Bookshelf
Bookshelf
April 2024
by Bill Schmitt – a service of “Phronesis in Pieces” at billschmitt.substack.com
Approximately 15 additions were made in the various sections for March.
DEFINING PHRONESIS
Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle
Phronesis in Aristotle by David Corey
(99+) Phronesis in Aristotle | David Corey - Academia.edu
Journal article: Phronesis (Practical Wisdom) as a Type of Contextual Integrative Thinking by Kristjan Kristjansson, Blaine Fowers, David Pollard in Review of General Psychology (September 2021)
From the Abstract in this open-access journal article:
Coinciding with the recent psychological attention paid to the broad topic of wisdom, interest in the intellectual virtue of phronesis or practical wisdom has been burgeoning within pockets of psychology, philosophy, professional ethics, and education. However, these discourses are undercut by frequently unrecognized tensions, lacunae, ambivalences, misapplications, and paradoxes. While a recent attempt at conceptualizing the phronesis construct for the purpose of psychological measurement offers promise, little is known about how phronesis develops psychologically, what motivates it, or how it can be cultivated.
Substack article: From the Multiversity Cave: Aristotle and Phronesis by Lee Trepanier in his “Then Again” Substack publication
University of Chicago Center for Practical Wisdom:
From Aristotle, our working definition of practical wisdom is practical decision making that leads to human flourishing. While much of the world, since Binet, the father of the IQ test, has focused on the importance of intelligence for society, intelligence is about solving problems without consideration for the impact of the solutions on others. By contrast, we think about practical wisdom or wise reasoning as considering value commitments that are concerned with understanding the impact of decisions on others. "Practical wisdom is practical decision making that leads to human flourishing."
Linking phronesis to the practical wisdom of household management: https://www.artofmanliness.com/lifestyle/homeownership/towards-a-philosophy-of-household-management/ ; https://www.artofmanliness.com/featured/practical-wisdom
Phronesis: Retrieving Practical Wisdom in Psychology, Philosophy, and Education by Blaine Fowers, Kristjin Kristjinsson
Phronesis: Retrieving Practical Wisdom in Psychology, Philosophy, and Education Kindle Edition
by Blaine Fowers et al
PODCASTS
Hosted by Dr. Paul Giesting and Bill Schmitt. Exploring the intersection of science, faith, philosophy, and the experience of human dignity as our understanding of these subjects continue to grow in the Third Millennium.
Bill Schmitt hosts an interview with Fr. Philip Larrey to discuss spiritual and moral views of AI. Larrey has been an advisor on AI to Pope Francis. Centering on Pope’s quote from his 2024 World Communications Day messsage about man’s inclination to act like God without God.
“Honestly” : news interviews
Hosted by journalist Bari Weiss, former New York Times opinion editor
“The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast”
Hosted by Jordan B. Peterson.
According to JBP podcasts I have listened to recently, 1% of criminals commit 65% of crimes. Separately, he says studies show that about 3% of the population are psychopaths.
“Outspoken” by Dr. Naomi Wolf, literary scholar, author, cultural commentator
“The Death of Journalism” by John Ziegler and Liz Habib
“System Update” by Pulitzer Prize winner Glenn Greenwald on Rumble
“Pints with Aquinas” by Matt Frad: Conversations on theology, values, culture
John McWhorter is a linguist, Columbia University professor of English, and cultural commentator worth getting to know. You can hear his often-contrarian comments, including his concern that wokeness is a kind of religion, in various podcasts.
Majorityreportradio.com – a progressive, social-democrat liberal talk show podcast hosted by Sam Seder.
Loopcast.com. A podcast produced by CatholicVote, discussing Catholic values in the public square.
Podcasts about ethics:
Very Bad Wizards / Examining Ethics / Philosophy Voiced / Everyday Ethics /
Philosophize This / Think about Ethics / The Moral Science Podcast /
Moral Sciences Club / Moral and Ethical Leadership
Steve Cuss: “Being Human” podcast from Christianity Today, plus his own podcasts
Reason Roundtable: podcasts from Reason libertarian magazine
America This Week podcast by Walter Kirn and Matt Taibi
RESOURCES / CENTERS OF STUDY AND DISCUSSION
University of Chicago Center for Practical Wisdom
"Practical wisdom is practical decision making that leads to human flourishing."
— Dr. Howard Nusbaum, Center Director
From Aristotle, our working definition of practical wisdom is practical decision making that leads to human flourishing. While much of the world, since Binet, the father of the IQ test, has focused on the importance of intelligence for society, intelligence is about solving problems without consideration for the impact of the solutions on others. By contrast, we think about practical wisdom or wise reasoning as considering value commitments that are concerned with understanding the impact of decisions on others.
"Practical wisdom is practical decision making that leads to human flourishing."
University of Chicago’s ”Freedom Principles” — principles for freedom of expression on campus
De Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, University of Notre Dame
McGrath Institute for Church Life, University of Notre Dame
University of Houston: Honors Program in Phronesis
Faith & Reason, Franciscan University of Steubenville
The Lamp: A Catholic Journal of Literature, Science, the Fine Arts, etc.
Sapir: Ideas for a Thriving Jewish Future
The G20 statement (Nov. 2022) of what governments are doing to implement Agenda 2030. Noteworthy globalist goals which are already progressing. As published by the White House.
