veriditas

and its intended absence manifested in a specific form of thought (i.e. privationism)

"I, the fiery life of divine essence, am aflame beyond the beauty of the meadows, I gleam in the waters, and I burn in the sun, moon, and stars. With every breeze, as with invisible life that contains everything, I awaken everything to life. I am the breeze that nurtures all things green. I encourage blossoms to flourish with ripening fruits. I am the rain coming from the dew that causes the grasses to laugh with the joy of life."

- St Hildegaard of Bingen (Liber Divinorum Operum)

I. Subject (3rd Person) wittgensteins tractatus

Part 1: the Metaphysics of Privationism: Good and Evil

The thought form or the “spirit” of Anti-Christ I am going to call privationism for the purposes of clarity. Neologisms are notoriously ineffective rhetorically but in this case it is the clearest way to describe exactly what the religion does, i.e. it empties the content of the Good. It turns the Good into a privation of itself, by making the Good a privation of Evil. The Christian metaphysic, is the exact opposite, it says that Evil is a privation of Good, not the inverse. The Christian world is permeated with good, and he acts primarily in relation to a pure, positive, existent good they desire to know and love, the Triune God. The spirit Anti-Christ dwells in a world permeated with evil, and those acting according to this spirit act primarily in order to avoid or oppose a pure, positive, existent evil, which they cannot, as a rule comprehend or desire to know, but do desire to oppose.

Part 2: the Ontology of Privationism: Self-Identity And Group-Identity

The ontology affirmed by Anti-Christ is the self, the self is the center of being, of life, and need be protected and liberated. Central to the being of the self is its subjective identity, what it recognizes itself as being, and what it insists others recognize itself as being.

In contrast, the ontology affirmed by the Catholic is that God is the source of all life and being, to live, we must know and love God. Central to the Christian understanding of the self is that we strive to see ourselves as God see´s us, however futile. God´s identity and character are supremely important for understanding ourselves. This means we strive for objective self knowledge, who we really are as observed by others and God is placed above who we think we are, according to our own self understanding. Here subjective self understanding or identity, is subordinate to objective criteria, the order of creation, the divine and natural law, for instance, or virtues, which define the moral identity of the self.

For the Spirit of Anti-Christ, the source of being is subjective, internal to our self-consciousness, and objective realities should ultimately conform or be altered to conform with this reality. For the Catholic, the source of being is something objective, God, though he may be found in our interior, God is not found in our self-consciousness, quite the opposite. And in this universe, the subjective identity of a person should conform to the objective order and laws of the living God.

Even at this level of generality, there is a spectacular conflict. The Christian says he knows what is objectively Good seeks to adapt his subjectivity to this objective reality. The Spirit of Anti-Christ say it knows what is subjectively evil and sees any objective standard or the objective world as having no role to play in the deciding the matter for him to determine subjectively, of course to determine subjective evil he is avoiding or opposing. What is evil to a Christian is a subjectivity that rebels against what is objectively good as if it were objectively evil and refuses to conform to it. What is “evil” to the spirit of anti-Christ is a the presence of an objective Good which claims to trump its subjective autonomy and expects subjugation.

Part 3: the Epistemology of Privationism: Knowledge and Similitude

The Spirit of Anti-Christ produces false knowledge, it creates knowledge ex nihilo. It priviledges sensible knowledge over intellectual knowledge, and here the intellect serves the overwhelming sensible desires of the self. Thus as a result the usefulness of the intellect is circumscribed to the bounds of sense, and it claims to know on the basis of sensible difference. Furthermore the spirit of anti-Christ knows by moving from unknown to known. Thus the subjectivity of someone following the spirit of anti-Christ will be known to be good on the basis of what it cannot comprehend and what is different, i.e. evil. It will also seek to define the self in terms of what diferentiates itself from others, i.e. unique characteristics.

The Spirit of God does the opposite, it only builds off the knowledge given to it to know more. It priviledges the intellect over sense, and says knowledge is predicated on intellectual likeness and moves from known to unknown. The Spirit of God can know subjectively it is good by conforming to the objective standard it comprehends and knows is good. Thus finding common patterns and universal laws is the key to understanding any discipline, moving slowly from what is universal and known, to particular problems or areas that are unknown. This Spirit tends to define the self in terms of commonalities that unite it to what is Good, i.e. virtues. And individuality here is seen as the unique performance of virtue in the imitation of exemplars of the Good.

