-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of Chuck Grimes
Smith works from the argument from design to construct a model that is teleological and securely located in the chain of being tradition.... Eubulides
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Okay, so you are getting into this holy ghost stuff. Here's the next step (from the stocks explode thread):
Diamond writes. "The values to which people cling most stubbornly under inappropriate conditions are those values that were previously the source of their greatest triumphs over adversity."
So, preservation of cultural and ideological values like the holy ghost = invisible hand of the market. Monotheism = Capitalism. One substance, consubstantiate in all things great and small.
We are the Arians against the Trinity. I am sure the neocons would be appalled to discover they were defending the holy ghost.
CG
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We'd need to do a bit more digging on Stoic cosmogony and it's influence on the Jews and early Xtian communities. Keep in mind the whole theodicy issue related to the design of the cosmic order; the law of unintended consequences lets god and the holy ghost off the hook when things go bad and yet 'he' can get credit when things go well for individuals or groups. The old theological quip of "water cannot quench a thirst without also having the potential to drown a man" is apt here and provides, by the time Augustine, a well thought out management for evil and needless suffering. It also gets to the heart of the necessary and accidental properties of things and processes. The striving for coherence was intense.
Smith of course was heavily into Stoicism. However, he burned almost all his papers so we may never know how heavily he was into stuff like alchemy, mysticism etc., unlike Newton, whose stuff came out in droves after Keynes bought his house.
Ian