text:
Marriage vowsOne thing the marriage ideal did and did alone: it took love seriously: it demanded the payment of the eternal promise of youth. Herein we think, though the trend of today is wholly against such feeling, it inexpressibly increased the vividness, the poetry, the boyish heroism of life. Society associated itself with the worship of the lover, it set on the woman's head a price high enough to satisfy even his imagination. It said "You shall not have this secret and superhuman happiness, unless you give up all for it, unless you bring your life in your hands."
G. K. Chesterton
Early Notebooks
Oct. 22, 2010, at 1:49pm
Utilitarianism, in one form or another, has a serious grip on the contemporary mind. No matter how logically compelling the arguments against it may be, or how often they are repeated, the habit of utilitarian thinking seems to prevail unchecked. I even notice the problem in my own mind. In spite of my rejection of the theory, both morally and intellectually, I find it all too easy to sympathize with the likes of Jack Bauer who are willing to break any and every moral principle as long as the results seem to justify it.
I also see the problem in my students. Some of them are unabashed utilitarians. They agree that euthasia, torture, cannibalism, etc., are undesirable in themselves, but they also think that such acts are sometimes justified by their consequences. Others are more like me. They reject the theory in principle, but can't help sometimes falling into utiliarian ways of viewing and thinking about the world.
I am always on the lookout, therefore, for persuasive arguments against utilitarianism—especially for arguments that show how inhumane and depersonalizing the doctrine really is. The latter is important because utilitarianists often seem to be more personalist than their critics since they pay more attention to the interests of persons than to abstract, universal moral rules. Such rules are fine, they argue, as long as they serve the general interest. But in case of a conflict, we should never sacrifice the interests of persons to an abstract rule.
So I appreciated an argument I came accross recently in an article by Tom Regan (an animal rights advocate with whom I otherwise mostly and strongly disagree). Whereas many advocates of animal rights make their arguments on utilitarianist grounds—Peter Singer among them, who famously holds that "all animals [human or not] are equal"—Regan thinks that the utilitarian conception of equality is badly flawed: it basically says that all individuals are equal only in the sense that none of them have any intrinsic value at all. As Regan puts it: "Utilitarianism has no room for the equal moral rights of different individuals because it has no room for their equal inherent value or worth. What has value for the utilitarian is the satisfaction of an individual's interests, not the individual whose interests they are." Here is an analogy he uses to clarify his meaning:
a cup contains different liquids, sometimes sweet, sometimes bitter, sometimes a mix of the two. What has value are the liquids: the sweeter the better, the bitterer the worse. The cup, the container, has no value. It is what goes into it, not what they go into, that has value. For the utilitarian you and I are like the cup; we have no value as individuals and thus no equal value. What has value is what goes into us, what we serve as receptacles for; our feelings of satisfaction have positive value, our feelings of frustration negative value.
Let me also quote the long example he gives to further illustrate the way in which the utilitarian calculus works, and how it completely disregards the value and rights of the individual:
That utilitarianism is an aggregative theory — different individuals' satisfactions or frustrations are added, or summed, or totalled - is the key objection to this theory. My Aunt Bea is old, inactive, a cranky, sour person, though not physically ill. She prefers to go on living. She is also rather rich. I could make a fortune if I could get my hands on her money, money she intends to give me in any event, after she dies, but which she refuses to give me now. In order to avoid a huge tax bite, I plan to donate a handsome sum of my profits to a local children's hospital. Many, many children will benefit from my generosity, and much joy will be brought to their parents, relatives and friends. If I don't get the money rather soon, all these ambitions will come to naught. The once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a real killing will be gone. Why, then, not kill my Aunt Bea? Oh, of course I might get caught. But I'm no fool and, besides, her doctor can be counted on to co-operate (he has an eye for the same investment and I happen to know a good deal about his shady past). The deed can be done . . . professionally, shall we say. There is very little chance of getting caught. And as for my conscience being guilt-ridden, I am a resourceful sort of fellow and will take more than sufficient comfort - as I lie on the beach at Acapulco - in contemplating the joy and health I have brought to so many others. Suppose Aunt Bea is killed and the rest of the story comes out as told. Would I have done anything wrong? Anything immoral? One would have thought that I had. Not according to utilitarianism. Since what I have done has brought about the best balance between totalled satisfaction and frustration for all those affected by the outcome, my action is not wrong. Indeed, in killing Aunt Bea the physician and I did what duty required.
What do you think? I think this argument is basically sound (even though it would have to be shored up against all sorts of utilitarian counters). But is it convincing? Will it leave an impression? Or do you, my kind reader, have a better argument I can use?
Oct. 17, 2010, at 12:01am
"Cleansed, but not saved" was the theme of a homily I heard last Sunday. The homilist took his cue from the Gospel reading (Lk 17:11-19) in which Jesus cleanses ten lepers, but only one—a Samaritan—returns to give thanks. "Ten were cleansed, were they not?" Jesus asks. "Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?" Then He turns to the one who came back and says "Stand up and go; your faith has saved you."
Ten persons were cleansed by Jesus. They were relieved of terrible objective suffering and restored to health. But only one was saved. What made the difference? Gratitude, said the priest.
This got me reflecting. Why would gratitude make such an ultimate difference? What was that difference? Perhaps the ten were at first only cleansed in a physical or bodily sense, and only the one who came back was cleansed a second time, and now in a spiritual sense?
Yes, surely. But my thoughts went in different, more personalist direction. I was thinking about the way in which God's saving work among persons requires our free cooperation, even participation. Laundry gets thrown into the machine and comes out clean. It passively undergoes the cleansing. With persons it is different. It is not just that persons have souls, and that souls require a different kind of washing. It is rather that persons are so constituted that they cannot be washed (as persons) without freely willing it. Persons cannot be cleansed by passively undergoing some procedure. They must want it and go along with it. In other words, they must subjectively appropriate the washing.
This, I think, is why the gratitude of the one leper is so important. It shows that he saw the cleansing action not simply as a fantastic bit of good luck that happened to him, but rather as a great gift coming from a loving and compassionate Giver. As such it called for a proper and personal response; for "active receptivity" and deep gratitude. By giving this response, the leper allowed the cleansing to do its deeper and saving work—not just in his flesh, but in his very self.
Gratitude is the means by which a subject, a self, appropriates a gift, and makes the giving and receiving a genuinely inter-personal act.
Oct. 12, 2010, at 5:50pm
Like von Hildebrand, whose birthday she shares, Edith Stein studied philosophy in Göttingen under Edmund Husserl and Adolf Reinach. There, too, she met Max Scheler, whose genius influenced her profoundly.
From a short biography by Laura Garcia:
Stein's philosophical studies encouraged her openness to the possibility of transcendent realities, and her atheism began to crumble under the influence of her friends who had converted to Christianity.
During the summer of 1921, at the age of twenty-nine, Stein was vacationing with friends but found herself alone for the evening. She picked up, seemingly by chance, the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila, founder of the Carmelite Order. She read it in one sitting, decided that the Catholic faith was true, and went out the next day to buy a missal and a copy of the Catholic catechism. She was baptized the following January…
Stein eventually became a leading voice in the Catholic Woman's Movement in Germany, speaking at conferences and helping to formulate the principles behind the movement.
...Most of Edith Stein's writing on women and women's vocation stems from the decade of her professional life between her conversion and her entrance into the Carmelite community at Cologne. The importance of these essays cannot be overestimated, both in terms of their originality and level of insight, but also in terms of their wider influence. On a recent visit to the U.S., Cardinal Lustiger of Paris, himself a Jewish convert to Catholicism, called Edith Stein one of the greatest philosophers of our time. "Her best pupil," he said, "is the Holy Father" [John Paul II]. Anyone who has read the pope's encyclical on The Dignity and Vocation of Woman, or his more recent Letter to Women, will see immediately how much they owe to Edith Stein's pioneering work on this subject.
In 1942, Edith died at the hands of the Nazis. Jules and I and several of the faculty and students of IAP were present for her canonization in Rome twelve years ago.
This month's Magnificat has a litany of quotations from saints. It includes this one from Edith Stein:
Holy realism has a certain affinity with the realism of the child who receives and responds to impressions with unimpaired vigor and vitality, and with uninhibited simplicity.