Also at this level, the conflict appears between these two spirits. The Christian Spirit will claim that objectively the Spirit of Anti-Christ is evil or defective of good. It will do so because it knows that firm knowledge should be based on the intellectual form of things, not on forms as they appear to sense, and furthermore that the goodness or badness of these things should be based on known intellectual likeness rather than unknown sensible difference.

In contrast, the Spirit of Anti-Christ will claim subjectively that the Spirit of God is evil. It will do so because it is different and sensibly so. It is a difference that cannot be comprehended by the Spirit of Anti-Christ and is therefore unknown. So on the sbasis of the sensible presence of this unknown objective difference (the Christian), the Spirit of Anti-Christ will oppose it as evil and derive its own goodness on the basis of this opposition to the senible difference it cannot comprehend intellectually.

Part 4: Semiotic of Privationism: Positive or Negative Freedom

Correspondingly we find a very different orientation between self and signs according to these two spirits. The Spirit of Anti-Christ places the individual self or the arbitrary decisions of the social group above signs. So it uses signs as instruments to achieve individual or group ends. In contrast, the Spirit of God places the self and social group under the sovereignty of signs, with a liturgy for instance. Or the tendency to hold to originalist interpretations of law and scripture. Or simply to refuse to revise language from one generation to the next. The Spirit of God acknowledges the teleological character of some signs. That there are very important names for things that ought not to be altered, that cannot be instruments for our use, but are more like sunlight for our growth, the proper use and understanding of these signs. Examples would be Divine Liturgy, Scripture, Our Name, the Names of Virtues, or the Names of God.

Thus, to be free, according to the Spirit of Anti-Christ has a negative definition: it is to be free from encumbrance. Freedom here is the absence of evil, evil being what might constrict the free expression or discovery of the self, or other selves within the social group. Thus any teleological sign of unchanging meaning is seen as a threat, be it a Name that need be honored, a Law to be obeyed, or Virtue to be practiced. Here the agreed upon signs instrumentally used to oppose those threatening the expression of self and existence of social group are what binds people together in friendship. These signs can, by definition, have no claim to ontological reality. According to the Spirit of God, to be free is to be free for the Good, to be able to perform one´s duties, exercise virtue, to make signs of human life well and to be signified by divine sacramental Signs. Here is is the constriction of the self by norms, by laws and names that liberates the self. And the participation in this unchanging teleological semiotic order, be it natural or supernatural is the condition of true community and friendship.

Part 5: Principles and Practice of Privationism

In this way, the Spirit of Anti-Christ produces a great difference between its principle and practice on the moral front. This Spirit seeks to be objective in principle and subjective in practice. The Spirit of Anti-Christ says objectivity is a morally neutral realm, so its principles stand against any sort of ontological universal principle that could give normative direction to the human qua human. It thereby tends to be highly subjective in practice, as there is no objective map, so to speak, to guide good action or chasten wrong action. The point of the objective principle is to secure subjective freedom and autonomy at the level of practice. The Spirit of Anti-Christ is very humble in principle for example, as it doesn´t think any single moral principle can be objectively known or binding on all humans. This leads to a certain pride in practice as objectively known laws are the sorts of things that limit self will and false thoughts of ones own self excellence.

In contrast, the Spirit of God is subjective in principle, as it claims a subjective or invisible, non-observable law should be the highest principle for every human qua human. Yet this liberates the Spirit of God to be objective in practice: charity is not a feeling, it manifest itself in observable forms and actions. Objective defections from charity, or sins, can be clearly demarcated and defined in practice, by means of the subjective principle. The Spirit of God is thereby prideful in principle, because it claims to know the highest principle of human action, which is charity. It his humble in practice because charity is so difficult to perform in practice and places such demands on all those living by it, that they cannot rejoice in themselves. Similarly with tolerance, the Spirit of God is intolerant in principle, because it rejects false principles like tolerance itself, out of love for the truth, but it is tolerant in practice, because it loves.

