Time is Tight

            On Tuesday morning I worked on my essay. I also started reading the part of “The Souls of Black Folk” by W. E. B. Du Bois that critically addresses Booker T. Washington’s “Up from Slavery”. It reminded me of the late 60s band Booker T. and the MGs that had that funky instrumental hit, “Time is Tight”, featuring Booker T. Jones on organ. It turns out that Booker T Jones was named after his father who was named after Booker T. Washington. I hadn’t heard “Time is Tight” for decades and I started humming it on while riding to class.

            On the way I noticed a humming sound coming from my tires but they weren’t humming “Time is Tight”. Along College I realized that my bicycle was going very slowly and it turned out that the humming was happening because my back tire was off balance and rubbing against the left side of the bike’s frame. The problem seemed to get worse as I continued on. Finally, just before Spadina I had to stop and walk my bike by lifting the back wheel. It was another unseasonably hot day and I was sweating profusely by the time I got to St. George. I was about fifteen minutes later than usual but still fifteen minutes early.

            In the classroom I worked a bit on my essay until Professor Black arrived.

            She spent most of her lecture finishing up her talk on Anselm of Canterbury.

            Understanding what exists as opposed to what what exists is.

            That than which no greater can be thought exists in the mind – alone – reduction – assumption.

            That which exists in the mind and reality can be compared.

            Reduxio ad absurdum (argument to absurdity) is a philosophical argument that assumes the opposite of what one thinks in order to show that the assumption proves itself to be ridiculous.

            It is greater to exist in both the mind and reality than the mind alone, but it’s better to worry only in the mind.

            Autonomy versus dependence: If it is real it is autonomous. If it only exists in thought it is dependent. Greatness is proportional to independence.

1.      That than which no greater can be thought (NGT) in the mind alone.

2.      NGT in both the mind and reality. God. A being that than which nothing

greater can be thought.

2 is greater than 1.
God cannot be thought not to exist.

Modal proof uses notions of

3.      Necessary – Being – Existence cannot be denied – NGT must be necessary

4.      Possible – Existence can be doubted

Reduxio of reduxio. The fool thought inconceivable.

Thomas Aquinas uses Anselm later as an example that one cannot assume that

god is self-evident.

Two definitions of thinking:

1.      Nominal definition – The fool has an idea but denial is just words.

2.      Reality is in the mind. But if reality is in the mind then one cannot think that

god does not exist. Anselm needs a robust notion of thinking for this to work. Reality needs to be in the mind.

            In the Proslogion, Gaunilo offers some impressive counter-arguments to those of Anselm. One of them became the prototype for Kant’s 100 coin argument. Gaunilo does not get the grounds for Anselm’s proof and refers to that which is greater than everything. But Anselm says that for it to be greater than anything is not enough. It must be the absolute summit. The NGT is that than which nothing greater can be thought. This means the greatest conceivable.

            Augustine says if one can proof what is immutable and above reason then god exists because it must be either that which is immutable and above reason or whatever is higher than that.

            Anselm thinks the NGT reasoning only works with the absolutely most high being.

            The example of the painter compares the existence of the painting in the mind and in reality. Before and after is the same concept.

            An architect has the blueprint for his building but he won’t know if the building has been built unless he goes there. He compares the blueprint to the constructed design and finds that the blueprint shows five bathrooms but the building has six.

            Gaunilo says the NGT is not mind dependent. How can the reality of the NGT be in the mind? So one cannot start the proof.

            Anselm says one must have a sufficient idea of this to make distinctions.

            The example of the perfect island is Gaunilo’s most famous objection, but Professor Black thinks it’s his weakest. No greater island exists, though no one has ever been there. According to Anselm the island has to exist. Existence in the mind is compatible with perfect understanding. Just because you can’t look at the sun does not mean you cannot see the sunlight.

            Critics say, what about atheism or idol worship.

            Anselm declares that even if you don’t call the NGT god it is still the greatest.

            The ontological argument doesn’t have that many adherents anymore.

            She finished the class with an introduction to Peter Abelard, the last of the Christian philosophers that we would be studying. He lived at the end of the early medieval period when things were stabilizing and cities were on the rise in France and the Frankish territories. Though scholarship in the monasteries continued to thrive, education was no longer confined to monasteries as schools were built around cathedrals.

            There was a trend at this time towards wandering scholars with a focus on individual masters. Cults of personality were formed around intellectuals and fans would gravitate from one to another. People have been studying Aristotle and disputation and so they flocked to listen to great debaters, experts in dialectic and logical argumentation. There developed a strong concern for logic, branching into metaphysics. Abelard was one of these. He was interested in applying logic to theological problems. He disputed the masters and got into trouble when he declared that universals are merely words. If one is too subtle one can get into trouble.

The 12^th Century was starting to import Arabic science and math, as well as translations of Plato. The teachers in the cathedral school at Chartres were influenced by the Platonic texts. This played in with the influence of Arabic science.

Next time we would look into a bit of Abelard’s exciting bio.

After class and a visit to the washroom I still had 45 minutes before my tutorial, so I went to try to fix my bike. We I first arrived I deliberately locked my velo at an end post so that I would have room to work later. I dug the socket wrench out of my backpack and switched to the 15 mm socket. . I unlocked my bike and turned it upside down and loosened the lock nuts for the back wheel. I sat behind my bike on the sidewalk with both feet propped against the vertical part of the frame and pushed with my feet while pulling with one hand on the wheel. It’s actually easier to do that when the bicycle is upside down because gravity helps to slip wheel right into place. I had to try a few times because the wheel has a tendency to snap to the left. It finally worked perfectly when I pushed the wheel all the way against the right side and then tightened the nuts.

While I was working, a car drove by with its sound system playing “Time is Tight” by Booker T and the MGs. An interesting coincidence to have been thinking of the song for the first time in decades and then a few hours later to hear it.