And here is a beautiful, deeply personalist prayer of hers. Its last lines especially are like Newman.
Whatever did not fit in with my plan did lie within the plan of God. I have an ever deeper and firmer belief that nothing is merely an accident when seen in the light of God, that my whole life down to the smallest details has been marked out for me in the plan of Divine Providence and has a completely coherent meaning in God's all seeing eyes.
To be a child of God, that means to be led by the Hand of God, to do the Will of God, not one's own will, to place every care and every Hope in the Hand of God and not to worry about one's future. On this rests the freedom and the joy of the child of God. But how few of even the truly pious, even of those ready for heroic sacrifices, possess this freedom.
When night comes, and you look back over the day and see how fragmentary everything has been, and how much you planned that has gone undone, and all the reasons you have to be embarrassed and ashamed: just take everything exactly as it is, put it in God's hands and leave it with Him. Then you will be able to rest in Him—really rest—and start the next day as a new life.
Oct. 12, 2010, at 5:17pm
From the biography at the Dietrich von Hildebrand Legacy Project website:
Born October 12, 1889 in Florence of German parents, Dietrich von Hildebrand was an original philosopher and religious writer, a brave anti-Nazi activist, an outspoken Christian witness, and a unique representative of Western culture - truly a great figure in twentieth century religious, political, intellectual, and cultural history…
Von Hildebrand studied philosophy under Edmund Husserl, who declared his dissertation to be a work of genius. He was profoundly influenced by his close friend, the brilliant German philosopher Max Scheler, who helped to pave the way for von Hildebrand's conversion to Catholicism in 1914…
Throughout his life von Hildebrand wrote many works unfolding the faith and morals of Catholicism. Among these are such classics as Purity and Virginity, Marriage, Liturgy and Personality, and Transformation in Christ...
Many of von Hildebrand's most important and original philosophical works - among them Ethics, What is Philosophy?, The Nature of Love, and Aesthetics - were written after his arrival in America. Through his many writings, von Hildebrand contributed to the development of a rich Christian personalism, especially by his stress on the transcendence of human persons.
When Jules put together a short anthology of DvH's thought at the request of the Legacy Project, that stress on the transcendence of persons was its hermeneutical and organizational key.
Looking for the link just now, I noticed this comment in review:
I've gotten more spiritual help, REAL help and understanding from this little book than from any other I've ever owned. It is brilliantly concise, accessible and spiritually sober in a manner that inspires complete trust in this beautiful man.
Oct. 10, 2010, at 7:58am
Dear Jules,
Your text on and by the Maritains is just wonderful. The young Maritains must have had a very similar experience to the one Friedrich Nietzsche describes so forcefully in the third Untimely Meditation (Unzeitgemäße Betrachtung); this is a work which overtly deals with Schopenhauer but, as we know from later letters and works of Nietzsche, really recounts Nietzsche's own experience. There Nietzsche expresses his conviction that every philosopher who takes his starting point from Kant will fall into a scepticism which 'corrodes and smashes everything.' Nietzsche expresses his own feelings in the moving words of the famous German poet Heinrich von Kleist (see picture below) who wrote in a letter that, after having studied Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, he felt that his deepest aspirations and search for meaning had been frustrated, the 'most sacred inner sanctuary of his soul had been deadly wounded,' and 'the highest and only goal of his life had sunk.' The goal referred to by Kleist was his hope to come to know a truth which was not relative to human consciousness and opinion, a truth 'which remains true until after the grave.'
Here is the text:
This was the first danger in whose shadow Schopenhauer grew up: isolation. The second was despair of the truth. This danger attends every thinker who sets out from the Kantian philosophy, provided he is a vigorous and whole man in suffering and desire and not a mere clattering thought- and calculating-machine. Now we all know very well the shameful implications of this presupposition; it seems to me, indeed, that Kant has had a living and life-transforming influence on only a very few men. One can read everywhere, I know, that since this quiet scholar produced his work a revolution has taken place in every domain of the spirit; but I cannot believe it. For I cannot see it in those men who would themselves have to be revolutionized before a revolution could take place in any whole domain whatever. If Kant ever should begin to exercise any wide influence we shall be aware of it in the form of a gnawing and disintegrating skepticism and relativism; and only in the most active and noble spirits who have never been able to exist in a state of doubt would there appear instead that … despair of all truth such as Heinrich von Kleist for example experienced it as the effect of the Kantian philosophy. "Not long ago," he writes in his moving way, "I became acquainted with the Kantian philosophy—and I now have to tell you of a thought I derived from it, which I feel free to do because I have no reason to fear it will shatter you so profoundly and painfully as it has me.—We are unable to decide whether that which we call truth really is truth, or whether it only appears to us to be it. If the latter, then the truth we assemble here is nothing after our death, and all endeavor to acquire a possession which will follow us to the grave is in vain.—If the pointed edge of this thought does not pierce your heart, do not smile at one who feels wounded by it in the deepest and innermost sanctuary of his being. My only and highest goal has sunken and I have no other one left." [Letter to Wilhelmine von Zenge, Mar. 22, 1801.] When indeed will men feel in this natural Kleistian fashion, when will they again learn to assess the meaning of a philosophy in the "innermost sanctuary" of their soul?
I will look for a fuller translation of the truly outstanding letter of Kleist on truth being the condition of a life worth living, of which Nietzsche only quotes a part. Unfortunately Kleist's despair of truth did not end so happily as the Maritains'. He did not encounter a Bergson and committed suicide with his fiancee.
Oct. 9, 2010, at 2:25am
5. The Evidence of Freedom Obtained by the Experience of Overwhelmingly Many and Fundamental Human Acts of Everyone that not only Presuppose but Show Free Will
A fifth and closely related way to reach the knowledge that human persons are free is to investigate the conditions of an overwhelmingly large number of basic human acts each of us performs daily, acts directed at our own or at other persons. If we look at the object and subject of these acts, such as asking for something, thanking someone, reproaching him, or repenting our sins, we existentially encounter our own and other person's freedom. And none of us could live a day or even an hour a normal human life without presupposing and seeing freedom.
Thus one could show how not only the act of vowing or promising, but also the essentially self-directed act of repentance of one's own sins or the essentially other-directed act of gratitude or forgiveness, and many further fundamental human acts presuppose the evidence of freedom not only in the subject-person but also in the object-person of these acts. In the act of gratitude, for example, we find that it is rooted in an evidence of the freedom of both the subject-person (a forced gratitude would be no gratitude at all, but a "wooden iron") but also in the object-person to whom we are grateful and who gave us a freely given gift. For it would be senseless to thank anybody if we did not understand and believe that he acted freely as well as kindly towards us or to persons dear to us. We cannot thank a machine or marionette. Also in the act of repenting we find the evidence of our freedom at its root: it would be absolutely senseless to repent what our nature compelled us to do. Likewise, when we reproach another person, or when we forgive her some wrong done to us by her, we necessarily presuppose that she is a free agent. But when we look more deeply into it, we find much more: that in these acts we possess a large degree of evidence that we or other persons, and that human persons as such are free. The same is true when we exhort or praise, admonish, chide, condemn, or encourage other persons.
Hence, in this five-fold way we can indeed know that we are free and answer the question "Are we free?" with the unambiguous answer: "Yes, we are free!" and what is the best: all of us, at least deep down, know this immensely important truth from childhood on which philosophy can only bring out from the dark into the light as a midwife helps the already existing child to reach the light of the day. So I hope that each of you only understands more clearly what you all knew all along: "Yes, I am free!"
Oct. 9, 2010, at 2:08am
4. The Argument from the Self-contradiction of denying freedom and pledging to defend determinism
A fourth kind of argument on behalf of our freedom is that everybody who denies freedom already presupposes it. Both in the act of denying freedom and in insisting that we and everyone else should recognize the truth that there is no freedom, we presuppose the evidence that we and other persons are free and only for that reason we can possibly have a moral responsibility towards ourselves and towards others of publicizing this alleged truth. Thus in all of these judgments in which we reject freedom we contradict our deterministic view and presuppose the evidence of freedom. An excellent form of this kind of "transcendental argument" for freedom and against determinism we owe to Hans Jonas.
