Conscious thought is real

Triadic Philosophy,  infant though it is,  senses that conscious  thought is real  and that it is the only arena  within which  a small band  of freedom holds sway.  And that small band of freedom  is ihe capacity  to choose among  the values that make for  progress or regression  according to  the ways that we think.  Unless this is the case  I would assume  that the entire  house of cards falls  and that there can be  little hope for humankind.  Perhaps if language  can be called metaphor,  one might surmise  that something like  conscious surmising of signs  might take place.  . I myself think thought  is conscious and  that good (at least)  is real.  And that  without the freedom  to choose  there is little or nothing  that we can call freedom. 

The Slow as Molasses Press

Beyond Binary Discourse

One of the practices of Triadic Philosophy is to be sensitive to binary discourse. It crops up all over and academic venues are hardly immune to it. In fact we are all guilty, if you count it harmful to judge someone wrong and yourself right, with no qualification, no admission of fallibility and no betrayal of the possibility that it is pure enjoyment of the binary conflict that underlies much such discourse. Is it harmful really? I would say that when it becomes characterization, particularly negative characterization, it does carry with it a measure of harm. As I see Peirce - and I regard him as foundational as Harold Bloom regards Shakespeare - this is Peirce's world - it seems to me that he would have delighted in a triadic cast to discourse springing from his thought and that this cast would give a wide berth to the presence not only of fallibility but of mystery as what we do not yet know. When discourse becomes triadic that will be a cultural shift we can welcome as a product of CSP's influence.

The Slow as Molasses Press

A Gluttonous Thought Is Harmless In Itself

Gluttony is a state of desiring to stuff oneself somehow. Who does that harm? 

If it is a mere impulse, no one. If it is a prelude to obesity and beyond, it may harm the perpetrator and tangentally his friends. It may even be deadly.

But only when gluttony does result in harm is it evil. Merely to have a gluttonous thought is harmless.

It is not hard to imagine the results of gluttony through temptation to action to a sense of addiction — a formidable closing of ones freedom to determine one’s destiny. But even in one whose external circumstances are not optimal for the exercise of freedom, the main hope continues to lie in the freedom that remains within the inner space occupied by will and conscience and the values that determine the disposition of the heart.

When this freedom is evoked, one can reject a temptation and begin to imagine a different course. Our society would improve if this understanding underlay the mentality of those who are paid to counsel persons with harmful addictions. Nothing is more powerful than the will that is freely engaged in a beneficial act.

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Lust is hardly a deadly sin in itself

Lust is hardly a deadly sin in itself

Lust is hardly a deadly sin in itself.

Lust is nothing but an extension of what happens when you get turned on by someone or something. It is the desire to achieve release in some way.

It may have the meaning of desiring when desire could lead to harm, But unless lust leads to harm it is hardly evil. It is normal. It is what happens when one feels attraction.

We create all manner of illnesses and syndromes because people assume that their feelings are evil in themselves. But evil only exists in manifestation, in action, in consciously hurting oneself or another.

Evil is thus the product of a heart that inclines to mindlessness and selfishness, in a person whose values are the product of a world that has ignored the simple fact that the only way to counter evil is in willing values that minimize its chances of prevailing — among them mindfulness and respect for the rights of others.

One of the main “excuses” for harm is the acquisition of mindlessness via the agency of alcohol. Conclusion. Jesus was right. Evil is in the heart. As is good. The difference lies in applying the will to universal values. Lust is normal. Harm should be less so.

The Slow as Molasses Press

Like it or not, Peirce was an iconoclastic and acerbic Christian

The Slow as Molasses Press

Like it or not, Peirce was an iconoclastic and acerbic Christian. Had he delved into theology and church history more than he did, he would doubtless have arrived at ample bases for what is implicit in his own understanding. He is agnostic about supposition and a stickler for proofs. The problem he presents to those who ignore his spirituality is that it not only remains central, it also purports to be self-evident. But only to those willing to engage in a fairly explicit mode of practice. Between fairly explicit and free choice there is some leeway but it seems to me that a Peirce-derivative practice would involve at a minimum an openness to a discipline of thinking based on a mode we could call triadic and a form of musement that might correspond to an effort to achieve some harmonious relationship with another. I do not capitalize another. But it seems obvious to me that Peirce thought we talked within ourselves to what might be considered one's higher self or to one beyond that. To condense this into a question, is it the case, or is it not, that Peirce, to be understood, requires a practice based on his premises?

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Democratic revolution has yet to be achieved anywhere

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A blown kiss from Ophelia. Hamlet passing by. Jesus over there. A burning bush.

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Prologue

Prologue to The Lord’s Prayer Twelve Lines to Make A Revolution Kindle Store http://buff.ly/1vPnR8i

My position is pure idea. It floats in the cybersphere. It rests on realities that are real, built into the very patterns of reality. Realities that can only become tangible by a mind — any mind.. That’s my position. Why? Because the day of gurus and followers is over, just as the day of large anonymous institutions ordering individuals about is ending. What people become they becoime and more and more that is not subject, I propose, to anything but four values built into the very fabric of what is true and beautiful and real.

These values are tolerance, helpfulness, democracy and non-idolatry.

To all who read and absorb: Read this as pure idea. Treat it as pure thought. As a sign. A blown kiss from Ophelia. Hamlet passing by. Jesus over there. A burning bush.

No religion necessary? None! A pure idea.

No creed needed? No, none at all! What you believe, you believe.

Read this as a pure idea. A pure idea alone. Then watch the world around you doff religion, then ideology, then theory to arrive at that primal iconoclasm at the heart of non-idolatry, to cleave to the strength at the heart of tolerance, to embrace the enabling understading that is helpfulness and to form bottom up the democracies of the future.

Take your place in the spirituality that is emerging/

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