The Festivus Report on government wasteful spending as compiled by Sen. Rand Paul. This is the 2022 report based on laws passed and signed.
Government Accountability Office index of more than 57,000 reports and testimonies it has prepared on a wide variety of policy-related subjects.
LoC.gov is the resource-rich website for the US Library of Congress.
The State of Local News from the Northwestern U Local News Initiative
“Questions for a Covid-19 Commission” – from “The Norfolk Group,” a lengthy, informed probe (spring 2023) of the issues that still need to be wrestled with as we look back at how America managed the Covid-19 crisis and as we look toward any pandemic of the future. Insights from epidemiologist Jay Bhattacharya, MD.
“What Christianity Brings to the Public Conversation” – video from Bishop Robert Barron, Catholic new-media evangelist.
Father Philip Larrey, seen in this video, is a priest-author-philosopher-dean at the Vatican’s Lateran University with extensive experience in AI and insight into the leadership among those developing the technology. He is a bridge between Pope Francis and the current industry concerns about AI as a possible risk to humanity.
A blog on bioethics and AI by Radioslav Lojan. He has been involved in the “Minerva Dialogues” which annually bring together scientists, engineers, educators, moral philosophers, and theologians in Rome to discuss the future of AI.
Center for Humane Technology, led by Tristan Harris, a technology ethicist. He says we need “Wisdom 2.0,” and that is the name of an initiative of meetings and discussions covering AI and other matters. He says “anti-wisdom” consists of greed, aversion, delusion, fear, and jealousy.
Humanity 2.0 – Fr. Philip Larrey leads this initiative affiliated with the Catholic Church and the Vatican’s efforts to approach AI with Catholic values.
Watch all four seasons of EWTN’s “The Philosopher’s Bench” on DVD—a series featuring Dr. Peter Kreeft. The equivalent of a core course in Christian philosophy.
Nationaltoday.com is a calendar of specially declared, days, weeks, and months. Highly secular, largely commercial and frivolous. But it’s a kind of “liturgical” calendar for the country. It provides anniversaries for remembering.
Association of Catholic Therapists
https://www.csmonitor.com/ — “Values Journalism”
The Free Press is the online news and commentary publication by Bari Weiss.
The Alliance for Responsible Citizenship, a brainchild of public intellectual Jordan Peterson, works to shape a new, open-minded, empowering vision of the world’s future that emphasizes personal freedom and personal responsibility. The ARC recently held its first international conference in London. You can watch videos of the very insightful talks.
The Internet Archive — collection of older websites and materials
Gutenberg.org — collection of 70,000 free e-books
The Professor of Rock — excellent, enjoyable videos about the story behind great songs and songwriters
ONLINE TOUR: DOCUMENTS, VISUALS, WEBSITES FROM ALL PERSPECTIVES
Faithful Citizenship site: US Conference of Catholic Bishops
Letter from a Birmingham Jail: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Brothers All” encyclical: Pope Francis (Fratelli Tutti, 2020)
“On the Dignity and Vocation of Women” letter: Pope John Paul II (1988)
A list of all genders : The Transgender District (scroll down for progressives’ list)
A list of words to abandon or replace in everyday speech: From the Stanford University group, “People of Color in Technology.”
List of neo-pronouns — from CNN August 2023
The entire list of banned words from Stanford. It was a product of People of Color in Technoloy. It has some value in learning history and raising awareness, and it is probably an easy matter of removal through auto-correct.
Video Urbi et Orbi 2020: Pope Francis blesses world in empty St. Peter’s Square
Linus on the meaning of Christmas: “A Charlie Brown Christmas”
Bonus: Linus and Lucy by Vince Guaraldi (full composition)
Matthew Walther describes the program as apologetics for the atomic age:
"Men of other generations," Fulton Sheen wrote, "went to God from the order in the universe; the modern man goes to God through the disorder in himself." It is with an interrogation of the "invisible frustrations, complexes, and anxieties of his own personality" that our hero begins the greatest popular work of post-war American religious art. Every bit as much as the soon-to-be beatified host of Life is Worth Living, A Charlie Brown Christmas is apologetics for the atomic age, a gentle but unmistakable rebuke to the reductive psychologizing and hubristic materialism that posed a far greater threat to Christian belief than the Soviet Union. It is, if anything, more relevant now than when it first aired. – Matthew Walther, editor, The Lamp
The Cardinal Newman Society released policy guidelines that Catholic schools can use in formulating their statements on mission, philosophy, and faith. Among other things, the guidelines incorporate insights into Catholic school responses to legal challenges.
Institute on the Catechism: This process announced by the U.S. Catholic bishops in November 2022 will develop new approaches for an “evangelizing catechesis” that helps young adults and all Catholics build a personal relationship with Christ in a society that is often opposed to religion. Based on the Directory for Catechesis and addressing such concerns as religious disaffiliation among youth, the growing Hispanic Catholic population, and the use of technology in teaching the faith, the process will include collaboration with the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and the Augustine Institute.
List of annual messages from Pope Francis for World Communications Day
Edward Feser blog – National Review called him “one of the best contemporary writers on philosophy.” Peter Kreeft said, “Feser’s on Stun.”
Song: “What’s Going to Happen to the Children When There Aren’t Any More Adults?” by Noel Coward
Video: Start of the Auburn University Revival/Prayer Marathon
Audio: Bari Weiss podcast on Asbury University and the 2023 prayer marathon.
