How Triadic Philosophy Rescues the Defeated Self

We all have within us  a defeated self. This face displays scars  we can't remember, horrendous humiliations,  rank embarrassments. It can overwhelm us  if we let it.
The power of our will can overcome  this daunting sense. via triadic thought.
SEE:
thinking in threes.
Gently moving forward is a daily discipline of Triadic Philosophy.
Three stage thinking works  because it is   embedded in Reality itself. You'll find this and much more at
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Ethics is lodged within us all

COSMIC CURTAINS
Ethics is lodged within us all. Just as our makings are. We spring from a cosmic process  founded, science tells us, on a small collection of patterns. We discover these as we move in the same direction as the cosmos. The most obvious pattern is the least acknowledged. It is the inherent presence of ontological values  in every soul  on our small planet. Each action we contemplate is met by phalanx of blunt truths  that constitute the very center of ethics. Are we being tolerant? Are we being helpful? Are we being democratic? Are we avoiding idolatry?
What we call conscience is the presence of these ethical benchmarks within each of us. Each one can be shown to interact with the others. Each addresses the foundations of true progress, toward a cosmos that reflects the intended pattern for humankind,  set from the foundation. This is the "more" that Hamlet could have told.
If this seems overblown and arbitrary it is because of the mess that  we've made of ethics. We've lived by binary  either-or thinking which issued in narrowness, thoughtlessness and betrayal of the aesthetic mandate  to achieve beauty and truth in our living. The revolution of this century is the recovery of the ontological values within us all.
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Moralism is not the way to go about changing attitudes

When my friend Will Campbell said capital punishment is tacky he was saying that moralism is not the way to go about changing attitudes Censure and judging others and railing at them does no earthly good What does good is to flag the utter ugliness of things that result in harm and lead to violence and the need for a break in the chain of evil for evil That break would be forgiveness which is integral to any viable spiritual regimen It is a daily task
The two errors of most philosophy is that they make no place for forgiveness as a part of ethics (not to mention limiting ethics to ancillary status) and they fail to state that the realm of action and therefore of change is the aesthetic sphere Triadic Philosophy which is now available at the Kindle Store corrects these twin neglects
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Triadic Philosophy Why are ethics and aesthetics fundamental to the thought process?

Why are ethics and aesthetics fundamental to the thought process these are premises but do they reflect truth  why is this premise revolutionary why is pragmaticism revolutionary why is this right for now
Because signs are whatever they are and rise up in Reality Because activation rises from resistance and  resistance to Reality can be called Ethics in the sense of always questioning even opposing And because Aesthetics is the objective of our living and breathing response to the coalescence between Reality and Ethics This is pragmaticism This is Triadic Philosophy Stephen's Remarkable Kindle Store



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Triadic Philosophy - Koch Ethics Boycott

Paradise a parking lot Made up of Koch Products Find yourself a different life Tell them that their jig's up
Full list of Koch products http://buff.ly/IfKg5G 

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Triadic Philosophy -Ethics and Destiny A Brief Meditation

Ethics in Triadic Philosophy is the Second  in the foundation triad Reality Ethics Aesthetics It is always a brake a thus-far-and-(maybe)-no-farther a summons to wrestle with the reality of the moment Destiny is a First It is an aspect of Being  of Ontological Reality It is what signifies a particular life within the vast complex of all lives It has authority because it is real It needs and wants and deserves to be realized But in Triadic Philosophy Destiny and Ethics wrestle The result is a resolution within the third realm which is Aesthetics our hypothetical experimental effort to realize our lives in a way that resonates aesthetically
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Ethics poses to Destiny four ontological values  which enable us to mould our hypothesis  or plan of action to  permit an aesthetic response something we can see with pleasure and acceptance
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Let us say one's destiny is to be a rebel The four values are tolerance democracy helpfulness and non-idolatry They summon us to strain our rebellion through a colander of values that make for progress Progress is always self-realizing and world-realizing When done one hopes that one's actions will have something closer to beauty than ugliness closer to grace and joy than what disgraces and leeches joy from the world
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Pinterest - An Admiring Bit of Free Verse

My Pinterest Page

+ Pinterest pricks at my consciousness awakening the inner eye to the vast community that spans this holy globe Pinterest makes mincemeat of the proposition that we are alone Pinterest reminds us that art is in the eye I see in Pinterest the future of the world harmonious selection of winning designs that make for democratic choices available to all Pinterest like Twitter lives  on the strength of its profound simlicity and its openness to universal visions +

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The primacy and Unity of Aesthetics and Ethics - moving past a conundrum