Basically the Spirit of Anti-Christ cannot live by universal principle as this would need to be objective to be universal, and it says the only reality is subjective. This leads to followers of this spirit to be wildly guided by their own impulses and emotions. So the attempt to be objective in principle, and thereby skeptical of all principles, leads to a great subjectivity in practice, where they can only follow their inner feelings and impulses. In contrast, charity is actually something subjective, it is not measurable. But it is objective in the sense it is knowable and men can learn to recognize it. But this subjective principle, leads Catholics to be much more objective in practice. That is they know exactly whether they loved or not, whether they did good or ill. They know this by the grace of having Charity as their highest principle.

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II. Faculty and Object: Human Nature (1st Person) kritik der reinen natur, disputatio

Part 5: [Attention→ Reality] Formal: Subjective or Objective: (Justice) projection-coercion

Because the self is considered the locus of moral authority it is consequently the arbiter of moral reality. Thus reality becomes something subjective, relative to the individual persons interior thoughts and feelings. The realm of objectivity according to the Spirit of Anti-Christ, so all things that can be observed, this objective world is considered void of moral content, thus the rejection of Natural or Divine Law. Thus to understand the universe or other people, people living according to this spirit project their interior thoughts, feelings, moods, onto this outside world in an attempt to comprehend it.

The Spirit of God does the opposite. It says moral authority is something objective and public, the revelation of Jesus Christ for instance, the teachings of the Catholic Church, the Natural law. Thus it sees the objective world as full of moral meaning and teleological imput. Thus subjectivity need be subordinate to these objective moral realities. Rather than projecting their own interior state outwards to understand the objective world, the Spirit of God tries to apply what is objectively, naturally or supernaturally, revealed to be Good to understand the self or to make sense of our subjectivity and what its for.

Part 7: [Memory←Historical Consciousness] Material: Utopian or Arcadian (Temperance) cyclical-progressive/result-process

It follows from the previous presuppositions that the Spirit of Anti-Christ will be Utopian. Because it rejects what is objective as having a moral meaning, historically speaking only the past is objective, or observable. And of course subjectivity is always only the present moment. Thus the temporal structure of the Spirit of AntiChrist is utopian, it depicts the past, what is objective, as evil. It knows the present, what is subjective is good, because it is not the past. The whole picture, logically must be headed toward a future that is even better. Thus it is utopian.

In contrast, the Spirit of God is arcadian. In that it takes what is morally instructive to be objective. That is the revelation of God to Israel and then in Jesus Christ and the Roman Catholic Church and Her Saints. But the moral project is to see what is subjective as evil, so the present time is always seen to be evil in some sense, and the project is to imitate what was good in the past, or follow the good laws revealed in the past. Though there may be moral progress, even this comes from improvising on what worked in the past.

Part 8: [Discursive Reason→Mean] Efficient: Teleological or Instrumental (Prudence) aesthetic/ethical self

Rationality is what orders means to ends. The Privationist lives in a world where the moral authority, is the self and social group in the current moment, so something subjective. Means are ordered to the ends of the self and social group, or more precisely they are ordered to help the self discover himself, and protect the boundaries of self discovery set by the social group. But this means that all things, all signs even cannot be more than instruments ordered to the highest good of the self. Thus rationality is instrumentalized, a overused word these days is weaponized, which both sides of the political spectrum eagerly do and accuse the other side of doing, they use words and things as ordered to the ends of the self or the game established by the social group.

In contrast, the Spirit of God thinks what is objective is real and has moral authority, and this goes even down to the shape of things and some words themselves. The universe is ordered to God´s glory it is a means to this end, it is ordered to this end. So the task of the self is to understand itself objectively as ordered to God. Thus it will make sense to talk about what human life or sex is objectively for, this is its teleos or teleology. And the task of life is to know these things and most of all to learn what humans are for and what your specific life is for. But everything is oriented outside the subjectivity of ones self-consciousness to God as the summum bonum, the greatest good, our highest end.

Part 9: (Desire←End) Final: Hedonistic or Ascetic (Courage) sense/intellect; presence/absence

All enjoyment occurs at an intellectual level and a sensible level. The Privationist tends to focus on a hedonistic sensible enjoyment, so food, consumption, sex, but even these things need to correspond with the boundaries set by the social group and the worship of the self. For a woman to submit to a man to satisfy some kink in the process of self exploration would be commended, for a woman to submit to a man based on the past, or based on any objective fact about life or gender or God´s wishes. Thus there are relatively minimal intellectual conditions for enjoyment, basically that the action is not evil of course, and then the focus is usually sensible appetites.