In his book Macht oder Ohnmacht der Subjektivität, he refutes brilliantly the materialist ontology and the deterministic account of mind. Jonas opens his book by relating the historical fact that a group of young physiologists (students of the famous Johannes Müller) met regularly in the house of the physicist Gustav Magnus in Berlin. Two of them (Ernst Brücke and Emil du Bois-Reymond) made a formal pact to spread the truth 'that no other forces are at work in the organism except chemical-physical ones.' Soon also the young Helmholtz joined them in this solemn promise. Later all three men became famous in their fields and remained faithful to their agreement.
Jonas shows, however, that the very fact of this promise already contradicted, without them noticing it, the very content of their promise, or rather, the materialist theory and negation of freedom which they pledged to promote throughout their career. For they did not bind themselves, and could not have bound themselves, to leave to the molecules of their brain their respective course of action because the course of molecular events in their brains, according to their opinion, was wholly determined since the beginning of the world, nor did they bind themselves by means of their promise to allow these molecules to determine all their speaking and thinking in the future. (This would have been equally senseless for the same reasons.) Rather, they pledged fidelity to their present insight or better, their false opinion. They declared by their pact, at least for themselves, that their subjectivity was master over their action. In the very act of making this promise they trusted something entirely non-physical, namely their relationship to what they took to be the truth and their freedom to decide over their action. Moreover, they ascribed precisely to this factor a determining power over their brains and bodies – which power, however, had been denied by the content of their thesis. To promise something, with the essentially included conviction to be able to keep such a promise and to be likewise free to break it, this admits a force of freedom at work 'in the organism' of man. Faithfulness to one's promise is such a force. Thus, precisely the very "act of vowing always to deny freedom and any non-physical force" solemnly confirmed the existence of the very sort of freedom and 'non-physical forces' which they denied!
Oct. 8, 2010, at 2:26pm
October 9th is the anniversary of the day in 1845 when Newman entered the Catholic Church, "the one true fold."
Looking for something to post in honor of the occasion, I read just now for the first time a remembrance of Newman by J.A. Froude, brother of Newman's close friend, Hurrell. It's more than worth reading in full, and I won't resist quoting it at length. For me it evokes Newman exactly as I have encountered him imaginatively, reading his works and reading about his life, and through beseeching his intercession as a friend in heaven.
When I entered at Oxford, John Henry Newman was beginning to be famous. The responsible authorities were watching him with anxiety; clever men were looking with interest and curiosity on the apparition among them of one of those persons of indisputable genius who was likely to make a mark upon his time. His appearance was striking. He was above the middle height, slight and spare. His head was large, his face remarkably like that of Julius Cæsar. The forehead, the shape of the ears and nose, were almost the same. The lines of the mouth were very peculiar, and I should say exactly the same. I have often thought of the resemblance, and believed that it extended to the temperament. In both there was an original force of character which refused to be moulded by circumstances, which was to make its own way, and become a power in the world; a clearness of intellectual perception, a disdain for conventionalities, a temper imperious and wilful, but along with it a most attaching gentleness, sweetness, singleness of heart and purpose. Both were formed by nature to command others; both had the faculty of attracting to themselves the passionate devotion of their friends and followers; and in both cases, too, perhaps the devotion was rather due to the personal ascendency of the leader than to the cause which he represented. It was Cæsar, not the principle of the empire, which overthrew Pompey and the constitution. Credo in Newmannum was a common phrase at Oxford, and is still unconsciously the faith of nine-tenths of the English converts to Rome.
He captures two particularly striking features of Newman: his originality and the intense reality of his faith.
Here were thoughts like no other man's thoughts, and emotions like no other man's emotions. Here was a man who really believed his creed, and let it follow him into all his observations upon outward things.
...No one was more essentially tender-hearted. But he took the usually accepted Christian account of man and his destiny to be literally true, and the terrible character of it weighed upon him.
Sunt lacrymæ rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt.
One feels his essential personalism, both in the sense of the power and breadth and refinement of his individual personality, and in the sense of the way his mind and heart operated, and in the themes that occupied his attention.
I had then never seen so impressive a person. I met him now and then in private; I attended his church and heard him preach Sunday after Sunday; he is supposed to have been insidious, to have led his disciples on to conclusions to which he designed to bring them, while his purpose was carefully veiled. He was, on the contrary, the most transparent of men. He told us what he believed to be true. He did not know where it would carry him. No one who has ever risen to any great height in this world refuses to move till he knows where he is going. He is impelled in each step which he takes by a force within himself. He satisfies himself only that the step is a right one, and he leaves the rest to Providence. Newman's mind was world-wide. He was interested in everything which was going on in science, in politics, in literature. Nothing was too large for him, nothing too trivial, if it threw light upon the central question, what man really was, and what was his destiny…
Listen to what Froude says of Newman's sermons of the day.
The hearts of men vibrate in answer to one another like the strings of musical instruments. These sermons were, I suppose, the records of Newman's own mental experience. They appear to me to be the outcome of continued meditation upon his fellow-creatures and their position in this world; their awful responsibilities; the mystery of their nature, strangely mixed of good and evil, of strength and weakness. A tone, not of fear, but of infinite pity runs through them all, and along with it a resolution to look facts in the face; not to fly to evasive generalities about infinite mercy and benevolence, but to examine what revelation really has added to our knowledge, either of what we are or of what lies before us.
Blessed John Henry Newman, pray for us. Pray for the Church.
Oct. 8, 2010, at 11:43am
An article in the latest American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly (sorry, no link) reminds me of the inspiring story of Jacques and Raïssa Maritain's encounter with Henri Bergson.
The Maritains, though earnestly looking for ultimate truth and meaning in their lives, had been deeply discouraged by their teachers at the Sorbonne in Paris, all of whom were enthralled by the scientific and atheistic materialism in vogue at the time. These teachers taught them that the truth they were looking for—i.e. absolute truth, truth that goes beyond natural science, truth that is worth living (and dying) for—that such truth did not exist, or, at any rate, was impossible to find.
Raïssa describes the crushing effect on Jacques and herself:
Already I had come to believe myself an atheist; I no longer put up any defence against atheism, in the end persuaded, or rather devastated, as I was by so many arguments given out as 'scientific.' And the absence of God unpeopled the universe. If we must also give up the hope of finding any meaning whatever for the word truth, for the distinction of good from evil, of just from unjust, it is no longer possible to live humanly. I wanted no part in such a comedy. I would have accepted a sad life, but not one that was absurd. Jacques had for a long time thought that it was still worthwhile to fight for the poor, against the slavery of the 'proletariat.' And his own natural generosity had given him strength. But now his despair was as great as my own.
And so the Maritains came to a decision: if the world was truly meaningless and absurd, the only rational response would be to commit suicide. They would leave the world together, "by a free act," and at a time of their choosing.
Thank God, it never came to this. Before the time they had given themselves ran out, they met Henri Bergson. Again Raïssa recounts their experience:
there was always present within us this invincible idea of truth, this door ajar on the road of life; but until the unforgettable day when we heard Bergson, this idea of truth, this hope of unsuspected discoveries had been implicitly and explicitly frustrated by all those from whom we hoped to gain some light. … [Then] by means of a wonderfully penetrating critique … [Bergson] dispelled the anti-metaphysical prejudices of pseudo-scientific positivism and recalled to the spirit its real functions and essential liberty.
What is inspiring about this story is how serious the Maritain's were about truth. They realized much more deeply than most of us ever do how crucial it is for living a truly human and dignified life. In contrast, what is so depressing about much of today's culture is the fact that the impossibility of reaching absolute truth is accepted as a matter of course; as if it isn't really a big deal. "Truth? No truth? Who really cares? It's for the academics to fight about."
Oct. 6, 2010, at 1:00pm
I've gathered many gems from the rich vein of Alice von Hildebrand's "apostolate of being" over the years of our friendship. Among them is her way of looking for and rejoicing in "bonds" between her and those she loves, and delighting when she finds them. "That's another bond between us!" is a characteristic phrase of hers.
