Catholic Kermit

[here’s a weak summary of last week’s Metaphysic class:]

We begin our discovering of truth as young children.  We slowly “unveil” reality through the use of language (from our parents).  We are imbedded in a world that is linguistic always a part of the mystery, filled with presuppositions.

Young Billy starts with purely expressive sounds reacting to the environment around him.  They become discoveries (alitheia) that first identifies each object as a proper noun (ie. Mom, Dad, Spot, Skippy, Lassie, Pluto, etc.).  Over time and experience, the use of metaphors makes common relations to universals (parents, dog, etc.).

The use of stories is also a means of discovering truths.  As in the story of “Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs,” the character, actions and reaction in the narrative give insights into universal truths.  The Queen is obsessed with her beauty, is vain, and has much pride.  Her true beauty is represented as a witch.  On the other hand, Snow White is not concerned with pride or vanity, whereby her virtue causes others to love her, like the “humble” little people (dwarfs).  The story reveals that evil cannot kill virtue.  Love is more powerful that hate, while showing the roles of vice, virtue, love.

We hear stories, read them in books, and see them in movies.  Thru stories, we are transported in understanding to something that cannot be seen with the physical eye.  Understanding is a the combination of rationality and good will.  (Augustine calls this understanding the “Inner Teacher.”)

Is the story true?  An adult’s first reaction may be No, because it didn’t happen, at the surface level, with those particular characters in that particular place in that particular way.  But, the story is true, as a narrative medium that has deeper meaning revealing “truth.”  Children who haven’t been told stories when they’re little may have a difficult time reading the Bible.  We learn to discover truth through stories.

All art, at the surface level, is false.  But it allows you to look beyond the surface to discover a deeper truth.  Rhetoric is the use of knowledge (with eloquency) for a moment of insight.  All of these means of story telling, literature, rhetoric, art and music shows how language guides us into truth, through revealing insights, discovery of meanings and universals.

Silence is a moment of pause in language, used to reflect on and understand insight.  We must allow silence to guide us to discover of meanings.

How do we know history?  Through parents, teachers, books, stories, etc.  The past no longer exists, but we reflect on memory and recollection to remember its truths.  Our recollections bring presuppositions that we must learn to identify and remove in order for universal truths to be revealed.  We have “thematic” presuppositions that are explicit and fully conscious of.  We also have “non-thematic” presuppositions that are implicit and ingrained in us that we must learn to identify.  In order to come to real “truth,” we must identify what our “natural standpoint” is, that becomes our reference point, pull of presuppositions, to discover the universals of truth for our lives.