For the Spirit of God it is the opposite, the self enjoys not expanding itself but constricting it to conform to God´s law, the needs of the community, or the nature of things and their respective ends. Thus, sensible enjoyment is usually permited but sublimated to intellectual ends. A Catholic may feast, and should enjoy the sensible aspect of the things he eats when he feasts, or at least a normal catholic but the enjoyment is permitted and channeled to honor some greater spiritual Good, the life of a Saint, or a Holy Day that remembers some event in the life of Christ. Similarly with sexuality, but notice the contrast, a privationist enjoys sex when it is not evil, so not consensual or violent, a Catholic only enjoys sex when it is good, so within marriage and for the purposes of procreation (at least not intentionally contradicting these purposes as regards the matter of the sexual act.) Thus there is much less sensible enjoyment, and much more at the level of intellect, which is good, as intellectual enjoyment, or at least the best sorts, contentment, virtue, are free! Sensible delights are often costly, and morally speaking much more so.

Part 10: [Sociality←→Norm]: Individualistic or Socialistic (Benevolence\Hospitality)

Humans are social animals. The core of any identity is social, and its usefulness is often cashed out in terms of sociality. We get our identity from how we are recognized by our peers, what roles we take, what norms that circulate in a given community that we recognize with others in that community. We can’t exist without having people that recognize us as who we think we are, we need other people that recognize our identity as being real. Thus, we have to conform as individuals to some community and the possible identities within that community. Exactly how we do this and what is insisted upon by the community we hope to be recognized in provide the conditions for individuality.

Practitioners of the Privationist religoin are individualistic in principle, because they think all humans are different and unique and no common principle can be derived from them as authoritative, and socialistic in practice, because an individualistic standard cannot call the norms of an individualistic society into question, and without such a standard it accommodates the norms of the individualistic society it is in more thoroughly and conforms to them. Thus, the identity created is more rooted in concrete communal social interaction and mutual recognition of a shared identity than anything else. Thus the we see that the principle “Be Yourself, or Be an Individual,“ translates in practice to “Conform to the Group!“

The Spirit of God is socialistic in principle, because its principles are derived from what is true or good for all humans throughout history and with a trans-historical community of exemplary people (saints!), and individualistic in practice, because it’s not concerned, in substance, with the particular society or time period that its practitioners find themselves in. Catholic identity is less derived on concrete social interaction because it is firmly rooted in a community that doesn’t exist concretely in any particular contemporary society or even on earth, the communion of Saints. This allows for Catholics to be more individualistic in practice, and break with the norms of the actually existing society or social group. Thus at the level of principle the injunction, “Imitate Christ or conform to the example of the Saints“ leads in practice to “make actual your vocation and gifts as an individual in opposition to the standard of society. So be an individual!“

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III. Intention (2nd Person) dialogue.

Part 11: [Intellect] Recollection: Skepticism or Faith sideways on view.

The Spirit of AntiChrist is fundamentally skeptical in its posture towards Reality. It seeks to “deconstruct“ any fixed or reliable way of seeing the world that could guide action, naturally to make room for the self and its free expression. But trusting no authority, of course thinking the past to be evil or outdated, it can only trust the self and social group, and even here, the self and social group do not claim to know what humans or life is for, instead they tend to insist dogmatically that life is not about dogmas, they hold to only one rule against rules, these contradictions serve to bind anyone who could restrict the freedom of the self. Yet the self cannot unite the sensible and intellectual natures in man into a unity without having a unitary intellectual end capable of subordinating and transforming sense. Yet this sort of end is precisely what is forbidden by the social group. Thus the intellectual end of life is to at least signal opposition to the enemies of the social group, the sensible end of life is to discover and extend the power of the self and enjoyment of the self, which for many is confined strictly to matters of sexuality. Thus the recollection of the self, all its powers, is usually for the purpose of pure power apart from an ontologically grounded truth or good, and pure power either against evil or for sensual sexual self discovery or prowess, sometimes these overlap. Because the sensible self is the primary mystery, it shatters all intellectual frameworks that could try to subordinate it. A privationist is more likely defined in terms of what they are not, what they know is what they are sure they don´t know.