The fact that they were both born and raised in Europe is a bond between her and my husband. If she suddenly remembers a Flemish word learned in childhood more than 75 years ago, she'll find a way of bringing it into the conversation—as a way of both exhibiting and deepening this particular bond between them. If I mention my regret over my weakness and irritability, or my practical ineptitude, she'll say with all compassion: "Dear one, that's another bond between us." Their love of classical music and all great art was among the great bonds between her and her husband.
It goes without saying that the higher rank of the value in question, the deeper that bond will be. Religious values create the deepest bonds, then moral values, and so on down the line to much more modest but still real things, like a shared love of Italian food or a hatred of loud trucks.
I thought of this today, because October 6th is our son—whose middle name is Hildebrand—Max's birthday. It's also the birthday of her father-in-law, the great sculptor, Adolf von Hildebrand. A bond between us.
I know she's thinking of it today too.
UPDATE: When I first wrote this post I mistakenly identified Oct. 6th as the birthday of AvH's father, Henri, who in fact was born on February 6th. She kindly corrected me.
Oct. 4, 2010, at 9:02pm
I've just read a book review of The Diaries Sofia Tolstoy that fills me with an inexpressible sadness.
Who can read it without sympathizing with feminism?
On Nov. 13, 1863, the young wife describes her existence:
"I am left alone morning, afternoon and night. I am to gratify his pleasure and nurse his child, I am a piece of household furniture. I am a woman. I try to suppress all human feelings. When the machine is working properly it heats the milk, knits a blanket, makes little requests and bustles about trying not to think—and life is tolerable. But the moment I am alone and allow myself to think, everything seems insufferable."
She admires her husband's gifts of insight and expression, and feels most at peace when she's able to help him his work by typing his manuscripts, sometimes repeatedly.
Yet, as she poignantly remarks, "If he had one iota of the psychological understanding which fills his books, he would have understood the pain and despair I was going through."
Her life is filled with enervating child-rearing and household cares. In the introduction to the book (which I found at Amazon.com), Dahlia Lithwick makes clear that Sofia Tolstoy was a typically modern woman, in exactly the sense Jules discusses below—in her self-awareness, her brooding restlessness and discontent.
...why am I not happy? Is it my fault? I know all the reasons for my spiritual suffering: firstly it grieves me that my children are not as happy as I would wish. And then I am actually very lonely. My husband is not my friend: he has been my passionate at times, especially as he grows older, but all my life I have felt lonely with him. He doesn't go for walks with me, he prefers to ponder in solitude over his writing. He has never taken any interest in my children, for he finds this difficult and dull.
Sofia longs for new landscapes, intellectual development, art, contact with people: "To each his fate. Mine was to be the auxiliary to my husband…"
Lithwick makes the likewise typically modern and back-firing mistake of seeing birth control as the solution to Sofia's problem:
Like most women at the time, Sofia was at the mercy of her reproductive system—the advent of the pill was still almost a century away.
But to me, even without yet having read the diaries, it seems clear that the real source of her suffering was much deeper, and had everything to do with her sense of subordination, instrumentalization and thwarted personal selfhood. The consolation is that her suffering and her husband's gifts have been part of awakening the world to problem.
Oct. 4, 2010, at 1:30pm
In a recent talk I gave on his life and thought, I tried to explain that John Henry Newman is an especially important saint for our times, in large part because of the modernity of his faith. He lived in a culture that, in spite of some obvious differences, is nevertheless very close to our own. But he did not just live in this culture, he was also a part of it. His inner life and thought was shaped by it, and so, therefore, was his faith. Newman, in other words, shows us what holiness looks like in today's world.
In a recent interview Pope Benedict XVI expresses the same point better than I did. Asked about the significance of Newman, he answered (in part)
Newman is, above all, a modern man who lived the whole problem of modernity, who also lived the problem of agnosticism, the problem of the impossibility of knowing God, of believing… This interior modernity of his life implies the modernity of his faith. It is not a faith in formulas of past times but a very personal faith, lived, suffered, found in a long journey of renewal and conversion. (my italics)
Reading this reminded me of another perceptive author, Romano Guardini, who also singles out Newman as a uniquely modern saint. In his Letters from Lake Como, which is a beautiful but also somewhat depressing reflection on the modern, technological world, he expresses his conviction that in an age like ours—"uncertain, skeptical, seeking, and homeless"—believers "must stand directly before God." They must be deeply rooted in themselves, and in the God they find there, in order to come to grips with the world around them. Newman, Guardini thinks, is a great example of this:
I know people who relate with skeptical clarity to scientific inquiries but who, along with their lack of illusions, still bear in their souls a belief that is not affected by liberal and rationalistic attenuation but derives instead from what is above nature. Newman's greatness was not that he said this or that but that he gave expression to this attitude in his soul. This belief becomes greater and stronger, and under its clear coldness it shelters an inner fire that makes it the equal of the faith of primitive Christianity and the Middle Ages.
I am not sure if Newman's relation to the modern scientific world is aptly described by terms like "clear coldness" and "skeptical clarity." Something like "serene confidence" (in the unity of all truth) seems better. But Guardini is right about the inward depth of Newman's faith, the "inner fire" and conviction of it, and about the fact that it does not rely on the "external" supports that so many of us need. Newman's faith is rooted in and fed by a direct, interior, and intimate relation with God. This is how he could be so brutally honest about the many objections to Christianity, including those he couldn't answer, without being in any way shaken by them. "Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt… difficulty and doubt are incommensurate."
The interiority and independence of Newman's faith, and thus in some ways its modernity, also comes through in these well-known lines from the Apologia:
I look out of myself into the world of men, and there I see a sight which fills me with unspeakable distress. The world seems simply to give the lie to that great truth [the existence of God], of which my whole being is so full; and the effect upon me is, in consequence, as a matter of necessity, as confusing as if it denied that I am in existence myself. If I looked into a mirror, and did not see my face, I should have the sort of feeling which actually comes upon me, when I look into this living busy world, and see no reflexion of its Creator. This is, to me, one of the great difficulties of this absolute primary truth, to which I referred just now. Were it not for this voice, speaking so clearly in my conscience and my heart, I should be an atheist, or a pantheist, or a polytheist when I looked into the world. I am speaking for myself only; and I am far from denying the real force of the arguments in proof of a God, drawn from the general facts of human society ..., but these do not warm me or enlighten me; they do not take away the winter of my desolation, or make the buds unfold and the leaves grow within me, and my moral being rejoice. The sight of the world is nothing else than the prophet's scroll, full of "lamentations, and mourning, and woe.
Sep. 29, 2010, at 1:09am
The Caucus blog at the New York Times reports remarks President Obama made today about his faith.
President Obama expounded Tuesday on the reasons he became a Christian as an adult, telling a group of residents here that he was a "Christian by choice" and that "the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead – being my brother and sister's keeper."
What's wrong with this answer? It's less conspicuous in the full quote below, but still, something rubs me the wrong way.
"I'm a Christian by choice," the president said. "My family, frankly, they weren't folks who went to church every week. My mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew but she didn't raise me in the church, so I came to my Christian faith later in life and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead. Being my brothers and sisters' keeper, treating others as they would treat me, and I think also understanding that Jesus Christ dying for my sins spoke to the humility we all have to have as human beings, that we're sinful and we're flawed and we make mistakes and we achieve salvation through the grace of God."
Mr. Obama went on: "But what we can do, as flawed as we are, is still see God in other people, and do our best to help them find their own grace. That's what I strive to do, that's what I pray to do every day.'' Yet he said that as president, he also "deeply believes that part of the bedrock strength of this country is that it embraces people of many faiths and of no faith.''
Sep. 26, 2010, at 10:55pm
There are quite a few books on our shelves that I feel I ought to have read, but haven't yet. Until a few days ago, Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue was one of them. But now I have finally gotten around to beginning it.
