Tea at Trianon: Reason’s Rigors and Revelations

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, November 12, 2023

Reason’s Rigors and Revelations

From Catholic Exchange:

On the other hand, think of the word “philosophy.” “Philosophy” conjures up ideas about beliefs and self-justification, a product of hope and aspirations, a matter of mere opinion and belief no matter how persuasive or subtle. “Philosophy” is almost a universally accepted synonym for opinion in our modern times.

So, is science all it is purported to be? And, is philosophy merely a matter of persuasive rhetoric, a matter of speculative justification, whose certainty pales when compared with the power and the breadth and depth of scientific inquiry and truth? Well, in our modern world, science is certainty, truth, “the” sole source of matters of fact. But, “philosophy” is merely opinion, despite how many others agree with any idea, any proposition, any truth claim.

But, once the rigors of science reveal the crucial role of and the requisite reliance on the rigors of reason, then science’s power and dominance seem more attributable to reason’s order and power. For science is merely the rigorous use of reason applied to the physical world. And, to make matters worse for science, you quickly can discern how science is impotent and impossible without reason. For science depends on reason, logic, rational order. But reason, on its own, is where the true power lies, as mathematics tells us so clearly.

And, a brief example can clearly demonstrate the primacy and efficacy of reason. Suppose you were inclined to make the case for science’s primacy, how could this case be made? Well, you could point out all of science’s many triumphs. But that doesn’t prove the exclusive nature of science as the sole source of truth. It just portrays its many discrete truths about the physical world. (Read more.)