Discover Top Posts Tagged with #edward feser

‘Pride, as Aquinas defines it in De Malo, is “the inordinate desire for pre-eminence” (Question 8, Article 2). With Augustine and the Christian tradition in general, he teaches that it is “the greatest sin” and indeed “the root and queen of all sins.” Its immediate effect is “vainglory,” which is the vice of habitually seeking to call attention to one’s own imagined excellence. And the daughters of vainglory, Aquinas tells us (Question 9, Article 3), are disobedience, boasting, hypocrisy (by which Aquinas means a tendency to magnify one’s glory by reference to “imaginary deeds”), contention, obstinacy, discord, and what he calls the “audacity for novelties” or predilection for bold actions that will call attention to oneself by bringing “astonishment” to others.

Hence the marks of a prideful and vainglorious man are an unwillingness to submit himself to any higher authority (which would include prevailing laws and norms); habitual braggadocio and bombastic speech; exaggeration and lying about his achievements; being obnoxiously quarrelsome; stubborn attachment to his own opinions in the face of all evidence and superior counterarguments; and a taste for doing things that are shocking and unexpected.

It stands to reason that a prideful and vainglorious man is bound to be polarizing. On the one hand, his fundamental motivations are to attain pre-eminence, and to do so by drawing attention to his imagined excellence. If he is good at this, then naturally, he is going to gain a following of some kind. On the other hand, pride and vainglory are objectively ugly character traits, as the daughters of vainglory make evident and as one would expect from the fact that pride is the worst of sins. Hence, people who see through a proud and vainglorious man’s charade are naturally going to be repulsed by him, especially if they have decent instincts.

The Christian tradition has, after all, held that pride is the characteristic sin of the devil and of antichrist. It is also the characteristic sin of the tyrant, who on Plato’s analysis is a consummate narcissist, and who in the political philosophy of Aristotle and Aquinas is defined as the ruler who governs a polity for the sake of his own good rather than for the common good. There are no villains more repulsive than the devil, the antichrist, and tyrants. And yet in all three cases we have figures who draw many to them. “Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). It is no wonder that lesser malign figures – prideful and vainglorious politicians, business leaders, sports stars, entertainers, public intellectuals, and so on – attract many people even as they repulse others.

Aquinas also teaches in De Malo that “pride extinguishes all the virtues and weakens all the powers of the soul.” It is not hard to see how this would be so. If a prideful man is by nature insubordinate, he is not likely to subordinate himself to moral restraints. He may exhibit counterfeits of certain virtues, if that would aid in leading others to perceive him as having excellence. He also may have a certain cleverness or cunning in achieving his ends. But it will not be true wisdom, because that requires seeing things as they really are, and his narcissism prevents that. He will have allies and sycophants, but is unlikely to have true friends, because he will ultimately sacrifice the good of others for the sake of his own good. He may have a certain boldness, but he will not have true courage, because his boldness does not serve the true and the good, but only himself. And so on.

Scripture famously teaches that “pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). But even apart from scripture, everyone knows this from experience. Or almost everyone, because the prideful man himself does not see it. Nor do those in thrall to him, since they labor under the same delusion about his supposed excellence as he does. It goes without saying that the greater the following a prideful man has, or the larger the community over which he has authority, the greater will be his fall, and theirs.’

— Edward Feser

#edward feser #pride #virtue #vice #catholic #st. thomas aquinas #aquinas #vainglory

“The skin cells on your nose might well be “potential human beings,” in the loose sense in which a rubber ball is a “potential eraser.” But a zygote is not a “potential human being” or a “potentially rational animal.” Rather, it is an actual human being and thus an actual rational animal, just one that hasn’t yet fully realized its inherent potentials. Harris and his ilk might want to ignore the importance of this distinction, but that it is a genuine distinction cannot rationally be denied.”

Edward Feser, The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism

#have a happy day #catholic #religion #theology #prolife #quote #Edward Feser #The Last Superstition

Prudence is the virtue by which we know the right ends to pursue and the right means by which to pursue them. Aquinas argued that sexual immorality tends more than other vices to erode prudence. The erosion of prudence, in turn, tends to undermine one’s general capacity for moral reasoning. Hence, when we facilitate the sexual sins of others, we tend thereby (whether we realize it or not) to promote their general moral corruption.

Edward Feser

#Edward Feser #quotes

Imagine this being your first credential at the top of your CV, like all your work, all your education, all that time and energy and this is at the top, on the internet, for all to see. Eddy... sis...

#edward feser #LOL

The Trump administration’s recent military engagement with Venezuela and rhetoric with respect to Cuba, Colombia, Mexico, and Greenland mark

“The Trump administration’s recent military engagement with Venezuela and rhetoric with respect to Cuba, Colombia, Mexico, and Greenland mark a new bellicosity in foreign policy, and one at odds with the antiwar tenor of the president’s campaign rhetoric. In the case of Greenland, the aim is a frankly expansionist one of securing new territory for the U.S. What should a Christian think of all this?

Elsewhere, I have argued that President Trump’s intervention in Venezuela and threat to annex Greenland by force do not meet the conditions set out by just war doctrine. But in online Catholic circles, some have suggested that precedents from Christian history lend support to an expansionist foreign policy. Some point to the Crusades. Others suggest that the Catholic empires’ colonization of the New World shows that wars of conquest can be legitimate. Among those taking such a position is the popular podcaster Matt Walsh.

These arguments, however, are entirely without merit. Whatever one thinks of the Crusades and the history of the Catholic empires, they provide no theological or moral justification for actions like taking Greenland by either military force or the threat of it.”

—

The article goes on to explain how the Catholic colonialism, Crusades, and the Old Testament are in no way justifies US expansionist goal.

It’s important to listen to Catholic philosophers who know how to apply Catholic Social Teaching on politics rather than Catholic podcasters or bloggers who seem to be only going by their hunch when voicing their opinion on politics.

#Catholic #Christianity #Edward Feser #Matt Walsh #politics