Today I came to a section in which MacIntyre argues that there are no natural or human rights. This took me by surprise. He does not just say that rights-talk has gotten out of hand, or that there is too much emphasis on rights and not enough on duties and responsibilities. Nor does he limit himself to saying that an ethics of rights needs to be supplemented with, and grounded in, an ethics of virtue. No, he simply and bluntly denies that rights exist at all: "the truth is plain: there are no such rights, and belief in them is one with belief in witches and in unicorns."
I do not have to finish the book to say that I think he is wrong about this. Rights do exist, and it is crucial to recognize and defend them. Still, I am interested in trying to understand the reasons for his position better.
So far I have found two. The first is that virtually no culture other than our own recognizes the concept of natural rights. It seems therefore to be a creation of our culture rather than an objective feature of reality that is in principle observable by all. To this I would reply (in a nutshell) that not all objective facts are explicitly recognized and understood by all cultures. (Especially some moral truths, and certain truths about the person, require a cultural maturity that cannot be taken for granted.) And so in this case our western culture has a decided advantage over most others. The recognition of natural rights naturally grows out of that deep appreciation of "the infinite worth of the individual soul", which Max Scheler referred to as the "magna carta of Christian Europe."
But "the best reason", MacIntyre thinks, for asserting that rights do not exist is of "the same type as the best reason which we possess for asserting that there are no witches," i.e. that "every attempt to give good reasons for believing that there are such rights has failed." So far this reasoning seems circular. What he really means, however, is that, in the final analysis, all arguments for natural rights are based on the claim that their existence is self-evident, or that they are known through moral intuition. MacIntyre has no patience for that sort of claim: "we all know that there are no self-evident truths," and "one of the things that we ought to have learned from the history of moral philosophy is that the introduction of the word 'intuition' by a moral philosopher is always a sign that something has gone badly wrong with the argument."
This reasoning is almost as surprising to me as the claim it is meant to support—especially considering the influence of Aristotle on MacIntyre. Aristotle is well known for showing that if nothing is self-evident then nothing can be proven. Self-evident truths are the ultimate starting point of any argument. Moreover not all self-evident truths are easily perceived or perceived by all. That is why Aristotle thinks that it is useless for young persons—young in age or youthful in character—to attend classes in ethics and politics.
It is true that an appeal to intuition or self-evidence can be abused. But that is hardly a reason for dismissing the notion altogether. Are there any readers who are more sympathetic with MacIntyre on this point then I am? If so, I would love to hear from you.
Sep. 25, 2010, at 9:10pm
The Friends of Newman have a web page dedicated to his influence on Pope Benedict. This passage highlights several of the themes we touched on at our gathering last night. It also makes me think how close he and Wojtyla were in their thinking.
For Newman, the middle term which establishes the connection between authority and subjectivity is truth. I do not hesitate to say that truth is the central thought of Newman's intellectual grappling. Conscience is central for him because truth stands in the middle. To put it differently, the centrality of the concept of conscience for Newman is linked to the prior centrality of the concept of truth and can only be understood from that vantage point. The dominance of the idea of conscience in Newman does not signify that he, in the nineteenth century and in contrast to "objectivistic" neo-scholasticism, espoused a philosophy or theology of subjectivity. Certainly, the subject finds in Newman an attention which it had not received in Catholic theology perhaps since St Augustine. But it is an attention in the line of Augustine and not in that of the subjectivist philosophy of the modern age. On the occasion of his elevation to cardinal, Newman declared that most of his life was a struggle against the spirit of liberalism in religion; we might add, also against Christian subjectivism, as he found it in the Evangelical movement of his time and which admittedly had provided him with the first step on his lifelong road to conversion. Conscience for Newman does not mean that the subject is the standard vis-à-vis the claims of authority in a truth less world, a world which lives from the compromise between the claims of the subject and the claims of the social order. Even more, conscience signifies the perceptible and demanding presence of the voice of truth in the subject himself. It is the overcoming of mere subjectivity in the encounter of the interiority of man with the truth from God. The verse Newman composed in1833 in Sicily is characteristic: "I loved to choose and see my path but now, lead thou me on!" Newman's conversion to Catholicism was not for him a matter of personal taste or of subjective, spiritual need. He expressed himself on this even in 1844, on the threshold, so to speak, of his conversion: "No one can have a more unfavourable view than I of the present state of Roman Catholics." Newman was much more taken by the necessity to obey recognized truth than his own preferences - even against his own sensitivity and bonds of friendship and ties due to similar backgrounds. It seems to me characteristic of Newman that he emphasized the priority of truth over goodness in the order of virtues. Or, to put it in a way which is more understandable for us, he emphasized truth's priority over consensus, over the accommodation of groups (Conscience and Truth, 10th Workshop for Bishops, February 1991, Dallas, Texas, USA; in: Benedict XVI and Cardinal Newman, p. 46).
Sep. 24, 2010, at 1:06pm
The other night, our highly patriotic and devout friends, Chuck and June, hosted a gathering at their home with Peter Lillback, author of the best-selling book about George Washington's faith, titled, Sacred Fire.
The book is unwieldy at nearly 1000 pages, but the speaker was convincing, so I brought one home and began reading. These lines by Thomas Jefferson arguing for the disestablishment of religion in Virginia (which then required worship in the Anglican church) rang my personalist bell.
the plan of the holy author of our religion, who being lord of both body and mind, yet choose [sic] not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, but to exalt it by its influence on reason alone…
How great and wonderful! How rare and beautiful in the history of humanity! Religion that is proposed to our freedom; that eschews coercion of all kinds.
Sep. 24, 2010, at 12:39pm
Maggie Gallagher's excellent National Organization for Marriage regularly sends subscribers a "marriage news" email comprised of links to recent articles about marriage. One in particular caught my eye today.
Here's how it starts:
Putting the 'hopeless' in hopeless romantics, a new study of more than 1,400 spouses concludes that one of the flimsiest foundations for a marriage is, incredibly, love.
This sort of thing makes me crazy.
It goes on.
It seems a heretical claim to make at a time when two-thirds of the population believes in soulmates — those rom-com-anointed pairings viewed as "meant to be." But researchers find marriages based on that ideal, although happy, are so fragile as to be 1 1/2 times likelier to end in divorce than unions steeped in traditional values — think child-bearing, fidelity and interdependence.
Note the implied definition of love. Note how it's contrasted with "child-bearing, fidelity and interdependence."
Most articles that begin this way proceed to suggest that variations of arranged marriages or marriages based on "reason and compatibility" are better than marriages based on romance. This one, happily, is better than that. It advocates a "both/and" approach.
The study, which appears in the September issue of the journal Social Science Research, finds that the highest-quality marriages combine the "new" and "old" approaches, leaving neither entirely behind at the altar.
This hybrid is defined by an embrace of the traditional norms of marital permanency and gender roles, coupled with a focus on the expressive dimensions of married life seen in soulmate partnerships. The caveat is that both spouses need to be embedded in shared social networks and religious institutions.
But I'm not satisfied. What we need to do is reject the reductive notion of spousal love assumed throughout—as if, in itself, it's nothing more and nothing other than romantic attraction. Romantic/sexual attraction is the usual starting point for love; it gives conjugal love its distinctive form. But it's no more the totality of love than the seed is the totality of the apple tree.
Nor can ever so much "reason and compatibility" compensate for the lack of it.
Sep. 22, 2010, at 3:14pm
As a parent with two children in college and three to follow soon, I sympathize with Roger Scruton's recent article in the American Spectator. Given the condition of the average university in America today, one does wonder whether they are worth the money and time they take. And that's not to mention the moral and religious risks they pose. It is understandable that more and more people are starting to look for alternatives.*
I have doubts, however, that the alternative that Scruton proposes is a good one:
I envisage an experiment in "distance learning," in which students work from home, and attend lectures, receive tutorials, and engage in discussions through Internet connections. As the Internet becomes more interactive, the need for universities to establish themselves in physical space, rather than in cyberspace, is less evident. Virtual communities of scholarship might be more volatile than real communities of scholars. But they will be far more responsive to the demands of their customers, and far cheaper to run. They could provide most of what is provided by a humanities department, with the added advantage of choosing their professors from all over the world, and paying a proper market price for them.
