Posted on 02/11/2006 3:20:33 AM PST by Lindykim
"When the quartz (I'm guessing) crystallized out of the molten mineral flux, it did so so rapidally that it created a local vacuum zone that the titanium-mix bubbled into -- I wonder if those globules are geode-like."
Probably not. That specimen is from Mt. Ste. Hilaire. The typical pattern there was for the quartz to form, then the secondary minerals in a different time period. Lots of zeolites there, which crystallize from solution, but nowhere near the time that the quartz does.
The globular habit is pretty common, and is usually made up of radiating acicular crystals. I haven't seen this mineral, though...at least not knowingly. It's possible there has been some on a Hilaire specimen I've had, but there are always unidentified minerals on those specimens.
Since this article started off with a physicist named Ferri, that got me thinking of Fermi, and Fermi levels, and atoms with strange Fermi Levels so I goggled minerals with ytrrium, flourine and titanium -- the last for being not so common, and came up with the two I named. I figured that such a mineral might have some novel appearance. Yet neither yfisite or tadzhikite have flourine, and I wonder if there is a mineral form that would contain the three.
Hello Patrick! Actually, the above italics do not accurately reflect my view of Charles Darwin. As a scientist, I dont think he had any particular anti-transcendence ax to grind for the simple reason that he was not preoccupied with such matters. He was no philosopher; he was just doing science. The microevolution aspects of the theory seem sound to me, a non-scientist. But I never could develop as much confidence in the macroevolution aspects. The theory may yet be true, but for now it seems there are some yawning gaps in it that need explanation.
At bottom, the problem I have with Darwinist theory is the way in which it has been appropriated by other thinkers. I have in mind some of its early boosters, such as J. Huxley and E. Haeckel, who seemingly have inferred certain principles from the theory, chief among them that man is body only, soul being an illusion, a ghost in the machine (which statement reduces the body itself to a mechanism). It appears that Karl Marx was well aware of Darwins science by the time of Das Kapital, and it is evident that he shared the view of Huxley and Haeckel.
What Huxley, Haeckel, and Marx have in common is they are all radical materialists who utterly reject any possibility of transcendence in reality: random mutation + natural selection essentially boils down to its unstated initial premise, that matter in all its motions is all that there is. In more recent times, we have Jacques Monods analysis of Darwinian evolution as the expression of pure chance and necessity. And as you are well aware, the infamous Richard Dawkins uses the theory as a stick to beat Christians with. Two more radical materialists.
In short, Darwinist evolutionary theory has had some rather stunning social effects that Darwin himself most probably did not intend or anticipate. And manifestly, political effects, too.
I stand by my observation that Darwinist theory is the basis for Marxs theories of man and history. For Darwin, it is the species that is significant; the individual has no real significance in itself beyond what it contributes to the gene pool of the species. Certainly this maxim extends to mankind. But if man is merely the unavoidable consequence of chance and necessity, and is ultimately subject to it, then there is no possibility left for there to be any meaning in history. History simply becomes the evolutionary process itself which is blind.
It is not to be doubted that Marxs theory of man likewise places no particular value on the individual the mass of men, or the Massman (e.g., species), is the subject of its tender concern. Because the individual is not preeminent in Marxian theory, he may be sacrified as necessary if the well-being of the Mass demands it, for the greater good of the whole.
For Marx the senselessness of history is something that must be ended by ending history itself and a new beginning made, shaped to an eschatology of the perfect State which shall bring about a perfect human future. That is to say, that Marx (a kind of self-appointed representative man of his age, and would-be savior of mankind) will guide human action toward the perfect fulfillment of a Paradise in time, here on earth: A system so perfect that no one will need to be good. So its time for the senselessness of history to stop, and for socialist action finally to create a real pattern of meaning for history which, by the way, really could not be intelligibly discerned at all until some unspecified future time. So history still remains senseless in this respect, from the view of the present.
For Marx, one particularly obnoxious example of the senselessness of history is the accretion of all ideas of human and natural transcendence, which he held to be utterly false. These, Marx teaches, must be eradicated so that man, once cured of false consolations, may construct a perfect world. Religion is the opiate of the masses; so the masses must be cured of this pestilential addiction: And so God must die.
And yet I find it highly ironic that Marxism:
draws its passion, and its fascination, from the root of [biblical] prophetism, which promised a world the signs of whose coming had no rational index. [Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, 1941, quoted in Aiden Nichols OP, The Thought of Benedict XVI, 2005, p. 156]In short, Marxism presents itself as an alternative religion suitable for rationalist, materialist, desacralized human beings. It certainly goes without saying that it is a religious commitment to which its followers are passionately devoted, usually to the point of irrationality. By comparison, Christianity is the model of self-consistent reason.