No philosopher am I but lives compose philosophies whether one knows it or not so yes I share my life Where I part company from Kierkegaard Where I part company from Nietzsche Where I part company from Peirce and most likely Aristotle too is in insisting that value and will precede everything and that ethics and aesthetics are  prior to and not subordinate to any other categories including logic and science  What this means is that I am forced by the logic of my own premises to begin applying what this all means in ways that will  eventually make some sense to both me and the reader from now on if not philosophy  contention toward truth
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Aristotle bases his ethics on character and virtue rather than will

Aristotle set the stage for ethics discussion But Aristotle bases his ethics on character and virtue rather than will Now Western thought has a "value system" based not on will but on honor Aristotle's overarching virtue
Values and will are one Values create history and culture Values transcend character Values transcend virtue Values are the desires of the heart Jesus understands all of this Aristotle appears not to
Only the will is capable of desire Values are desires They are not characteristics They are motivations. Their power is realized as they become conscious and operative
All of us operate on values that represent what we most honor what we give the most credence towhat moves us.
Search the terms value and virtue in the text of Aristotle's "Ethics" You will find virtue and character For Aristotle value is merely a word denoting relative advantage in relationships

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Charles Sanders Peirce Provided The Only Viable Basis for Future Theology

Charles Sanders Peirce did not believe in past theologies 

But only in what logic showed as true empirically 

He was a realist
His thought was metaphysical 

Charles Peirce lay the ground for future spirituality

Charles Sanders Peirce created 

a system of thinking 

that has not yet been fully articulated

He did not see himself as the great summarizer 

because such a role for anyone is by his logic impossible

Peirce was and is a pioneer 

in building a future that integrates science 
with ethics and morality

 without falling into the traps
of formulaic evangelicalism 

or formulaic humanism

Always moving
Continuity

Never finished
Fallibility

Daily musement

Sweet serenity 

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What would force @speakerboehner to stop obstructing governance

REWRITTEN 7/6 after Boehner refused to do more than grudgingly pass a portion of the Obama jobs program, and then with unacceptable conditions


1. The President going to Capitol Hill and staying there until Boehner acts2. John Lewis using direct action to replicate a Selma in the halls of Congress3. All of Twitter tweeting  @speakerboehner Pass  full Obama jobs program4. The mass media placing blame where it belongs 5. Speaker Boehner having a Damascus Road experience6. A market plunge attributable to the stasis of the Speaker and Congress7. Pressure from Mitt Romney
You can guage the horrendous stasis that exists by concluding that not one of the seven notions above has the slightest possibility of coming to fruitionOur society is so deeply mired in the spellthat was cast when I overcame weand morality and ethics took a back seat to profit(thickening a wall of corruption that is still present) that the notion of the unprecedentedeludes usWe have lost our capacity to believe anything can be doneThis is known as crucifixionIn such situations there remain people who do believe and who act togetherand whose victories inspire others to actBe sure that if we move forward at allit will be because people here and there lit the torchesof tolerance democracy and helpfulnessand practiced non-idolatryThese values are the engines of revolution
Those who have seen crucifixion many timesknow we are victors alreadyand that we can act foolishlyeven face scornwith confidencebecause we do not valueour preservation over the triumph of these values

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Dominionists - Behind Nefarious American Power Machinations

The following is excerpted from a longer piece which you can read at this link: 

TheReligiousLeft.org: Glad to be Gray 2.0:

By Becky Garrison

As reported by Chip Berlet, Senior Analyst at Political Research Associates, author Fred Clarkson lists three characteristicsthat define Dominionism:

1. Dominionists celebrate Christian nationalism, in that they believe the United States once was, and should again be, a Christian nation. In this way, they deny the Enlightenment roots of American democracy.

2. Dominionists promote religious supremacy, insofar as they generally do not respect the equality of other religions, or even other versions of Christianity.

3. Dominionists endorse theocratic visions, believing that the Ten Commandments, or biblical law, should be the foundation of American law, and that the U.S. Constitution should be seen as a vehicle for implementing Biblical principles

Dominionism breaks down into two main branches: Christian Reconstructionism and Kingdom Now Theology. Rousas John Rushdoony popularized Reconstructionism in The Institutes of Biblical Law (Ross House Books, 1973). This viewpoint continues to be advanced by David Barton of Wallbuilders, who is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel.

Those who fall into this camp espouse “theonomy,” a belief system of three levels of government, which start with the nuclear family, where the man is the head of the household. Next in line is church governance, followed by civil governance. All three levels are subject to Biblical authority, in that their interpretation of God’s word is the sole authority that governs human ethics.