The advantages of such a university in cyberspace are obvious and enticing. None of them, however, it seems to me, outweighs the huge disadvantage of faculty and students no longer dwelling together in physical proximity. A university education should be so much more than just passing on true information or getting students to understand certain ideas. It should be a formation of the whole person, and especially the whole mind. This kind of education, however, depends to a very large extent on what Newman calls "personal influence."
In an earlier part of his article (which he seems to have forgotten by the time he gets to the cyberspace vision), Scruton himself quotes Newman on precisely this point: "the general principles of any study you may learn by books at home; but the detail, the colour, the tone, the air, the life which makes it live in us, you must catch all these from those in whom it lives already."
About decade ago, a very helpful discussion [still available online] on the question of distance learning took place at Franciscan University. In one of his contributions to this discussion, our friend and teacher John Crosby, reflects some more on Newman's idea of personal influence and the crucial role it plays in education. I'll end this post with a section from it:
Newman writes of "that which nature prescribes in all education, the personal presence of a teacher, or, in theological language, Oral Tradition." He goes on for a page or so to speak primarily of religious teaching and catechesis; this passage should be of particular relevance to our discussion since this is exactly the focus of the [distance learning] degrees that are being considered. He says:
It is the living voice, the breathing form, the expressive countenance, which preaches, which catechises. Truth, a subtle, invisible, manifold spirit, is poured into the mind of the scholar by his eyes and ears, through his affections, imagination, and reason; it is poured into his mind and is sealed up there in perpetuity, by propounding and repeating it, by questioning and requestioning, by correcting and explaining, by progressing and then recurring to first principles…
Clearly, if this is the way religious education occurs, if this is the way oral tradition is passed on in a university, then we should not expect much from audiotapes, which will filter out most of the modes of communication mentioned here by Newman.
Let us listen to Newman developing his thought:
No book can convey the special spirit and delicate peculiarities of its subject with that rapidity and certainty which attend on the sympathy of mind with mind, through the eyes, the look, the accent, and the manner, in casual expressions thrown off at the moment, and the unstudied turns of familiar conversation. The general principles of any study you may learn by books at home; but the detail, the colour, the tone, the air, the life which makes it live in us, you must catch all these from those in whom it lives already. You must imitate the student in French or German, who is not content with his grammar, but goes to Paris or Dresden.
In this last sentence Newman is comparing the learning that should take place in a university with the learning of a language. You can study French or German out of books for years; you can supplement your reading with audiotapes as much as you like: you will never learn to speak the language naturally until you go among the native speakers and immerse yourself in the spoken language. With this Newman wants to say that you can study theology or any other university subject out of books all you want, you will never really get initiated into your area of knowledge until you live in a community whose oral traditions convey that deeper knowledge that corresponds to speaking a language fluently.
* I should add, perhaps, that my own experience so far has been good. Nothing is perfect in this world, but my oldest two children are certainly getting a good intellectual and moral education. And just as Newman would have predicted, they get this education not only through the material they learn, but even more through the environment in which they live and the people with which they interact. Also, the fact that they are largely "on their own"—that is, out from under daily parental oversight— is crucial.
Sep. 19, 2010, at 1:35pm
From an article in the UK Guardian:
When Cardinal John Henry Newman died in August 1890, the Manchester Guardian's obituary spoke of him as one of the very greatest masters of English style - the paper meant prose, not dress sense - and a man "of singular beauty and purity of character … an eminent example of personal sanctity".
Today, 120 years on, the Roman Catholic church finally caught up and beatified him, the penultimate stage to his being made a saint.
And from the Pope's homily at last night's vigil Mass in Hyde Park, attended by 80,000 faithful:
As you know, Newman has long been an important influence in my own life and thought, as he has been for so many people beyond these isles. The drama of Newman's life invites us to examine our lives, to see them against the vast horizon of God's plan, and to grow in communion with the Church of every time and place: the Church of the apostles, the Church of the martyrs, the Church of the saints, the Church which Newman loved and to whose mission he devoted his entire life.
Note the themes of personal influence (Newman took the motto "Heart speaks to heart" when he was appointed Cardinal) and interpersonal communion. These emphases in Newman's thought are among the reasons we consider him an eminent personalist, even though the term only came into use elsewhere and later in the history of philosophy.
Sep. 17, 2010, at 2:29pm
In a recent post at Contentions, Jennifer Rubin opines that in an effort to regain his popularity, President Obama has decided to "show some emotional connection to the American people."
What makes this mock-worthy, of course, and also somewhat sad, is the fact that emotions cannot simply be manipulated like that. They are not at the disposal of our will. We can decide to fake them, but not to feel them. And the problem for Obama is that the difference between the two is usually pretty obvious to the onlooker. (Though Rubin brings up the interesting case of Bill Clinton whose play-acting was so convincing that he might be described as a "real phony".)
Rubin's post nicely illustrates something I have been reflecting on lately: namely, the mysterious fact that it is precisely the involuntariness of emotions that makes them so revealing of the person who feels them. Unlike deliberate acts of the will, which can be performed in spite of contrary habits, beliefs, and inclinations, emotions spontaneously embody and express a person the way he really is. Not the way he ought to be, or the way he wants to be, but the way he is right here and now.
Needless to say, not everything that happens in us and is involuntarily has this personalist and revelatory significance. Headaches and feelings of hunger are involuntary but can hardly be said to reveal the "real self". What makes emotions different is that they are responses—personal, meaningful and spontaneous responses to a given reality. In an emotion, therefore, it is not just the body that is acting up, but the self. That is why a person is implicated in his anger but not in his hunger, and why he can be blamed for being aloof but not for feeling tired.
Roger Scruton has some deep insights into all this. Here is a quote from his book Sexual Desire, which makes the point well:
it would be wrong to think … that what is not voluntary is in some sense only a secondary and derivative expression of the self. On the contrary…a man is never so much represented to… another as when he blushes or laughs. The expression on a face is largely determined by involuntary movements; and yet it is the living picture of the perspective that "peers" from it, and hence the true and dominant image of the "self".
So what happens when a person decides to emote? Even when such a decision is well-meant, the result can only be artificial. And the likelihood is that it will be perceived as such. It will look insincere. Fake. Like something designed to hide, rather than express the person behind it. Scruton gives a good example of this sort of thing:
The voluntary smile is not a smile at all, but a kind of grimace which, while it may have its own species of sincerity—as in the smile of Royalty, which as it were pays lip-service to good nature—is not esteemed as an expression of the soul. On the contrary, it is perceived as a mask, which conceals the "real being" of the person who wears it.
Now, it's not necessarily wrong for politicians to wear a mask of the kind Scruton here describes. On the contrary, the mask can serve an entirely legitimate and even necessary function: to separate the private person from his public role, and to protect the former from being entirely absorbed into the latter. It also, and importantly, protects the objective character and dignity of the office.
But there are also masks that are less wholesome than that. There are ways of "dialing up the emotions" that are designed to flatter and manipulate, to distract and deceive, and so on.
I find myself straying from the main point I wanted to make, however, which is this: that while we normally think of free and deliberate acts as being human or personal in the most proper sense, there is every reason to think that (at least some) emotions are equally characteristic of and central to our personhood. No one, to my knowledge, has understood this better or analyzed it more clearly than Dietrich von Hildebrand (see especially chapter 8 of The Heart), who connects this truth with the fact that man is a created person, which means that the deeper depths of his own being way outstrip the limits of his self-possession:
Typical of man's createdness is the existence of a depth dimension of his soul which does not fall under his mastery as do his volitional acts. Man is greater and deeper than the range of things he can control with his free will; his being reaches into mysterious deeps which go far beyond what he can engender or create.