In the broadest sense, the entire complex of theoretical thought articulated by the thinkers mentioned above, what they all have in common, is participation in the post-Enlightenment intellectual/cultural ambience, with its emphasis on reason, materialism, positivism, and utilitarianism. Yet as Nichols points out,
the Enlightenment contained within itself the seeds of its own downfall. Enlightenment depends on a conviction of the absoluteness or divinity of truth. Should it call into question this pre-supposition of truth, it will end up by justifying the irrational, as has happened in the work of the philosopher-biologist Jacques Monod. Moreover, the more the Enlightenment movement advanced in history, the more it tended to whittle down the concept of reason which was its foundation. The rational becomes the reproducible (in a laboratory). Reason undergoes a positivist fall. People renounce the search for truth and replace it by concern with what can be done with things .For Darwin, apparently there is no logos, either. At least logos reason, intelligence does not show up in his work as in any way involved in the order of the natural world. But then we must realize that logos is non-phenomenal, non-random, immaterial, and transcendent the very sort of thing that both Darwinist and Marxian materialist presuppositions forbid. We do need to recognize that logos on the one hand, and random mutation + natural selection according to chance and necessity on the other, are mutually irreconcilable concepts: They are totally non-isomorphic. Like positivism, Marxism rejects the primacy of logos. It sees reason as generated dialectically by matter, [ergo] by the irrational, and must, therefore, regard truth as simply a human postulation. [ibid., p. 256f]
Well, them be my thoughts this afternoon, for what theyre worth my usual two-cents worth.
Just one last thing to mull over, if you have the time and interest:
In the religious history of the species, God appears in a variety of cultures as the Watcher, the being full of eyes. ManThanks so much for writing, dear Patrick!knows that absolute security does not exist, that his life is always exposed to the gaze of Someone, that his living is a being-seen. [ibid., p. 190f]
But this sensation can precipitate two contrary reactions. Either one can react negatively, angry at the existence of this Witness who threatens mans unlimited capacity to will and act. Or one can respond positively, opening himself to love through his enveloping presence, finding in it the confidence which allows him to live.
Hi TX! I meant to ping #103 to you (just above). Thought you might find it of interest.
Yes, the whole world had heard of Darwin by that time. Marx was also, no doubt, aware of Robert E. Lee. But I see no hint in the work of Marx that he was intellectually influenced by Lee -- or Darwin.
As the chronology of Marx's work points out, his principal ideas were well formed before Darwin had published anything about evolution. Surely that is significant -- even conclusive -- regarding any claim of a connection between them. Further, there is no place in the work of Marx where he quotes Darwin as authority for any of his ideas. Marx and Darwin are two separate phenomena. We don't like Marx, or his work, and you don't like what some people have claimed to be the consequences of Darwin's work. But there is no literal tie-in between the two. None.
Additionally, there's that little matter of "to each according to his needs" that Marx preached, but that is contrary to the theory of evolution. Come on, BB, the basic concepts of communism and evolution are in flat-out conflict!
However, if you can show me where Marx relied on Darwin, I'll admit my error.
To which you replied: The very sort of thing that all science ignores because it is untestable. Anybody can make claims about what the *logos* is without fear of anybody being able to say they are wrong. Very convenient.
Hi CarolinaGuitarman! Science can ignore this as "untestable" if it wants to. But this is entirely beside the point: There would be no science at all without this "untestable" thing, "reason." "Logos" -- which is simply the ancient Greek word for reason, ratio -- is indispensable to what science does, for it is the very presupposition on which science is based, thus that which makes science possible in the first place.
In other words, the world is "intelligible" only to the extent it is "reasonable."
In other words: No reason, no science. Without reason, science has nothing to do, and no way to do it anyway. Do you dispute this finding?
Dear PH, IMHO, you really do need to get past the "sloganeering" and look at the facts. That little motto of Marx has the sole purpose of proselytizing people into Marx's "new dispensation" for the world. The uncooperative are subject to Marxian "selection" -- in the negative sense.
Marx has to "correct" the world, because he detests the way it has evolved and is evolving: He finds it senseless -- which is all that Darwinist evolutionary theory makes it to be.
What we are looking for here to clarify the point of Marx's awareness of Darwinist (and Spencerian) evolutionary theory is to be found in Das Kapital. I'll try to get my hands on a copy soon, and track down a cite or two for you.
Thanks for writing!
Here ya go, BB: Here's an online version of Das Kapital.
Be speaking with you again soon!
What Huxley, Haeckel, and Marx have in common is they are all radical materialists who utterly reject any possibility of transcendence in reality: random mutation + natural selection essentially boils down to its unstated initial premise, that matter in all its motions is all that there is."