Major article about ChatGPT, the AI chatbot, by Stephen Wolfram
Letter from the Birmingham City Jail by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King
An overview of generational theory (see my Substack essay):https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-96383-5_88
Audio: Chris Hedges commentary expressing concern about the judicial system’s treatment of some of those arrested during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Video: TED Talk in which Alex Kripmann gives a remarkable demonstration of the current power of virtual reality and hologram technology as seen using Microsoft’s “Hololens”
In favor of AI: AI Will Save the World | The Free Press (thefp.com)
Digital guru Jaron Lanier downplays inherent danger of AI (video):
A possible Achilles Heel in AI: [2305.17493v2] The Curse of Recursion: Training on Generated Data Makes Models Forget (arxiv.org)
If you are a fan of Hillsdale College, you are probably happy to hear that it now faces more competition. I heard on a podcast that two start-up schools have similar approaches, offering a traditional/classical liberal-arts education. You may want to find out more about their course offerings:
· University of Austin … “dedicated to the fearless pursuit of truth”
· Ralston College … “To think is to be free”
[BTW, the chancellor of Ralston is the widely known Jordan Peterson. U of Austin started out last summer by offering two one-week courses; Bari Weiss is one of its cofounders.]
Jordan Peterson with Franciscan University of Steubenville president Fr. Dave Pavonka:
Jordan Peterson’s international initiative: Alliance for Responsible Citizenship:
https://li.com/initiative/alliance-for-responsible-citizenship/
A blog post on the Minerva group discussing AI with Pope Francis. A noted writer on bioethics:
Radioslav Lojan blog on bioethics and Minerva: https://radolojan.blogspot.com/2023/04/act-ethically-and-responsibly.html
Study says there are 22 million immigrants now in the US, double pre-Biden estimate: Yale, MIT study: 22 million, not 11 million, undocumented immigrants in US | The Hill
This “Corporate Equality Index” is used by the Human Rights Campaign to grade companies along equity lines: Corporate Equality Index 2022 - Human Rights Campaign (hrc.org)
List of 44 critical strategic technologies, noting China’s geopolitical advantages, assembled by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute
Our society’s biggest loss is trust. Article in The Free Press by Ted Gioai—originally appeared in his Substack The Honest Broker. Contributors to The Free Press include Bari Weiss, formerly an opinion editor at The New York Times.
A personal, insightful Facebook post on the experience of dealing with adult life with ADHD symptoms.
Article on the ChatGPT crisis in higher education—from Inside Higher Education newsletter in April 2023. By Inara Scott
The Future of Life Institute posted a landmark statement on AI and its dangers. Thousands of signatories have joined in asking for a “pause” in the development of the most advanced AI systems; this would allow time to develop an international regulatory regime to rein in the worst risks posed to humanity by unfettered, rapid-fire research.
The Center for AI Safety added its own statement, encouraging steps to mitigate the risks of advanced AI systems, for others to sign.
Fidelitymonth.com There has been a precipitous decline in Americans’ understanding of the values of commitment to family, religion, parent-child caregiving, country, and community, which are core principles in the founding of the United States, says Prof. Robert George, a Catholic intellectual teaching at Princeton University. He has declared June to be “Fidelity Month, ” with its own website. Click on his introductory podcast/video. He stresses that starting up this month of recognition is not intended to replace, or push back against, any other dedications for June; this is the inaugural year, and the month could hypothetically be any month.
Harvard professors established a Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard to focus on greater freedom of speech on campus. They said universities are losing respect as institutions because they are seen as repressing the free flow of differing ideas and opinions.
Socratesinthecity.com – by author and broadcast host Eric Metaxas
https://www.catholictherapists.com/
Pew Research Center’s essay on essentials of present-day opinion research.
James Lindsay “Letter to Woke Youth”: Cautions young progressives they have been sent out as destabilizers in the culture, but elites will discard them as plans evolve:
Public.substack.com — Online publication by Michael Schellenberger
Essay.app — Online tool authored by Jordan Peterson provides real-time guidance in structuring and writing essays.
Trusted News Initiative – BBC, AP, WaPo, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter. (The alternative news sites, not legacy media,s are the real competition. Less trust in legacy sites, hurting their biz model.)
From the Free Press on Substack: In addressing AI, we need a principle of technological askesis. Askesis is a traditional Church term defined as self-discipline or self-denial.
The Curse of Recursion: Training on Data that already has been generated is an Achilles Heel for AI. It makes AI models forget.
New seminary format for first year of formation: The propadeutic stage, described.
Justice Clarence Thomas replies to Justice Katanji Brown Jackson in decision on affirmative action.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16OK1itoA8v3YP1tjXhQaHgV0kY43CFjY/view?usp=sharing Eucharistic Revival Program 7-2-23
Fr Dave Pavonka with Jordan Peterson at Franciscan University of Steubenville: (315) This Lesson from the Bible will Make You Unstoppable | Franciscan University | EP 252 - YouTube
Jordan Peterson’s Alliance for Responsible Citizenship: What questions shall we ask to steer toward the future more wisely?
An Inspirational Paradigm for Jesuit Education in Business
Explore the Enneagram as a typology for exploring your personality type. An extensive podcast series.
DNA as proof of a creator? This is a code that could not have been initiated by natural processes.
The Hypocratic Oath today, as reported by public broadcasting.