text:
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subset: commoncrawl


text: DETROIT, Mich (WLMI) Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander will reportedly get the start for the American League in tomorrow's All Star Game in Kansas City. FoxSports is reporting AL Manager Ron Washington will make the announcement today. Verlander is 9-and-5 with a 2.58 ERA and 128 strikeouts in 132-and-two-thirds innings this year Prince Fielder will also start at first base for the AL—Miguel Cabrera was also named to the All Star Team.


text:
SOUTH KINGSTOWN—As the sun shone over the quadrangle at the University of Rhode Island, families and friends eagerly awaited the rite of passage of their sons and daughters: college graduation. For the 126th time since URI's doors opened in 1888, students accepted their diplomas and flung their caps skyward after a day filled with celebration and reflection.
The Narragansett boys tennis team's match against Burrillville today has been postponed to 11 a.m. Saturday.
UPDATE: Should Narragansett beat Burrillville Saturday, it would play Sunday at 3 p.m. against the winner of Friday's Tiverton-North Smithfield match. We'll keep you updated as a late-breaking storm sweeps through the northern half of Rhode Island.
Boys lacrosse
Division III quarterfinals
East Providence at Narragansett, 4 p.m.
East Greenwich vs. West Warwick at Amby Smith Field, 7 p.m.
Westerly vs. North Kingstown at Ryan Park, 4 p.m.
Boys tennis
Division II semifinals
Classical vs. East Greenwich at Slater Park, 3 p.m.
Prout vs. Cranston West at Slater Park, 5 p.m.
Division III playoffs
West Warwick vs. St. Raphael at Veterans Park, 3 p.m.
Boys volleyball
Scituate at East Greenwich, 6:30 p.m.
North Kingstown at East Providence, 6:30 p.m.
By LINDSAY OLIVIER
PROVIDENCE ŌĆō Two-and-a-half years after she killed her then-eight-year-old daughter and seven months after a jury found her guilty of second- degree murder following an emotional five-week trial, former North Kingstown resident Kimberly Fry was sentenced Tuesday afternoon to 40 years at the Adult Correctional Institute (ACI), with 20 to serve, for the August, 2009 murder of Camden Fry.
Boys lacrosse
Division I quarterfinals
Barrington 14, North Kingstown 4
BARRINGTON ŌĆō North Kingstown had confidence heading into the playoffs after finishing the regular season playing significantly better than it had to start the year, but it didnŌĆÖt matter as Barrington was too strong and eliminated the Skippers from the Division I playoffs with a 14-4 win.
Division II quarterfinals
East Greenwich 10, Middletown 5
Coventry at Chariho, 3:45 p.m.
Mount St. Charles vs. Exeter-West Greenwich at Wawaloam Field, 4 p.m.
Prout vs. Narragansett at Sprague Park, 3:45 p.m.
North Kingstown vs. South Kingstown at Old Mountain Field, 6:30 p.m.
Boys lacrosse
Division I quarterfinals
North Kingstown at Barrington, 7 p.m.
Division II quarterfinals
Middletown at East Greenwich, 6 p.m.
Mount Hope vs. South Kingstown at Curtis Corner Middle School, 6 p.m.
Mount St. Charles vs. Prout at Christofaro Park, 4 p.m.
Boys lacrosse
Division III quarterfinals
The Kimberly Fry saga is over.
After a tense and emotional two years of investigations, trials and postponements, Fry was sentenced this week to 40 years in prison, with 20 to serve, for the 2009 murder of her daughter Camden.
In this week's Standard-Times, we bring you into the courtroom and show you how it all went down.
In addition, we've got you covered on all the latest news related to the Exeter Animal Shelter controversy, the NK School Committee's 2013 budget battle and a handful of other stories you'll only find here.
Pick up a copy today!
BREAKING NEWS: The Standard-Times has learned, exclusively, that the North Kingstown Firefighters Union has won its legal challenge against the town of North Kingstown regarding a change to 24-hour shifts. We'll have full details as soon as they become available.
Chariho at East Greenwich, 4 p.m.
Coventry vs. Middletown at Gaudet Middle School, 4 p.m.
West Warwick vs. Classical at Davis Park, 3 p.m.
Coventry vs. Lincoln at Saylesville Elementary School, 4 p.m.
Exeter-West Greenwich vs. Cranston East at Brayton Avenue Softball Complex, 3:30 p.m.
Prout at Narragansett, 3:30 p.m.
South Kingstown at Portsmouth, 4 p.m.
Boys tennis
South Kingstown at Barrington, 4 p.m.
Boys volleyball
Chariho at North Kingstown, 6:30 p.m.
Hendricken at South Kingstown, 6:30 p.m.
It gets harder and harder each time I sit down to write this column. This is because there are just so many things to write about locally, state-wide and nationally.


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MomentFeed's Location-Based Marketing Platform offers unprecedented insights into how your customers are engaging through location-based services like Foursquare, Facebook, and Twitter. We offer a full suite of tools to help you build stronger connections with customers as they engage with your brand in the real world.
Based in the location based social media analytics field. Plans for future include world domination and opening an office in Dublin, Ireland for our Euro expansion!
Contact: Eoghan Geoghegan
Phone: 001-424-354-7967
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


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Sports Events
Comments and discussions on major sports events
Posts filtered on Tag
A's, Giants and celebs at the All-Star Game
. For more on the 83rd All-Star Game, check the Chronicle's coverage from John Shea in Kansas City: Giants lead the way in NL's 8-0 win A's Ryan Cook pitches a perfect 7th Eavesdrops from the All-Star Game [Read More]
Historic greatness: A's and Giants in the All-Star Game
. There may be an East Coast sports bias, but great players from the A's and the Giants have often transcended geographic boundaries to represent the Bay Area in the All-Star Game. In honor of tonight's ASG, we took a look back at some of those stars. Leave your favorite in the comments below! [Read More]
A's, Giants to tweet live from All-Star Game
Fans of Twitter rejoice: Your favorite local stars will be tweeting live from next week's All-Star Game and Home Run Derby in Kansas City. MLB will be providing the players with computers so that they can tweet to the fans after they're out of the All-Star Game. Players will also be given the opportunity to […] [Read More]


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Transaction Authority Markup LanguageShortened as XAML. XAML is a vendor-neutral standard developed jointly by Bowstreet, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Oracle and Sun that is used to coordinate and process online business transactions. Based on XML, XAML uses a set of XML message formats and interaction models that Web services can use to provide business-level transactions that span multiple parties across the Internet.
XAML distinguishes traditional online transaction processing (OLTP), such as making banking transactions online or purchasing a product from a consumer Web site, from business Web transaction processing (BWTP), which involves Web services from multiple organizations on the Internet and must coordinate the low-level operations of commit, cancel, retry, and compensate (undo or reverse) in order to ensure business-level transaction integrity.
The following example illustrates a business-level transaction involving a set of Web services that would utilize XAML: Consider a lumber company that needs to purchase a large quantity of a chemical it uses to treat its lumber before it is sold. In order for the buyer to purchase the chemical, the company requires additional value-added services provided by third parties, such as shipping with specific delivery terms, government compliance for safe transport, payment financing and casualty insurance. The purchase cannot take place until all these services are coordinated and the buyer is satisfied. XAML will allow the different parties involved to process the transactions over the Web.
The future remains, well, cloudy. But either way: Amazon, look out. Microsoft is gaining fast. Read More »Hype Versus Action in the Developer's World
Often times technologies start as hype but with time become adopted. As a developer or technologist, it is worth reading the hype and knowing the... Read More »Microsoft Hyper-V Network Virtualization Q&A
The top 5 Hyper-V questions with answers provided by Nirmal Sharma, a MCSEx3, MCITP and Microsoft MVP in Directory Services. Read More »
Webopedia Polls: Is iPhone 6 or iWatch on your list? Read More »How to Create a Desktop Shortcut to a Website
This Webopedia guide will show you how to create a desktop shortcut to a website using Firefox, Chrome or Internet Explorer (IE). Read More »Flash Data Storage Vendor Trends
Although it is almost impossible to keep up with the pace of ongoing product releases, here are three recent highlights in the flash data storage... Read More »
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Datamation Hangouts with Tech ExpertsWatch Datamation's editor James Maguire moderate roundtable discussions with tech experts from companies such as Accenture, Dell, Blue Jeans Network, Microsoft and more »


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New Discovery show "Amish Mafia" stirring up controversy
A new show set to premiere on the Discovery Channel about the Amish in Lancaster County is stirring up controversy.
The show, "Amish Mafia," follows around a group of young men who supposedly work as law enforcement in the Amish community.
The show's trailer features a group of young men armed with baseball bats and assault rifles. Discovery describes it as a show that looks into the lives of the men who protect the Amish people and their culture.
Fox43's legal analyst Steven Breit was interviewed twice for the show and will be featured on later episodes. While he couldn't confirm the existence of any supposed "Amish Mafia," he says he has seen an increase in the number of crimes committed by Amish men between ages 14 and 22.
"Most notably some assault behavior, some behavior against other Amish persons. That struck me as kind of odd, because generally with the Amish community I'm generally representing individuals charged with motor vehicle and alcohol offenses. So I did see a rise in that type of offense," Breit said.
"Amish Mafia" is slated to premiere on the Discovery Channel on December 12.Copyright © 2014, Hartford Courant


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Want to learn more about *VMware vCloud® Air™ ? Sign up here. We'll only email you about VMware solutions and we won't resell your information. Want our sales experts to contact you? Check "Have VMware Sales Contact Me" below. We'll get in touch, but we promise, no relentless sales calls.
*Vmware vCloud® Air™, built on vSphere, quickly and seamlessly extends your data center into the cloud.
* Previously known as VMware vCloud Hybrid Service.