Except for the Spirit of God does not reveal God to be a God of pure power but also rational, ordered by an ontologically grounded intellectual notion of the good. The self can recollect himself as a unity to the extent his life is unified by this good with a pure intention. And the soul recollects itself before God in prayer, or song, or even at work. But the self is truly at a unity before God. The scriptures say to pray unceasing, that is to live, work, eat, all in the presence of God and aware and praising his Glory.

Part 12 [Will] Consent: Activism or Hope (spinning in the void)

Consent is the act by which the soul aligns itself with the force of necessity.

It is either, for the spirit of God, silent acceptance of the order of things—natural, social, and divine, but most specifically one´s vocation or task in life. True consent requires the complete surrender of the self, not through passive submission but through active, mindful acceptance of reality, suffering, and limitation. It is the soul’s way of participating in divine grace, for by consenting, we cease to resist the workings of divine will and allow ourselves to be instruments of love and justice.

For the Spirit of Anti-Christ the the consenting act is one of rebellion against something evil, a refusal to accept the world as it is, and a desire to alter it. In the Spirit of Anti-Christ the self consents to a task to preserve itself and the social group, a task in opposition to the way things are in an attempt to alter the world for the better.

Part 13 [Heart] Remembrance/Recognition: Acceptance or Love

The self, or subject, is not born fully formed but emerges through a process of recognition. This process is dialectical, meaning it unfolds through a series of negations and sublations. At its core, recognition involves a mutual relationship between two self-conscious beings. Each self can only become fully aware of itself as a self through the recognition of the other. The importance of recognition lies in its role in the constitution of individual identity. Recognition plays a central role in how individuals come to be treated as responsible agents within a community of norms. it is fundamentally about the social practices that structure our ability to hold each other accountable. Recognition, then, is the mechanism by which normative statuses, like responsibility and autonomy, are conferred. identity is not something you can achieve on your own.

The Spirit of Anti-Christ focuses on the immediate recognition of others in the social group, because there is no ontological standard at play, there is a makeshift playbook for greasing the social wheels that people can exist passably around eachother, all while accepting generally whatever choices people make or who they say they are. Those who are a threat to the expression of the self or social group are denied recognition. self-realization and personal development are only possible through recognition from others. the strength of the spirit of anti-christ is that the bar is so low, nearly all beliefs and behaviors are to be heard and respected. In practical terms, fostering inclusivity means making sure that everyone, regardless of their position, background, or identity, has the opportunity to participate, contribute, and be heard.

In contrast, recognition according to the Spirit of God is mediated by the highest principle: charity (caritas), which is infused in the soul by God, elevates human relationships to the supernatural order. Charity is not simply a natural love of neighbor, charity is a participation in the divine love, which flows from God to the soul and extends to all creatures, particularly one's neighbor. the soul, infused with divine charity, recognizes both itself and others in the light of God’s love, which is the source of all truth and goodness. it is in recognizing Christ and His love for us that the virtue of charity is infused into the soul. The recognition of Christ’s love, and His recognition of each soul as beloved, is what constitutes and grounds the virtue of charity. This recognition, therefore, is not a mere human achievement but a gift of grace, drawing the soul into the very life of the Blessed Trinity. Through the Incarnation, God took on human nature, thereby dignifying each person and offering the ultimate form of recognition—the divine condescension to human frailty out of love. It is in this recognition that the soul is drawn into the life of charity, for it is Christ’s love that enables the soul to love others as God loves them. As St. John writes, “We love, because He first loved us” 1 John 4:19. The soul, moved by this divine recognition, loves not for its own sake, but for the sake of Christ. It is in recognizing Christ’s love that the soul is empowered to love others with divine charity, and it is in this love that the believer finds his true identity—not through mutual human acknowledgment, but through participation in the love of Christ. As St. Paul writes, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” Galatians 2:20.

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IV. End: The Three Societies- symposium (plural)

Part 14 Politics- Architecture of Representation: Soveriegnty, Law, and Exception (Limit) (3rd P)

Necessity: Force and Boundary

1. Good: Society and Law

2. Unity: Authority

Part 15 Family-Cultivation of Honor: Production\Reproduction, Virtue, and Exchange (Heirarchy) (1st P)

1. Nec: Money, Property, and Consumption

2. Good: Production and Reproduction

3. Unity: Justice, Natural Teleos\Action, Exchange

Part 16 Religion- Ordering of Desire: Continuity, Sacred, and Sacrifice (Memesis) (2nd P)

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