Jaki in Italian 2

Last time I presented a list of Jaki's works published in Italian. Today we will see what is available on line.

Let's start with Cristianità, the official journal of Alleanza Cattolica, an Italian catholic association. Two interviews with Jaki and a long review of his God and the Cosmologists (1989) were published.
In October 1994 Jaki was in Rome for a meeting of the Pontificial Academy of Sciences and was interviewed on various aspects of his work. The interview appeared in 1995 with the title Fede e razione fra scienza e scientismo (Faith and reason between science and scientism). Initially Jaki presents the reason why he spent his life studying the history and philosophy of science, then he summarizes the limits of Greek science. In the third question he is asked to comment on his thesis that Christ is the saviour of science.
Among the other things he says that
"Newton's argument that the fall of the apple and the movement of the moon in its orbit are governed by the same laws would have be unconceivable for the ancient Panteists, Aristotle included. Newton himself didn't realised how much he was in debt with the vision of the world that follows from the Christian Creed, at the centre of which there is Christ Pantocrator."

Then he talks of Hawking, Sagan and Davies, claiming that the simplest way to unmask their sophisms is to observe that the presuppositions of their reasoning cannot be proved scientifically.
After this he discusses the development of cosmology, and the principle of causality, chaos and quantistic mechanics.
When asked to comment on science among Catholics he laments that the new trends in Catholic philosophy and theology are too personalistic and they tend to ignore the demarcation between quantitative and non quantitative concepts. People influenced by those trends are generally unequipped with those ontological and epistemological tools which are necessary to deal with science and its limits.
Finally he is asked about Duhem and his relevance:
"Duhem excellence as a thinker lies in the fact that he recognised with clear arguments the incapacity of the scientific method of saying something about ontological problems or metaphysics. This incapacity is shown not only through an analysis of the scientific method but also profiting from the teachings coming from the history of science. In all this Duhem made his best to respect the requirements of the principles of logic and of the history of science. In fact, his respect for science brought him to engage with the heroic task of bringing to light the true origins of classical mechanics. With his big surprise, he discovered this origin in the medieval scientists of the XIV century, particularly from the Sorbonne, like Oresmes and Buridan. What stroke me about Pierre Duhem was not only his dedication, which is natural, to the scholarly work that reached the limits of heroism, but also that he experienced what it means to be a prophet whose voice seems to disappear in the desert. Even the Catholic intellectuals establishment wasn't able to appreciate him for his right value. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. I have devoted a work to this subject: Pierre Duhem. Homme de Science et de Foi (Beauchesne, Paris 1992).
Duhem was a martyr in the arena of intellectuals, this is a reality that Catholic scholars could never meditate enough. They should also try to imitate him in his indifference for academic honours, awards and career. Female Catholic intellectuals could find abundant reasons for meditation in the heroic enterprise, carried out for thirty years, by Duhem only daughter, Hélène, on whose fragile and unprepared shoulders fall the almost overhuman task of finishing the publication from the sixth to the tenth volume of his immortal work Le systeme du monde. Histoire des doctrines cosmologiques de Platon à Copernic (A. Hermann et Filles, Paris 1913). I have told the incredible story of Hélène in Reluctant heroine, the life and Work of Hélène Duhem (Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh 1992)."


Angelo

BYOJL #3: New Books

Friends,

We have news of new booklets by Fr. Jaki recently published by Real View Books and reprints for our "Building Your Own Jaki Library" series. As Dr. Thursday explained previously, these are "books which Father Jaki refers to, and which are important for our work in science, in philosophy, and in history - and what is more delightful, books which are presently available in print"

We hope you enjoy them!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The Garden of Eden: Why, Where, When, How Long? 32pp.



From the Description by Father Jaki in 'Three More Years':


In that booklet I elaborated on the biblical story as a creditable position against polygenism. The story, as I insist throughout, is steeped in man's moral destiny, which, and this cannot be emphasized enough, cannot be an object of evolutionary science. Further, I also insist that humanness does not have its first evidence in the paintings of Lascaux and other prehistoric caves. Art is surely a signature of man, as put concisely by Chesteron, but it it is another matter, pace Chesterton, whether those paintings are truly a form of art which man alone is capable of producing. The indisputable signature of man is language, the very tool abused in the effort to make man appear to be just an animal. The chief practitioners of those efforts should remind themselves that present-day theories about the origin of language beg the question as much as they did when a century and a half ago the Academie des Sciences in Paris decided not to consider any further paper on the subject.


Available now from Real View Books: $3

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The Drama of Guadalupe 36pp.

From the Description by Father Jaki in 'Three More Years':


The prompting to write a booklet on the tilma that made Guadalupe the most famous Marian shrine in the Church, came when I could join two friends of mine from Madrid in the last days of January 2009 at Anahuac University in Mexico City for a conference...


The average educated Apparitionist still has to make much of some indisputable facts, such as the stunning survival value of the tilma's textile, made of agaye cactus, and the unexpected emergence of Codex 1548. The scholars among the anti-Apparitionist systematically underplay all such evidence and at times shove it under the rug.


The Drama of Guadalupe provides a new chapter to the old story that in reference to miracles there is an ongoing drama on the purely intellectual level as well.



Available now from Real View Books: $3

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Being and Some Philosophers - Etienne Gilson

Reprint of the Second Edition (PIMS, 2005)


From the Back Cover


The study of being was one of the main preoccupations of Gilson's scholarly and intellectual life. Being and Some Philosophers is at once a testament to the persistence of those concerns and an important landmark in the history of the question of being. The book charts the ways in which being is translated across history, from unity in Plato and substance in Aristotle to essence in Avicenna and the act of existence in Aquinas...