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The South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources has announced that the South Dakota State University wastewater treatment system is the recipient of the 2012 Operation and Maintenance Wastewater Treatment Award.
The award was presented during the South Dakota Water and Wastewater Association Wastewater Operators Seminar May 1-2 at the Clubhouse Hotel & Suites in Pierre.
SDSU was recognized for outstanding operation of the wastewater system and environmental compliance with its state surface water discharge permit during the past year.
"Wastewater collection and treatment may not be the most glamorous topics to most people, but the men and women who maintain and operate these wastewater systems every day are heroes in the fight to protect human health and the environment," said Steve Pirner, secretary of the department of environment and natural resources. "We are proud to acknowledge the job they do by presenting these awards."
Qualifications for the award are based on a system's compliance with state environmental requirements, the quality of the treated and discharged wastewater, monitoring reports, state inspections, and proper operation and maintenance of the wastewater treatment facility.


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The intense flames combined with excessive heat -- is brutal for crews on the front lines, as you can imagine.
Phoenix firefighters are testing a new cooling glove...it's created by Stanford biologists and the glove is already being used by sports teams in California -- now fire crews here want to see how it helps them recharge in triple digit heat.
Firefighters now have a helping hand keeping them cool.
"You can feel the suction create a seal and what it does is cool water that come in on my wrist and hand you feel that right away chilling effect radiating up my arms," said Luke Anderson.
The CoreControl glove removes heat while cooling blood.
"We are trying a new method -- cooling from the core out instead of cooling from outside in with air conditioning or cool mist -- we are going to cool by uses what we have in the palm of our hands special radiators," said Anderson.
Fire gear can reach extreme temperatures. Firefighters typically remove gear while they cool down, but with the glove, officials say they won't have to.
"This device makes it so you don't have to go indoors, you don't have to take your equipment on glove and from there, start cooling our core," said Anderson. "Our rehab trucks are there, you are cooling yourself off with water misting systems -- all you can find -- so this unique thing if they asked me to sign off on it, I would say absolutely yes."
Firefighters trying out the device saw results fast.
"We know it's cooling our core because we can see that our firefighters have stopped sweating with three to five minutes of the unit being on hand."
"I can imagine if you're really overheated, this is going to feel so good."
PFD will not use the glove for heat emergencies. They say they'll follow the typical protocols.
Online: corecontrolcooling.com
4739 NW 53rd Avenue, Sutie BGainesville, FL 32653
Phone: (352) 371-0051


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TOWN OF RUSSELL, WI (WTAQ) - The Grinch That Stole Christmas showed up early in north central Wisconsin.
Authorities said about $8,000 worth of holiday decorations were stolen in the past month from a semi-truck parked in the Lincoln County town of Russell.
The trailer had materials for making wreaths and ribbons. Its owner said the unit was not locked -- and it was parked at two different spots around Bloomville around the time the theft occurred.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Lincoln County CrimeStoppers program.


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CNMS Active Science Teaching and Learning Environment - CASTLE
The CASTLE, which opened in Fall 2010, hosts numerous hours of weekly instruction in Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Statistics at UMBC during the fall and spring semesters.
The CASTLE was designed by the college and university to build on the success of the Chemistry Discovery Center, where revamped introductory chemistry courses at UMBC have significantly improved the academic performance of undergraduates through an adaptation of process-oriented, guided-inquiry learning (POGIL). The overall planning goal for the CASTLE has been to establish an environment of flexible, small group learning space appropriate for multiple disciplines within the ~2,400 square-foot space that accommodates 93 students working in hierarchical groups of 3. The classroom has eleven custom-built tables that allow the computer monitors to lowered into the desk surface and automatically locked into place by the instructor. Nine tables seating nine students each and two tables seating six students each support the triad-learning teams. Color-coded seating arrangements, furniture specifications and the AV installation are based on a variety of research results in the science education literature and UMBC's experience with the Chemistry Discovery Center.
The CASTLE classroom features one computer with a 22" monitor per three-student learning team, advanced room security measures, two locked storage/office areas, 11 wall-mounted whiteboards, eight wall-mounted 52" LED monitors networked to the computers, and an instructor's station with the latest interactive instructional software. During Summer 2010, CNMS faculty were trained to use the CASTLE's many instructional features and given an overview of its SchoolVue classroom management software, which has been used successfully in the Chemistry Discovery Center for the past four years. All CASTLE instructors are encouraged to pilot novel pedagogical approaches within this environment. The College is using the CASTLE as an incubator for new strategies and practices in active learning instruction as a way to promote and disseminate these practices throughout its science and mathematics course offerings. A Blackboard community was established for all CASTLE/SchoolVue users.
Workshop series hosted by CNMS and the Faculty Development Center in January 2011 and January 2012 have helped to inform instructional faculty and graduate students about active learning and active assessment strategies. Beginning with the Spring 2012 semester, all faculty using the CASTLE are required to submit Requests for Classroom Space in UC115D to the CNMS Dean with a plan describing how active learning will be incorporated and assessed. Reports to the CNMS Dean assessing the effectiveness of each course in the CASTLE are required no later than 30 days after the submission of course grades. The form for UMBC faculty to use to request CASTLE Classroom Space is available here to download in PDF format. Questions? Contact Kathy Lee Sutphin at email@example.com.
Back to CNMS Home


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Firefighter Brad Harper was killed in an accident while battling a mulch fire in south Phoenix.
People packed Christ's Church of the Valley Friday for Brad Harper's funeral service.
He is being remembered as a fun-loving, athletic guy who loved his family, friends, and being a firefighter.
23-year-old Harper knew he wanted to be a firefighter since he was a teenager. His untimely death has shaken not just family and friends but the entire department.
"Brad passed away doing what he loved to do. And he had mentioned if he died on the job -- dying on the job would be an honorable death and he mentioned that just a couple months before he was to pass away," said high school friend Bobby Priest.
"We're here to hurt with you, we're here to walk with you, we're here to be with you. And on behalf of Brad's friends and their families we deeply love you," said best friend Jake Fenton.
Brad and his wife Lena were just married in December after dating all through high school.
"High school sweetheart who marries one of the most handsome firefighters in the Phoenix Fire Department -- it's a Hollywood story. I don't know what to say. And I see the pictures and you're just so perfect," said Phoenix Fire Chief Bob Khan.
Along with tears, there was also some laughter as Brad's friends since high school -- and fellow firefighters also shared their memories.
"There's only one thing that I could think of that Brad would give me a hard time about today. And that is our senior year when we were playing our rival team in football. I knocked the game winning touchdown pass out of his hand because I thought he was on the other team. And I'm sorry Brad," Priest laughed.
His friends say not only was Brad a fitness fanatic who worked out every day, but he was also quick thinking and a problem solver which made him an ideal firefighter.
That's why his loss is being felt by the entire community. People who never met Brad Harper lined the
procession route to pay their respects.
FOX 10's Marc Martinez and Kristen Keogh report.
Related stories:
WHBQ-TV | Fox 13 485 S. Highland St.Memphis, TN 38111Main Station: (901) 320-1313Newsroom: (901) 320-1340


text: The owners of a 1.3-acre parking lot southeast of Meridian and South streets have put the property up for sale, apparently putting an end to the dream of Legends District SoDo. Most real estate observers already had written off what would have been the largest private development in the city's history, but the potential sale of the deal's most important parcel seems to make it official. The $480-million SoDo plan called for condos, as many as three hotels, a theater and 175,000 square feet of retail space just south of downtown. The project was to cover 11 acres that are now home to parking lots, Subway and Arby's restaurants and the former Chateau Thomas Winery. The lead developer, Ryan Zickler, confirmed the offering but said he didn't have time to discuss the SoDo project this morning. His partners on the project included Tim Shrout, the developer of Heartland Crossing. A post from November 2007 is here.


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Dangerous or Safe: Halloween Dress-up Jewelry & Accessories
Continued from Dangerous or Safe: Halloween Candy
Dress-up jewelry & accessories
For young children, jewels and accessories often represent choking hazards. This includes earrings, rings, and hair accessories.
• Most fake jewels these days are made of plastic, but non-plastic jewelry is often nickel, which is a common skin irritant.
• Try to keep metallic fake jewels away from the skin. Remember, too, that necklaces and hoods can be strangulation hazards.


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8 Critical Questions to Ask Before Selecting a Lighting, Sign or Electrical Service & Maintenance Provider.
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