It seems that it is not only Darwinist theory that gets appropriated by Marxist/Socialist boosters. Certain thoughts of our nations founders likewise have been appropriated, most especially the thoughts of one Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Jefferson, it is alleged, was a Deist if it could be said he harbored any genuinely religious beliefs at all. Perhaps so, but a most unusual Deist he was, in that his Deity was avowedly and specifically Jesus Christ, as various of his letters to various persons attest. This is no surprise, but what follows may be to some.
In the excerpts above you make mention of matter in all its motions is all that there is as being the unstated initial premise held in common by Marxists and many another radical materialist. These are familiar phrases oft mentioned both by you and by a certain young lady whose initials are A-G, but they were also familiar to me in another context. I was rather certain that sooner or later I would come, once again, upon that other context. Sure enough:
In a letter to John Adams, dated April 11, 1823, the aforementioned worthy, Thomas Jefferson, first expresses his vehement disagreement with Calvinist thought (Adams was a Calvinist) and then launches into a declaration of faith that could today only be identified as Creationist or of Intelligent Design! Quoting:
On the contrary, I hold, (without appeal to revelation) that when we take a view of the universe, in its parts, general or particular, it is impossible for the human mind not to perceive and feel a conviction of design, consummate skill, and indefinite power in every atom of its composition. The movements of the heavenly bodies, so exactly held in their course by the balance of centrifugal and centripetal forces; the structure of our earth itself, with its distribution of lands, waters and atmosphere; animal and vegetable bodies, examined in all their minutest particles; insects, mere atoms of life, yet as perfectly organized as man or mammoth; the mineral substances, their generation and uses; it is impossible, I say, for the human mind not to believe, that there is in all this, design, cause and effect, up to an ultimate cause, a Fabricator of all things from matter and motion, their Preserver and Regulator while permitted to exist in their present forms, and their regeneration into new and other forms.
We see, too, evident proofs of the necessity of a superintending power, to maintain the universe in its course and order. Stars, well known, have disappeared, new ones have come into view; comets, in their incalculable courses, may run foul of suns and planets, and require renovation under other laws; certain races of animals are become extinct; and were there no restoring power, all existences might extinguish successively, one by one, until all should be reduced to a shapeless chaos.
So irresistible are these evidences of an intelligent and powerful Agent, that, of the infinite numbers of men who have existed through all time, they have believed, in the proportion of a million at least to unit, in the hypothesis of an eternal pre-existence of a Creator, rather than in that of a self-existent universe. Surely this unanimous sentiment renders this more probable, than that of the few in the other hypothesis.
I cannot attest that this is the specific letter which awakened in my mind echos of your phrases and descriptions. Very likely there are more letters. Jefferson wrote so many, and so many on the subject of religion; written often to his closest friends, but also to ministers who were simply interested in effecting an exchange of views.
So there it is, dear Betty. Make of it what you will.
Actually, CG, I used the term in the classical Greek way. I am particularly fond of the philosophy produced in ancient Greece by thinkers such as Heraclitus, Parmenides, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. They were familiar with the term logos as denoting the meanings reason, intellect, mind, ratio (with its mathematical implications). It is (as you point out) the etymological root of the word logic.
Maybe you are of the persuasion that reason was a discovery of the Enlightenment period. It seems quite clear to me, in contrast, that reason had been discovered in mid-first-century B.C., in Athens. It seems clear this was the first historical period that gives evidence that human beings had isolated and described this thing "reason" and they called it logos.
I don't need to point out again that this logos is, by nature and definition, nonphenomenal, nonrandom, immaterial, and "transcendent." This appears to have been the consensus view of the time, and the settled meaning of the word for a couple of millennia.
I am not talking "metaphysical banality" here, but of something that (evidently) your blind spot does not let you see. But if you've never been a student of human cultural history, then one can't blame you for having a "blind spot." Maybe it's just a lacuna that your experience in the future will supply. I hope so.
cheers, CG. Thank you so much for writing.
Very beautiful words from Thos. Jefferson, thank you for pinging me.
Seems like the most truthful and equitable definition of ID I've seen yet! Hoo-rah TJ!!!
So let's just leave the definition to TJ!, and move on to the next great thing, sure of a sound footing in reality. (TJ had a knack for seeing things square and true. Or so it seems to me.)
Thank you ever so much, YHAOS, for posting this gem!
I wasn't aware that I had, but I'm glad you've derived some value from it. To me, Jefferson is always an interesting read.
The definition itself was hardly my point
Good night, and sleep tight!
PatrickHenry, concerning the influence of Darwin on Marxism you might be interested in these articles and bits of correspondence from this google search of the Marxist archives.
YHAOS, I do find the quote from Jefferson to be quite telling - he did not accept the notion that matter in all its motions is "all that there is".
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