In his “A Preface to Metaphysics,” (Fourth Lecture, section 10) Jacques Maritain writes: “I have already spoken of the most important distinction which the ancient drew between abstractio totalis, which I will call extensive visualisation, and abstractio formalis, which I will call intensive or characterising and typifying visualisation. At first intellectual visualisation is as yet … Continue reading J. Maritain on Extensive and Intensive Visualisation

“When reflection, turning to the comprehension of chaotic experience, busies itself about recurrences, when it seeks to normalise in some way things coming and going, and to straighten out the causes of events, that reflection is inevitably turned toward something dynamic and independent, and can have no successful issue except in mechanical science. When on … Continue reading Intensive and Extensive Abstraction

Anthony Mansueto has done original and very valuable work on the philosophy of religion, and he has done this while linking his reflection to social and historical questions normally avoided by academics. In the essay “Once Again on the Religious Question” ( http://www.reocities.com/Athens/Thebes/1593 ) Mansueto restates and explains the essence of his theses also published … Continue reading Theories of Abstraction

Continuing with the subject of logic, here is a diagram I did after reading the work of A. Moretti [2003, 2004], H. Smessaert [2004, 2009] and R. Pellisier [2004, 2009]. These researchers have found --following previous progress achieved mainly by Blanché [1953] and Sesmat [1951] -- that logical oppositions can be represented geometrically in a … Continue reading Geometry of Oppositions (Logic!)

People tend to discuss about process, and take for granted that there is an order before, during and after the process takes place. It is important to concentrate on the nature of the things we talk about, for these are part of a natural or social order which pre-dates our intentions and planning. If this … Continue reading The Ground, Natural Order