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Steve's note - I was the subject of an extended attack by Rushdoony in the 1960s.
Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

Paul Ryan's Potential Conflict of Interest Ignored on the Web

Paul Ryan’s Shrewd Budget Payday: Congressman Could Benefit from Tax Breaks He Proposes - The Daily Beast: "Ryan's father-in-law, Daniel Little, who runs the companies, told Newsweek and The Daily Beast that the family companies are currently leasing the land for mining and drilling to energy giants such as Chesapeake Energy, Devon, and XTO Energy, a recently acquired subsidiary of ExxonMobil.

Some of these firms would be eligible for portions of the $45 billion in energy tax breaks and subsidies over 10 years protected in the Wisconsin lawmaker’s proposed budget. “Those [energy developing companies] benefit a lot from these subsidies,” explained Russ Harding, an energy policy analyst with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, when presented with the situation, without reference to Ryan. “Without those, they’re going to be less profitable.”

To ethics watchdogs, Ryan’s effort to extend the tax breaks creates the potential appearance of a conflict of interest."

'via Blog this'

The Beast published this months ago but today if you do any search related to Ryan's potential financial interest in having his wealth-favoring budget passed, nada. 



Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

I Love It Dumping on Obama and Lying About It

News Desk: Funders Behind New Anti-Obama Ad Blitz Stay Hidden : The New Yorker:

'via Blog this'

These people have no ethics, no conscience, and a great capacity for bald-faced lies. It is inconceivable that the Kochs are not elbow deep in the pile of offal that they are putting out. It is impossible that they have not chosen swing states for their noxious ads to run. If they can sleep at night that is proof that their consciences are in escrow somewhere. The only redemptive thing about this is that the lies are starting bright and early, in time for the people to catch on. The Kerry killing the Hard Right conducted was just a warm up. This will overreach and hopefully it will create an electoral tidal wave that will roundly humiliate every criminally-minded individual engaged in this Big Lie effort.

Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

I have little place for ethics in such a system as I have.

I have little place for ethics in such a system as I have. I see ethics as secondary to the willed application of values to the making of decisions. To me the question is what are the ontological values. My pragmatic answer came in the 1970s when a colleague and I taught a group of teenagers the Gospel of Mark (the text of which I had turned into songs) and saw the actual results of this process in events in their lives and those related to them. I concluded that the ontological values can be described by the words tolerance, democracy, helpfulness and that the overarching value in which these rest is non-idolatry. I feel these are a reasonable approximation of the active, accessible realities that - when activated by individual will - create history. Insofar as history is a vale of tears it is because we do not honor these values. Non-idolatry incidentally is the basis of scientific method IMO. "The good" and "justice" are descriptions of the goals of living, but the values I have named can be explicitly willed by the individual. Insofar as they are understood and willed together, they create a somewhat iconoclastic sort who is pragmatic and at the same time actively promoting tolerance, democracy and helpfulness. All of the movers of history on the just and good side have cleaved to these values. Since individuals do possess will and this the freedom to embrace these values, they can be spread by ... identifying them and activated in a process that certainly can include reason but also involves what we call passion or commitment or conscience or even impulse. When I resigned from my fraternity at Williams in 1958 it was the result of a triad 1. My experience of racial unity 2. The resistance of St. Anthony Hall to considering an applicant from Jamaica and 3. My resignation when I was told, If I believed "that", I did not belong there. This helped set off a train of events which led to the removal of fraternities from Williams. Such an event resides in the realm of willed values not ethics. Ethics would be the consideration of what course of action would yield up whatever one designated as the goal of ethics - the good, justice. In other words, ethics is secondary to the exercise of willed values which is essentially impulsive. It is a corrective exercise.

Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

The Confusion in Charles Sanders Peirce

If the way history is made is through willed values, those values were there before we were. They are ontological. I think the confusion in Peirce is his relegation of ethics to the aesthetic. Kierkegaard did a similar thing when he essentially sidelined the ethical. I muse that the semiotic realm is infused with ontological values (the foundation of ethics) and that history is made by the values we will. By our fruits we are known. Why is it I feel I understand Peirce when I have a dunce's capacity for math and science? It is because he fits in to my evolving understanding of how to see the world and particularly how to identify and deal with the nominalist binary consciousness that essentially has allowed us to arrive at the ethical morass we are in. This is the century when we have to advance out of that and achieve what Derrida called the unprecedented.

Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

Peirce and Nietzsche Precursors of the Future

As far as I know Peirce and Nietzsche did now know each otherThey lived the same timeThe achievements of both went unrecognized until they became posthumous authorsEach of them broke the very same ground from different perspectivesNietszche was a philologist and the greatest writer of a nation he excoriatedPeirce was a multi-disciplinary intellectual renegade rejected by his peersBoth wandered in substantial solitude Neitzsche a mite saintly Peirce a mite sinful What did they achieveThe marriage of the metaphysical and the scientific
Both vindicated a metaphysical (transcendent) philosophy Within the immanent frame of scienceBoth men arrived at the same conclusion Both failed to take the next step
In Pierce's case the next step would have been a vastly more forceful presentation of ethicsthan is implicit in his scattered writingsIn Nietszche's case it would have meant winning back the decade he lost to madnessand completing the revaluation of values he began with The Antichrist 
Both anticipated a world now coming into beingThe narcissistic nominalism that has ruled since Descartesis giving way to realism of the sort  Peirce developedThe hoary values Nietzsche scourgedare giving way not  so much to values we now attribute to NietzscheBut to values he would logically have developed had madness not intervened one day in Turin
Today I think of wandering around Sils-Maria as I did a few years backthinking of the solitary inhabitant of that Alpine villageAnd of days in Cambridgewhere my relatives came here with Pierce's forbears and walked on to Watertownin 1639Peirce - America's greatest intellectual - was flatly rejected by President Eliot at Harvard
Two of the greatest minds of the 19th centuryMerge in my own musingsWaiting for someone to create from their confluencesomething past the thin and vacuous theologies and philosophies and scientific understandings of the presentThe future lies with that merging of the metaphysicaland the scientificWith the realization that ethics and being belong togetherWith a universality that realizes the full reality of alland builds on the acknowledgement of fallibilityas redemptivea sign of movement forward

Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

Selection from C. S. Peirce Objective Logic

This is the concluding section of a series of excerpts from  

                         C.S. Peirce, “Minute Logic” (1902), CP 2.111–118

Cap tip Jon

118.   But this seems to be in conflict with our conception of Being, particularly as derived from the notion of symbol; which, however, is solidly founded, too. We now begin to see the sense of talking of modes of being. They are elements of coöperation toward the summum bonum. The categories now come in to aid us materially, and we clearly make out three modes or factors of being, which we proceed to make clear to ourselves. Arrived at this point, we can construct a Weltanschauung. From this platform, ethics acquires a new significance, as will be shown. Logic, too, shines forth with all its native nobility. Common men carry this Weltanschauung in their breasts; and perhaps the pimp, the looting missionary, the Jay Gould, may, through the shadows of their degradation, catch now and then a purer glimpse of it, than the most earnest of citizens, the Cartises, the Emersons, the Bishop Myriels. It is beautifully universal; and one must acknowledge that there is something healthy in the philosophy of faith, with its resentment at logic as an impertinence. Only it is very infantile. Our final view of logic will exhibit it (on one side of it) as faith come to years of discretion. 

Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

Until China and Russia and US Act in Concert We Are Goners

Iran Warns of Pre-Emptive Action in Nuclear Dispute - NYTimes.com: "Without mentioning Israel directly, Mohammed Hejazi, the deputy armed forces head, said on Tuesday: “Our strategy now is that if we feel our enemies want to endanger Iran’s national interests, and want to decide to do that, we will act without waiting for their actions,” Reuters reported."

'via Blog this'

The failure we are facing is a breakdown of ethics and morality at the highest level. Until the "not so great powers" can decide to become great and set aside their regressive behavor, we are like passive sitting ducks in a pond. China and Russia bear the most blame for failures globally to enforce an ethic of tolerance, democracy, helpfulness and non-idolatry. What is intolerable is allowing the fabric of discourse to degenerate into violence.

Listen to Dover Beach (Spotify) and consider.

The nations that most need to restrain themselves, beyond the three powers mentioned, are Iran, Syria and Sudan. All dictatorial regimes are inevitably inclined to regressive behavior. We are hanging in the balance.

Listen to Every Grain of Sand (Spotify)

Given OUR power, it is our task to raise global voices to force response and assert our rights which transcend those of nations that do not practice the willed values we have been given.



Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

Good Grief, Senator Grassley Speaks Truth!

House Republicans Cut an Ethics Bill Provision - NYTimes.com: "Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who wrote the provision on political intelligence, said: “It’s astonishing and extremely disappointing that the House would fulfill Wall Street’s wishes by killing this provision. If Congress delays action, the political intelligence industry will stay in the shadows, just the way Wall Street likes it.”"

'via Blog this'

And Eric Cantor is transparently a blathering hypocrite whose place in history will hopefully be as a mendacious Republicans who facilitated the worst defeat ever suffered by that party in a national election.

Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes