval Philosophy
Bound and gagged
January 7th, 2014 · No Comments
“Those who devote themselves eagerly to the mathematical sciences ought to be restrained. Even if their subject-matter is not relevant to religion, yet, since they belong to the foundations of the philosophical sciences, the student is infected with the evil and corruption of the philosophers. Few there are who devote themselves to this study without […]
Tags: Lit & Crit · Medieval Philosophy · Politics & Law
Breaking it down
January 6th, 2014 · No Comments
“Every instruction is composed of two things: (a) making what is being studied comprehensible and causing its idea to be established in the soul and (b) causing others to assent to what is comprehended and established in this soul. There are two ways of making a thing comprehensible: first, by causing its essence to be […]
Tags: Lit & Crit · Medieval Philosophy