Inquiry into the Past

    The inquiry into the past can be seen as a way to find out how people behaved to justify a present action. Some people in the past worked this way, so we should work this way to. At first this argument seems to be a logical fallacy of some sort. But even if you were to charge to argument with being a formal fallacious, there is still an insight to be gleaned from the argument, which is the fact that the past can be a guide for present action.

    Once we have a firm grasp of the events that are important to us, then we can begin to move forward in our plans, which are based upon our understanding of these important events. Usually these events are either pleasurable or painful experiences that we wish either to run after to avoid or seek after to brook. But these personal concerns are too trivial though because no one cares about them. So we must look to pubic events to begin our inquiry into these important matters.

   The happy experiences of mankind have been found in their work though managing either their own property or the people who live on that property. Note that this post is not about slavery, but rather what people enjoy in their work. In either case, their property has been the source of enjoyment because of the yield from it such as grain from a farm. People then trade items that are either man-made or found in nature to gain a benefit from them. These products come from land, which is the focus of mankind for their happy experiences. We seek to improve the functions of these sources of happiness through our labor over our property that has been given to us.

    The painful experiences of mankind have been through the disputes that they have over their property. Conflicts begin over disputes over the right to property. These fights are not going to be resolved any time soon, so it seems to be the natural outcome over disputes about ownership. And usually the winner of these fights are the the stronger willed ones, who relentlessly pursue what is theirs. So we are impressed as historical inquirers over the struggles of mankind and seek to find a reason why these painful experiences happen.

Haunting the Obscure

    There is a feeling that suggests that you have a certain range of choices available to you. This feeling can be taken away once time passes, and you are left in the dust, so to speak. This loss of options gives you new ones to choose from, but the pattern of lost chances happens again and again for those who decide not to follow on new paths.

   There is also a need to look at past events that have not been explored before. This need is satisfied once past events come to light to folk who have these feelings. There are events that are available to the seeker of a past that has not been explored before. Or at least, there have not been many people who have seen this option of haunting the obscure. That is, the past events that are not popular are the hunting ground of people with these feelings.

    If you spend time in the past that seemingly no one else has seen, you will become trapped in a certain mindset, which seeks isolation from the present that is thought to be harmful in some way. If you feel threatened by current events, you would seek refuge in the past to calm your fear of failing to live up to present events. So these obscure past events are a kind of sanctuary, where you can spend your time to get a better feel of how to measure up to current events.

   Now we have a dilemma because if you seek a safe shelter in the past, then this seeking is itself a present action, which suggests that the haunting that you seek after is a present one, rather than an action that is in line with the past. For example, if I want to escape a current battle that has been raging by reading up on how men in the past counted their grain, then that action is in line with the present, rather than the past.

   This outworking tells us that it is a fool's paradise to escape the present realities that we should deal with. As we study the past, we bring up new problems to deal with. To haunt the obscure is to say that there must be a better way than how we are currently handling our problems. So our looking back on how men have handled their problems can give us direction on how we should handle our difficulties now, but we cannot be under the spell of refuge from our current problems.

Making Meaning out of Experience

    Ayer's Language Truth & Logic claims that the principle of verification is what makes propositions meaningful. And the principle itself is Experience. But 'Experience' is vague and needs to be defined.

    There is a "weak" and a "strong" kind of verification that Ayer gives:

    The "weak" kind is where a particular sense-experience confirms a proposition.

    For example, let's say that we have the proposition, "My dog barked.", then I could find out if the proposition "My dog barked" (Bd) is true by checking Experience for the sound of 'my barking dog'. This verification is weak because Bd itself is not something you hear, since Bd is a proposition and not a sense experience. Your experience of Bd is not Bd itself.

    The "strong" kind of verification is the other type that explains a sense-experience.

    So if an observation statement explains the barking dog in a given time and place, then that statement is meaningful because it explains the experience of a barking dog. This verification is 'strong' rather than 'weak' because propositions that can be verified are either statements of Experience or your experience of Experience.

    So making Meaning out of a given proposition is a private experience, whereas verification requires both the proposition and the experience of who formed the proposition. So we make Meaning out of propositions that have been confirmed by others, who have had the experience of what those propositions refer to.

Confessing Textual Variants

        Years ago, James White posted a brief debate that he had with Douglas Wilson over textual critical issues. Wilson represented the traditional viewpoint of using the textus receptus or the received text, which the Refomers used, while White pressed the matter of getting back to the original wording of the Apostles though the course of the debate. One point concerning a particular definition is interesting to look at.

        During White's rubuttal, he asked Wilson to define what he ment by the "confessing historical Church" to which Wilson responded, "Confessing refers to creeds and confessions, and historical refers to the providence of God as He has protected and led the Church over time. Thus the confessing historical Church has determined that the Bible contains 66 books and that Mark 16:9-20 is in one of them. A few readings remain to be settled, but the settling is to be done by the confessing historical Church—not Zondervan. Individualistic efforts may be believing work, and yet not submitted to the authority of the Church. Secular canons of academic text criticism do not require ecclesiastical review."

        The assuption is that the canon of scripture includes all of the verses that were held as canonical at the time that the confessions were written.  It is dubious since the denotative definition given in the first chapter of the Westminster Confession, for instance, does not clearly articulate all the chapters and verses that are cannonical, only the books. More generaly, Wilson trusts the sources that the Reformers used for their textual selections. But Erasmus had a ten manuscripts to work from, which is far less than the thousands of manuscripts that scholars have access to today.

The Anxiety of Boredom

There is no use in following after senseless things, but there is a feeling of dread, when one spends time on frivolous things. Along with that feeling is the sense that the time spent is questionable.

It is clear that things that edify should be pursued instead of useless matters, but the feeling of loss is generated by an uncertain mind rather than gotten through detection. That is, the sense that one gets though useless maters is prompted from a confused state rather than the horrible time spent.

A catalogue of all events superfluous would not highlight the matter, since flexibility should be maintained for all interested persons. They will not follow a tight list even if a common thread is found.

What is needed is a motivated mind to combat the madness of melancholy. Provisionally, a plan, even if stubborn, should be followed. The plan gives direction, but the captain gives it speed.