(Y1 W48) Call Me Skeptical

Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving last week. I was actually put back a bit on the workload, so this is getting out a bit later this week.  We're continuously chipping of more and more of the Gateway set and I'm noticing that I only have one Gateway book on my shelf each week. That's progress, I suppose. 

Moby Dick - Herman Melville, Ch. 23-39: We get a rundown of the major people on the boat: Bulkington (whom we met earlier) at the helm, Starbuck the chief mate is practical. Stubb the second mate is happy-go-lucky. Flask the third mate is "pugnacious concerning whales". Aside from Queequeg the other harpooners are Tashtego - an Indian, and Dagoo - an African. Ahab appears on deck - scarred on the face and sporting a whale jawbone for a leg. Ishmael gives an overview of cetology (whales), sperm whales are the most prized and fiercest. Ahab is fierce too and all respect him. One day, he offers a gold coin to whoever bags a white whale that Tashtego calls Moby Dick. He says that's why they're on the voyage. Starbuck thinks he's mad and is afraid. Ahab drinks with the men and solidifies the mission. Wow, a major digression with the "cetology" section. Great intro for Ahab and setup for his arc: "Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I'd strike the sun if it insulted me." Some great Wrath of Khan quotes as well!

The Power Within Us - Haniel Long: Story adapted from a letter by conquistador Nunez Cabaca to Spanish King when they walked to Mexico City eight years after their failed mission in Florida. Led into disaster by pompous captain searching for "another Tenochtitlan, which ("Apalachee") turned out to be a poor swamp settlement. Tried to make boats and sail for Cuba. Failed, most died. Local Indians help by offering food, but want them to heal them in return. As a last resort they pray for the sick people and find them being healed. They begin making their way west/south, healing all the while when he finally begins to look at Indians as fellow human beings. In Mexico, they encounter other Spaniards who want to enslave their Indian companions. When they resist, the Indians are told that real Christians are those on horseback while their companions are not real Christians because they have "no luck and little heart". Indians say they prefer the fake Christians who are generous to the "real" ones who only want to steal. Nunez sees himself eight years earlier in the slavers. Great notion of "charity" that yet falls hopelessly short of Christianity. You don't see in these Spanish conquistadors any notion of Christ or Christianity at all; it's as if they are completely illiterate of both though they've heard rumors of the names. Even the idea of charity was to them self-discovered by mere accident.

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - David Hume, Sect. IV-VII: All issues of matter of fact rest on the notion of cause and effect, but those ideas come from experience alone, not a priori knowledge. Fundamental causes are totally outside our grasp. He's skeptical, therefore, about applying causes of events to like or future events. Predictions must then be only probable. We never know if "the course of nature" will change. The everyday method of navigation these difficulties is called Custom or Habit. "All inferences from experience, therefore, are effects of custom, not of reasoning." All beliefs are either memories or memories conjoined to "some other object". The difference between fiction and belief in a person's mind is in sentiment. It is an instinct given by nature to help us in life without our realizing it. Outside of math, everything is ambiguous. Our minds themselves are quite limited. Seems we can know only that one event follows another, "all events seem entirely loose and separate". We connect them only by habit. It's a scary thing to start from yourself - you don't get very far. Makes sense why some later folks (Plantinga) brought teleology back into it.

Federalist Papers #80, 81 - Alexander Hamilton: 80) Proper object of the judiciary? Five types: 1) issues of constitutionality of laws; 2) execution of provisions in Union articles; 3) cases where US are a party; 4) those involving the Peace of the Confederacy; 5) those on the high seas or where the States can't be impartial. These perfect the judiciary branch as a part of the whole system. 81) What about partitioning this authority to different subsidiary courts? There are no possibilities of intermixing powers with the legislative or with the judiciary ruling over them. Subsidiary courts will reside in districts chosen by Congress. Supreme Court has original jurisdiction only "in cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a State shall be a party". Everywhere else it only has an appellant jurisdiction. Their decisions won't override rulings of earlier courts, though they will rely on them. It's an interesting mix of power the Supreme Court has. It's mainly an appellant court as the final interpreter and spokesman for the Constitution, though it has original jurisdiction in these odd high-profile cases.

On the Loadstone - William Gilbert, Book II, Ch. 8-39: Desctiptions of meridians, equators of loadstones in comparisons to the earth. Earth, by its magnetic force, is made to revolve around its poles. The "chord" of pull by a magnet on a rod is longer as it approaches the pole. Magnetic forces travel through bodies, unlike electrical action of amber, etc. Tides show whole mass of earth cannot stop the "magnetic" pull of the moon. Various observations on stacking magnets and iron bodies and their combined pull. The center of a "terrella" (spherical magnet) is the center of force. "Ordering" force of magnets precedes the coition force. No perpetual motion machine made of magnets is possible. I need to not read this as a sloppy systematic presentation, but rather as a collection of observations loosely tied under a theme. Boy, is he pugnacious. Put him in a room with Hamilton (or Flask), give them something to disagree about, and only one will come out alive.

Politics - Aristotle, Book II: What is the best form of a political community? Communities can share: 1) all; 2) nothing; 3) mix of things; 2) is impossible. Socrates Republic is wrought with problems. Principle of "compensation" (all should participate) is the salvation of states. If "all" was shared, people would neglect responsibility, lose love of "their own", lose ability/virtue of giving. Property should be generally private; people will keep to their own business then. Selfishness is the viceful excess of self-interest. Socrates also had problems in the Laws. Other constitutions are considered. Men always want more - how to curb their appetites? "Beginning of reform is...to train the nobler sort of natures not to desire, and to prevent the lower from getting more." Lacedaemonian, Cretan, Carthaginian governments similar, all subject to corruption/bribery. Lacedaemonian had only one real virtue - virtue of soldier. Carthagians concerned with both merit and wealth. Penetrating criticism. It's good that he suggested alternatives as well; also good that much of that criticism was showing the unintended consequences of laws.

Here's this week's readings:

1. Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Ch. 40-54  (GBWW Vol. 48, pp. 78-120)
2. “Farewell Address” by George Washington (GGB Vol. 6, pp. 484-497)
3. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume, Sections VIII-IX (GBWW Vol. 33, pp. 478-488)
4. Federalist #82-83 (GBWW Vol. 40, pp. 242-251)
5. On the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies by William Gilbert, Book III (GBWW Vol. 26, pp. 60-76)
6. The Politics of Aristotle, Book III (GBWW Vol. 8, pp. 471-487)