Alliance for Responsible Citizenship: Most popular speech video from 2023 international meeting: Konstantin Kisin.
Sources of international news and commentary/interviews:
Times Radio from London
Lexicon Valley podcast on language by Prof. John McWhorter
A bit of humor can be found at Bad Lip-Reading videos:
Steven D. Smith Ted Talk: He is the author of The Disintegrating Conscience and the Decline of Moderntiy.
Typology podcast explains the Enneagram as a tool for self-exploration. Why do I act the way I act? It is a model for exminaing nine personality types, not too different from Myers-Briggs: Typologypodcast.com/podcast/
DNA has been observed to offer proof of intelligent design. DNA is an abstract code (for amino acids to make a protein) that is deciphered for self-replication. The code gives instructions that are understood somehow. No natural process produces abstract symbolic information. Dr. Sy Garte. Video
The Internet Archive is an amazing resource containing multimedia resources that did exist on the internet but are no longer found easily. http://arhive
https://slate.com/podcasts/lexicon-valley Lexicon Valley by John McWhorter, a podcast examining the root meanings and evolving meanings of words
The Times of London has its own “radio station” https://www.thetimes.co.uk/radio
Konstantin Kisin gave one of the most popular ARC speeches at the first Alliance for Reponsible Citizenship conference. Co-founded by Jordan Peterson.
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No policy that requires compulsion is optimized. That’s one of the principles of ARC.
A discussion of Hypocratic Oath: You can’t teach new dogs the old tricks. – Warren Buffett
Social justice is not something for government to address: https://www.firstthings.com/article/2000/12/defining-social-justice?utm_source=First+Things+Email+List&utm_campaign=15083ed8eb-
The benefits of studying a craft or a trade, pushed by Mike Rowe: https://mikeroweworks.org/
Jordan Peterson in a comedy interview: https://babylonbee.com/video/travis-interviews-the-world--jordan-b-peterson
Jordan Peterson observation about atheists returning to religion: Russel Brand, Ayanan Hirsi Ali, Niall Ferguson, Richard Dawkins, Douglas Murray, Tom Holland. “There’s a recognition emerging there’s something in the midst of the mystic, down in the depths of the metaphysical, that speaks of something that’s much more Christian than any of us would have possibly imagined 15 years ago, or even a year ago.” Talking to Russell Brand.
BOOKS OF NOTE
United States of Fear: How America Fell Victim to a Mass Delusional Psychosis
by Dr. Mark McDonald
The Book of Virtues by William Bennett (article about book’s 30th anniversary)
Directory for Catechesis from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (2020). It will be central to a new national initiative for teaching Catholics their faith, called the Institute on the Catechism.
The Noonday Devil: Acedia, the Unnamed Evil of Our Times by Benedictine Abbot Jean-Charles Nault
“Speaking with the Heart” – World Communications Day message for 2023 from Pope Francis
New Proofs for the Existence of God by Robert Spitzer, SJ
The Bill of Obligations: Ten Habits of Good Citizens by Richard Haass
Unrestricted Warfare: China’s Master Plan
Superpower in Peril: A Battle Plan to Renew America by David McCormick
America and the Art of the Possible: Restoring National Greatness in an Era of Decay by Christopher Buskirk
Boomers: The Men and Women Who Promised Freedom and Delivered Disaster (2021) by Helen Andrews
The Aftermath: The Last Days of the Baby Boom and the Future of Power in America by Philip Bump
The Fourth Turning is Here, by generational theorist Neil Howe. It can be advance-ordered on Amazon. Howe was a co-author of “Generations”—the book the launched concept of generational identity, with names like The Baby Boom and Generation X. Here, he writes about a key historical period occurring now in the U.S. as the various generations on-stage in the public square reach a particular configuration.
iGEN and Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and the Silent Generation – Jean Twenge. She is a leading generational theorist, along with Neil Howe. She has given the name “Polars” to the generation that began with births in 2012. This is an alternative, or complement, to the term “Generation Alpha.” The New York Post has a handy timeline graphic showing the different generational groups.
Uncovered: How the Media Got Cozy with Power, Abandoned Its Principles, and Lost the People by Steve Krakauer
Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction is Hijacking Our Kids and How to Break the Trance by Nicholas Kardaras
Chance or the Dance: A Critique of Modern Secularism by Thomas Howard
The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, by Adrian Woolridge (2021)
— “Sixty percent of births to women with only a high school certificate occur out of wedlock, compared with only 10 percent to women with a university degree.” That matters, he continues, because “the rate of single parenting is the most significant predictor of social immobility in the country.”
Recommendation for reading key documents from Vatican Council II: Read Dei Verbum, Lumen G, Gaudia et Spes, and then Sacro Sanctum Concilium last.
Laudate Deum is the 2023 Apostolic Exhortation by Pope Francis giving his views on the need to be more responsive to climate change.
“The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self” by Carl Trueman and Rod Dreher.
“The Canceling of the American Mind” by Greg Lukianoff. He founded the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (thefire.org). At https://rankings.thefire.org/rank, FIRE ranks major colleges and universities according to their protection of free speech.
The Disintegrating Conscience and the Decline of Modernity by Steven Smith. On Book TV? Conscience doesn’t tell you what to do. You know what to do, and you must do it. After listening and informing the conscience. That must happen before the crisis point.
Dan Ariely—“Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things” See him on Book TV https://www.c-span.org/video/?530484-1/misbelief
Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class by Rob Henderson, who coined the term “Luxury Beliefs”
St. Jerome is master of the form called letters of consolation. “Jerome’s Tears” now published. Spiritual director. Pastoral. Three consolations: 1) Death has been conquered. 2) In the present moment, thanks for the gift of that person’s life. 3) Follow the Lord in a new way. If something has changed, do something you wouldn’t have done otherwise. See deaths as opportunities. These letters were read to others like Paul’s letters.
https://www.troyny.gov/31/Community : Troy NY is celebrated as a very livable downtown!
Progressives and freedom. They want it as liberation from all shoulds, but oddly they push for a government that limits freedom. The “freedom” liberals offer is the dubious freedom of the drug addict. It’s the “freedom” to follow our lowest appetites, to deny our reason, and ultimately to destroy ourselves. It’s the “freedom” of Satan in “Paradise Lost” to make “a Hell of Heaven” and “a Heaven of Hell.” It’s the “freedom” of abject slavery, and it has made a hell of our country everywhere it’s taken hold. The “freedom” the liberals promise is liberation from all limits: liberation from borders, from laws, standards, norms, family — even from biology.
STATISTICS CITED
(noted as facts worth remembering, drawn from usually reliable sources; not independently verified; hopefully, not “damn lies”; portals to important subjects)
US is the world’s biggest jailer. 5 percent of population but 25 percent of the prisoners on planet are in US. Disproportionately falls on people in low socioeconomic. Noted by Glenn Greenwald.
A third of female minors have been raped, assaulted or abused by trusted adult role models by the time they’re 18. Traumatic influence on many; they literally didn’t know if their lives were in danger. Noted by Dr. Naomi Wolf.
Alcohol is responsible for about half of all violent deaths. Noted by Dr. Jordan Peterson.
A third of colleges produce graduating classes in which the median income winds up being less than the median income of high school grads. (source not identified)
One percent of criminals commit 65% of the crimes. Noted by Dr. Jordan Peterson.
The 80-20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, says 80% of outcomes or outputs result from 20% of the causes or inputs for any given event.
56% of US employees have jobs that can be done remotely. Of those, 90% don’t want to go into the office five days a week. – Source not determined
Every year, 500,000 people in Italy see an exorcist. — William Friedkin
Gallup reports that the percentage of members of Generation Z identifying as LGBTQ+ has doubled from the previous generation, the Millennials. Axios provided a chart showing that its findings are about 20 percent and 10 percent, respectively. Other generations are also shown in the chart. The Gallup Poll is here..
There’s a new Gallup report on the state of the American workplace. Many good statistics here. Among the findings: About 60 percent of employees are “quiet quitting” in one form or another.
One view of the timeline of generations (according to the years of births) in the U.S., supplied by The New York Post. There is no authoritative or official timeline or set of names:
1925-45 The Silent Generation
1946-64 The Baby Boom Generation
1965-79 Generation X
1980-94 The Millennial Generation
1995-2012 Generation Z
2013-present Generation Alpha / The Polars
50% of women at 30 do not have children. Half of those will never have children, and 90% of them say they regret it. — Jordan Peterson
The 1970s were the US peak time for the population “being churched.” 70% attended church at least once a month. — The Great Dechurching.
The late 80s to late 90s were biggest time of dechurching.
64 of the 66 books of the Protestant Bible are written by Jews. Only Luke and Acts of the Apostles. Catholic Bible has 46 OT and 27 NT
Harvard’s average GPA was 3.0 in 1967, but 3.8 in 2022. At Yale last year, more than 80 percent of students in the proliferating “studies” (e.g., women’s studies; gender and sexuality studies; African American studies; ethnicity, race and migration studies) got semester grades of A. In math, engineering and economics (lots of “quantitative” courses), 55 percent or less got A’s.— George Will column in Washington Post in early Feb 2024
The Economist’s estimate that by 2030 the U.S. high-tech sector will face a shortage of 1.4 million qualified workers, while each year only 70,000 students on U.S. campuses complete undergraduate engineering degrees. America depends on other nations’ high schools and colleges for the foreign students who in 2016-2017 earned 54 percent of U.S. master’s degrees and 44 percent of U.S. doctoral degrees in STEM fields. — From George Will column in Washington Post in early Feb. 2024.
As Jonathan Haidt shows, the rapid decline in mental health among women under thirty-five took place first among young liberal women and affects them most deeply. A 2020 Pew survey reports that more than 50 percent of liberal women under twenty-nine years old claimed to have been diagnosed with a mental condition. Haidt quotes Jill Filipovic: “There are tremendously negative long-term consequences, especially to young people, coming from this reliance on the language of harm and accusations that things one finds offensive are ‘deeply problematic’ or even violent.” — From First Things March 1 2024
We have 2 million who work for fed govt.40% of Americans work for some form of govt. – Victor Davis Hanson
More than half of recent four-year college graduates, 52 percent, are underemployed a year after they graduate, according to a new report from Strada Institute for the Future of Work and the Burning Glass Institute. A decade after graduation, 45 percent of them still don’t hold a job that requires a four-year degree.
