Musings on Philosophy

Currently reading:
Bonaventure: The Soul's Journey into God
The Cambridge Companion to Duns Scotus edited by Thomas Williams
The Drama of Docrine by Kevin Vanhoozer

My reading list is constantly growing; I've just put a couple books up there now which I am currently going through, with a bunch more currently sitting on a table in the lounge outside my room. Drama of Doctrine in particular I'm finding to be interesting; it's addressing some of my concerns in the last post, so maybe I'll be able to find another way out. (I never said I liked the conclusions I reached, merely that they were the ones I reached).

In the meantime, I've been thinking about the purpose of philosophy. I currently have two musings. I do not claim that these are my full thoughts on the matter; throw in appropriate nuances and such as you see fit:

1. The purpose of philosophy is explication. I should not be trying to come up with some new idea, some fundamentally new, counter-intuitive way of looking at the world; I should be looking for a way to present what we already know, in a way that gives us greater understanding and insight. This can require creativity and looking at the world in a "new" way, but only if it in the end is another explication of what we already know.

2. The relationship between reason and emotion: in this life, reason should be primary, but not because it is intrinsically better. In fact, it would be better to be able to rely on our affections and direct vision, and these will shoulder out reason in the life to come. However, in the meantime, we are cripples due to the pervasiveness of sin, with both our reason and affections weakened. A cripple who runs will fall flat on her face; rather, the cripple should walk slowly and methodically. This does not remove the chance of falling, but lessens it and provides opportunity for catching ones balance. Similarly, the methodicalness of reason better suits it for dealing with our errors (though see my post on Reason and Creativity below; I'm only presenting one side here), though as we grow strong through God's grace in love and holiness, we can start taking larger steps. Reason is therefore necessary and should guide us the most in the early stages, but like Virgil in Dante's Divine Comedy it can only lead us so far until Beatrice, representing love, has to take over.

At the same time, I would like to affirm some words by Bonaventure:
First, therefore, I inivite the reader to the groans of prayer through Christ crucified, through whose blood we are cleansed from the filth of vice - so that he not believe
that reading is sufficient without unction,
speculation without devotion,
investigation without wonder,
observation without joy,
work without piety,
knowledge without love,
understanding without humility,
endeaveor without divine grace,
reflection as a mirror without divinely inspired wisdom.