CDC in 2020 nearly 6 m kinds were diagnosed with anxiety. 25 percent of youth experiencing anxiety symptoms. Suicide rates climbing. 40 percent increase in sad/hopeless before the pandemic. Young. “They are the most anxious, depressed and medicated generation on record.” Nearly a third of American girls say they have considered suicide. Boys 14 perccent. Depression, anxiety, ADHD all growing. This was discussed by Bari Weiss on her Feb. 26 “Honestly” podcast with Abigail Shirer.
40% of Gen Z has received help from mental professional — source not noted
Only 42 percent of the college population is men. It’s been shrinking faster.
Only 3 percent of kids in foster care go to college. 60 percent go to jail.
>>Jesus commands love your enemies. He doesn’t command that you have none.
In NYC, 60% of all children are aborted. 85% of African American children are aborted. Could shame be driving the spread of racial divide?
WORTHY QUOTES AND COMMENTS
“You can’t teach new dogs the old tricks.” – Warren Buffett
“As anger comes in, reason leaves. It’s a truism.” Avoid hatred.—Charlie Munger
We have 2 million who work for fed govt.40% of Americans work for some form of govt. – Victor Davis Hanson
Don’t raise your voice. Improve your argument. – Desmond Tutu
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent – Eleanor Roosevelt
The average man does not want to be free; he merely wants to be safe—HL Mencken
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”—Aristotle
The unexamined life is not worth living. -Socrates
Phronesis is a creative act, especially when navigating the unknown …. It’s not just what happens when we’re faced with dilemmas, paradoxes, and crucible moments. Of course, that’s where our strength of character shines and guides our action choices, which is why we mark it as an act of practical wisdom.” -- Elena Antonacopoulou
You have to be willing to do the ridiculous so God can do the impossible. – Mother Angelica
"We do not need a truth to serve us, we need a truth we can serve." - Jacques Maritain
“One man who stopped lying could bring down a tyranny.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn,
“We have bought into the ‘nothing buttery’ of reductionist materialism: the human person is nothing but a trousered ape; sexual desire is nothing but animal urge; beautiful paintings are nothing but blobs of ink on a canvas; morality is nothing but a sophisticated herd instinct; and the whole of reality is nothing but the assemblies of matter we can taste, touch, smell, see and hear.” – Fredric Heidemann
John Ziegler of the “Death of Journalism” podcast coined the term “News as Therapy.”
We don’t know others, or ourselves, before they have been tested. America has been very easy for most citizens… If I’m challenged, I blame others now. The hero’s journey makes you more than you are. –paraphrased from Jordan Peterson and his “Exodus” video discussion series.
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” – John Adams
A comment in The Washington Post about the “Havana Syndrome,” in which some US officials and military in Cuba reported mysterious health symptoms: “The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”
“I’m an old man now and I’ve seen a great many problems in my life, except that most of them never happened.” – unknown
What does a soul look like? It looks like a body. In this life, they are inseparable. –unknown
What is your favorite state motto? Kansas has a candidate: “per aspera ad astra,” or “through hardship to the stars,” or “to the stars through the adversities.” Note that the root of the word aspirations is akin to the root of the word passions. Our passions take on meaning when they involve action, adversity, even hardship.
Beauty will save the world. (It calls you into a relationship and brings you to transcendence.) -- Dostoyevsky
“Since [narcissists] deep down feel themselves to be faultless, it is inevitable that when they are in conflict with the world they will invariably perceive the conflict as the world’s fault. Since they must deny their own badness, they must perceive others as bad. They project their own evil onto the world. They never think of themselves as evil, on the other hand, they consequently see much evil in others.” -- M. Scott Peck
“All happy families are the same; each unhappy family is unhappy in its ow way.” – Leo Tolstoy
“God’s first book was the created world. His second book was the Bible.” – unknown
The world suffers from “cardiosclerosis,” a hardening of the heart. There is a need for more tenderness. – Pope Francis
The news media used to be against “the man.” Now they are “the man.” – Unrecorded
The Bible is a book about freedom (from tyranny and oppression). – Unrecorded
The Bible was the first hyperlinked book. With about 64,000 cross-references within.
Love is a gift of the self for the good of the other. – Dr. Edward Sri
Truth is an adventure. – Dr. Jordan Peterson
Everybody worships what you hold as the highest value. The rest of life flows from that. (Today, we worship autonomy.) – Bishop Robert Barron
A Koan is a short story used for meditation in Zen practice.
In forming your vision and planning life, aAsk yourself, “What can I bring to the table for someone else? If you bring the right thing, people will line up.” – Jordan Peterson
The most dangerous people think they can bring about the Kingdom of God in this world. … Christian principles divorced from God dissolve into wokeism. The Sermon on the Mount ties things to the transcendent. To begin a dialogue with the left, say, “The best of this, you got from us.” – Bishop Robert Barron
One young student in Lord of the Flies says, “Maybe there is a beast. What I mean, maybe it’s only us.”
“For the wise men of old, the cardinal problem of human life was how to conform the soul to objective reality, and the solutioin was wisdom, self-discipline, and virtue. For the modern, the cardinal problem is how to conform reality to the wishes of man, and the solution is a technique [meaning a technology].” – CS Lewis
We have to teach “in the temple precincts.” Stand up in the heart of the culture. – Bishop Barron
Approach activism with caution. What do you really know of the problem? Who elected you? You need to try to understand the world before you try to control the world. Work on correcting yourself before correcting others. At 16, can you say I don’t like the Church, I’m above that? Who cares! You’re 16, ad you sit in judgment? – Jordan Peterson
“Examine your conscience, or let it examine you.” – Jordan Peterson
“I need a life with meaning so rich that it can justify suffering.”-Jordan Peterson
Social media have not made us more informed. We feel more informed. We’re more partially informed. – Unrecorded
“Noah was wise in his generations.” For his time and place, he was a good man. Don’t dispense with people of the past. In 100 years, the judgment may be on you.” – Unrecorded
The marginalized do have things of value to bring. We all so. You have something that no one else can bring, and you would deprive the world. “We’re responsible for what we do and for what all others do (Dostoyevsky). Don’t tear something out of the fabric of being that should be. That is hell. – Jordan Peterson
You have the chance to serve your own ambition … You can manipulate others, but you produce nothing on your own. You betray others—and your future self. These are the same betrayal. – Jordan Peterson
Chatbots can put together true facts, or partial truths, in false ways. The test to apply: Is it true, truthful, and representative of the truth?” – Tristan Harris and the Center for Humane Technology.
“We’re all running malware.” – Unrecorded, possibly Tristan Harris.
We need “Jesus shock,” the ability to say wow. We need to know the real Jesus. In Narnia, Aslan is not a tame lion. Jesus is not a tame God. “He’s not safe, but he’s good.” – Peter Kreeft
When God is forgotten, the creature becomes unintelligible. We don’t know who we are. We need some manufactured identity. Without God, our will is to power. We want more autonomy [and radical individualism]. “Relativism has become the new absolute.” – Peter Kreeft
If we don’t admit we wrestle with demonic powers, we’ve got to have a scapegoat villain—villains in society. – Conscience isn’t “don’t do this”’; it’s what we’re called to do. -- Peter Kreeft
If we don’t need truth, we have no need for smart, knowledgeable people. – Unrecorded
I tried to walk into Target. But I missed. – comedian Mitch Hedberg
I tried Care-Free gum. But it didn’t work. – Mitch Hedberg
I taught myself how to play the guitar. That was a bad decision. I didn’t know how to play the guitar, so I was a shitty teacher. – Mitch Hedberg
“Don’t compare me to the Almighty. Compare me to the alternative.” — President Biden, quoting his father.
“It is my opinion that prejudice saves us all a great deal of time…. I don’t like turnips and I don’t like liver. Call it prejudice if you wish, but I have no intention of every trying either again….” — Commentator Andy Rooney in “And More by Andy Rooney”
“Fiction doesn’t interest me at all…. Fiction takes too long for the ideas contained in it.” — Andy Rooney
Neitzsche: Without God, things become weightless. Honor your father and mother—make them weighty in your eyes. A weighty matter.
There’s no way of deriving the moral until the story is fully told. You will have faith in something. There’s no non-faith route. So what would a wise person have faith in? I think it’s the truth. -- Jordan Peterson (paraphrase)
The ends justify the means. — This appears to come from Ovid, Herodius II, but it’s in Latin.
“There’s nothing as boring as a man with a career.” — Solzhenitsyn
“Luxury Beliefs” are an idea from Rob Henderson, who is on Substack.
“The only thing that’s harder to do than think straight is to live crooked.” — Jordan Peterson
“Herein is the strength of audacious men who gain what is unjust by asking what is extravagant.” – Cardinal Newman said this of the Arian heretics. The Church was battling Arianism in the 4th century as the most widespread and long-lastin heresy.
Dietrich Von Hildebrand spoke of the “cult of cognition” where those who think themselves wise enjoy the act of thinking great thoughts as amusement that does not solve anything.
The Epistle to the Thessalonians says two things must happen before Christ’s return: A Great Apostasy from the Church and a removal of a restraint on evil through which the Antichrist emerges.
People don’t regret what they tried that didn’t work. They regret what they didn’t do that could have worked. – Jordan Peterson
“Anchoring theory”: One’s original exposure to a piece of knowledge determines how you view it for long. The original experience endures.
“Crisis” transliterates the Greek krisis, which means a separation or sundering. It requires decision: Are we for or against? In the New Testament, the word is often translated “judgment,” as in “the day of judgment,” the appointed hour when God separates the sheep from the goats. The Latin root of “decide” is de + caedere, to cut off or cut away. The notions of judgment and decision are latent in our conventional use of the term. A crisis comes when built-up pressure explodes the status quo. It marks a moment when we can't just keep on – R.R. Reno, First Things Magazine
We were in a post-war moment after the Cold War. Around 2014, when Putin went into Ukraine the first time, “we started shifting into a pre-war era.” Water Russell Meade.
Here’s one message from the Commandment not to take the Lord’s name in vain: Don’t claim Godly virtue in something you proclaim if you’re really seeking your own self-gain. — Jordan Peterson (paraphrase)
Don’t claim Godly virtue when it’s really your self-gain. Do not take the Lord’s name in vain. – JP
If you don’t know the bad news, the Good News seems like no news. - Ralph Martin, Renewal Ministries
The typical middle class socialist didn’t love the poor, they just hated the rich. -George Orwell (paraphrase)
There’s a “one-percent rule” in social media: One percent of people create new content. Nine percent contribute to the content (through comments, likes, reactions, etc.). Ninety percent merely view the content. -- (unknown source)
“Think things instead of words.” Not rhetoric. Get facts, not catchwords. Include history and successes and failures. – Oliver Wendel Holmes
The banality of evil. – Hannah Arendt
Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken. — citation uncertain
RR Reno of First Things says “Againstism” defines what we do in terms of what we’re against, not what we’re for.
“God is in everything but not enclosed, and beyond everything but not excluded.” -Nicholas of Cusa
“You know what I’ve noticed? Nobody panics when things go according to plan, even if the plan is horrifying.” – The Joker in Dark Knight. “Madness is like gravity. All it takes is a little push.”
“The only morality in a cruel world is chance…unbiased, unprejudiced, fair.” – Harvey Dent, alter-ego of supervillain Two-Face in The Dark Knight. Dent: It’s about what’s fair. You thought we could be decent men in an indecent time. … The world is cruel. The only morality in a cruel world is chance. We’re all two-faced. We’re all capable of evil, of lying.
"Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God: But only he who sees takes off his shoes." ~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Klaus Schwab started concept of stakeholder since 1971, making stockholders/ownership less crucial.
When people are “married” to the state, in terms of dependency and commitment: Bureaugomy.
Comment, uncertain attribution: “Homosexual” term was invented early in 1900s. It was not a declaration of anybody separate. It became a formalized way of identifying people with same-sex attraction in 1960s. - Unrecorded attribution
Counterenlightenment: empiricism and scientism are insufficient for the mind frame that will orient us in the world. - Unrecorded attribution
“We have to raise our children to be load-bearing walls.”—Abigail Shrier, journalist, author.
Three from Walter Lippman:
It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.
There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and to shame the devil
Love endures when the lovers love many things together And not merely each other.
If you’re going through hell, keep going. — unrecorded attribution
"I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God's business." — Michael J. Fox
“It must be exhausting, just rooting for the antihero.” Taylor Swift lyrics.
Chesterton’s Fence: https://themindcollection.com/chestertons-fence/ Don’t destroy anything until you understand why it was built.
Niatrogenesis—when medical intervention does cause harm, discussed in context: Niatrogenesis—when the healer introduces harm. Any intervention can carry risk, even Tylenol. Psychoterapy also comes with iatrogenic risks. Might rob patient of a sense that they can do anything to help themselves. Kids can’t push back on their therapist’s postulates.
"The life of sensation is the life of greed; it requires more and more. The life of the spirit requires less and less." ~ Annie Dillard
"I cannot cause light; the most I can do is try to put myself in the path of its beam." ~ Annie Dillard
"The problem of disbelieving in God is not that a man ends up believing nothing. Alas, it is much worse. He ends up believing anything." ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton
“Right person, wrong timing doesn’t mean God was wrong. It means you were there at the right time to fulfill something else. Look for it.”
― Shannon L. Alder
Lord, you have accomplished all we have done. == Isaiah. God is not a rival to our thought action or achievement. The glory of god is a human being fully alive.- St. Iranaeus.
Most people don’t hate evil because they don’t want to acknowledge it. But must fight it. — credit not given
Pope Paul VI: The Church is an expert on humanity.
“Theory is information for free.”—Boyer. A compression algorithm.
Government shouldn’t try to enforce virtue. If it’s not free, it’s not virtuous.
Jesus commands love your enemies. He doesn’t command that you have none.
With Woodrow Wilson, we moved from government as servant to government as savior.
OVERVIEW OF “PHRONESIS PLUS” (from 1/17/23)
Now in my second calendar year of publishing a “Phronesis in Pieces” newsletter on Substack, I have started an ancillary project as a communicator informed by the Catholic faith. I admit to being an amateur but avid explorer of the virtue of phronesis, which Aristotle introduced into our lexicon. as a doorway into a mode for evangelizing today’s ailing, challenged culture.
My theory is that many people are seeing the need for a more robust adoption of phronesis as practical wisdom that guides virtuous actions which can help to heal people and solve problems.
I accept my position as one small voice expressing solidarity with many intelligent people of good will from such fields as philosophy, the classics, public affairs, psychology, American Studies, communications, theology, and other branches of the humanities and liberal arts.
My goal is to assist members of a growing “phronesis community,” hoping that my observations—based on my experience in journalism, the Catholic Church, government policy, and education—can contribute to big-picture conversations.
The next steps under consideration involve setting up this complementary “Phronesis Plus” set of resources, located behind a modestly priced paywall, available to readers who continue to enjoy the commentaries I offer to free subscribers.
I envision “premium” content—a more methodical curation of my own discoveries in this broad arena. Imagine a growing collection of secular and Christian information, creatively but soberly presented, about books, documents, articles, and other digital publications or posts, verbal and visual.
My curiosity, not strictly “objective” but diligently open-minded, will make me an “online tour guide,” pointing toward better knowledge of the content producers and better understanding of their insights. Perhaps I can spark, and participate in, some of the important conversations aimed to increase clear, constructive, virtuous outreach in the public square.
The twice-monthly editions of Phronesis in Pieces I have written since April 2022 will continue as free content—the groundwork of the approach I will take. Please consider subscribing to receive the premium content and encourage my endeavor. Also, send comments and suggestions via the chat feature or via email at billgerards@gmail.com (mentioning Phronesis in the subject line).
Thank you for your continued support and friendship. You are indispensable for my motivation to be a servant and steward of wisdom in 2023 and beyond.### 1-17-23