And yet Being and Some Philosophers remains not so much an historical investigation but, in the words of its author, "a philosophical book, and a dogmatically philosophical one at that." Its passionate vigour has proven, over many years, at once fresh and provocative.

"Time and again Gilson had turned to history to deepen his understanding of existence, and in Realisme thomiste history became the crucible in which his timeless insights into Thomist metaphysics were tempered. In Being and Some Philosophers those insights received their mature expression"


Frederick D. Wilhelmsen, Introduction to Thomist Realism and the Critique of Knowledge

Small Quantity Available now from Amazon.ca: CND $16
http://www.amazon.ca/Being-Some-Philosophers-Etienne-Gilson/dp/088844415X/

Also available from http://www.pims.ca/

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Three Quests in Philosophy - Etienne Gilson (PIMS, 2008)
.
.
From the Back Cover

These seven previously unpublished lectures - Gilson termed them "Quests" - represent his mature thought on three key philosophical questions: the nature of philosophy, "species" and "matter" - all pertinent issues of perennial interest to both philosophers and scientists. Gilson presents them here with his characteristic clarity, sense, and humour.


They have been published by the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies to commerate the thirtieth anniversary of Gilson's death in 1978.


Small Quantity Available now from Amazon.ca: CND $23
http://www.amazon.ca/Three-Quests-Philosophy-Etienne-Gilson/dp/0888447310/

Also available from http://www.pims.ca/

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From Aristotle to Darwin and Back again: A Journey in Final Causality, Species and Evolution - Etienne Gilson (Ignatius Press, 2009)

Twenty-Five years after Father Jaki prompted John Lyon to translate Gilson's masterpiece on teleology into English, it is available oncemore from Ignatius with an introduction by Cardinal Schoenborn..

Father Jaki, in Gilson and Science:

In his From Aristotle to Darwin and Back Again, he came to grips with the question of whether it was still reasonable to look at the actions of living beings as evincing some purpose. This is not the place to give even a brief summary of that book full of sparkling phrases, a wealth of data, and rigorous analysis of some basic terms constantly used by biologists, both ancient and modern. In fact the constancy of their falling back on registering the presence of some goal which organisms seem to strive for, made Gilson conclude that one of the constants of biology is that references to purpose in biology are unavoidable.

Available now from Amazon.com: $11.50

http://www.amazon.com/Aristotle-Darwin-Back-Again-Causality/dp/1586171690/

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Catherine of Siena - Sigrid Undset (Ignatius Press, 2009)

Quotations from Father Jaki's 'Sigrid Undset's Quest for Truth':
As one with deep commitment to truths that animated the Saint, Sigrid Undset came up with the best single book on her for those who prefer substance to matters secondary and circumstantial.

In reading Catherine of Siena one cannot help feeling that Sigrid Undset, so eager to remain in a state of grace after her conversion, was, in writing that work, communing with Christ, whose handmaid she vowed to be, simply because she came to the conclusion that Christ, the Son of Mary, was God and took that conclusion with utter seriousness.

Available now from Amazon.com: $11.50


http://www.amazon.com/Catherine-Siena-Sigrid-Undset/dp/1586174088/

~ Jakian Thomist

Fr. Jaki's Contribution to Theoretical Physics

After reading physicist Prof. Steven Barr's tribute to Fr. Jaki, now may be the time to consider Fr. Jaki's contribution to the body of knowledge in theoretical physics.

"The piece is a simple rewriting of Heisenberg's uncertainty relation Δx.Δp ≥ h, which means that the product of the uncertainties in measuring the position Δx and momentum Δp in an interaction cannot be smaller than h or Planck's quantum divided by 4π. Shortly after Heisenberg proposed in 1927 that relation or inequality, it was recognised that it has an equivalent form in ΔE.Δt ≥ h, where E is energy and t is time. But although no formula of physics has been better known than E = mc², nobody cared to rewrite ΔE.Δt ≥ h as Δmc².Δt ≥ h. In this form the inequality reveals that, since c or the speed of light is invariable, there will necessarily be on hand an uncertainty in measuring m or mass. Further, this uncertainty or margin of error increases or decreases inversely with the error of measuring t." [A Mind's Matter p.164-165]

So what does the equation mean? Is everything now uncertain? Has causality been refuted? Is there no difference between being and non-being? Let us continue now with the philosophy.

"Suppose then that in terms of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics one takes operational uncertainties for ontological ones. Then the uncertainty in measuring, say, the time of the emission of an alpha particle from a radioactive nucleus turns the uncertainty of measuring the mass into an ontological uncertainty. This can only mean that the mass defect Δm must come from nothing, unless one assumes that the Creator supplies it in each radioactive decay, which, of course, would be absurd to assume.
In the case of an alpha emission, that defect may not exceed 10^-31 grams, an unimaginably small amount of matter. Why then should one worry about accounting for its providence? No petty theft could be more "petty" than a swindling with such a small quantity. But endless acts of swindling can only make one insensitive to what is actually being done. At the end, the Heisenberg uncertainty relation would then inspire an oversight of matter of cosmic accounts, such as entire universes. And this is actually what happened." [A Mind's Matter p. 165]

This brings us nicely to the key criticism that Prof. Barr has of the work of Fr. Jaki.

"The fear of subjectivism led both Jaki and Hodgson to a vehement rejection of the traditional understanding of quantum mechanics, against which they inveighed constantly. They hoped that physics would eventually return to a more Newtonian framework, despite the fact that this would entail a return also to the mechanistic and deterministic cosmos from which quantum mechanics had once delivered physics—a deliverance that Jaki celebrated in many passages. In any event, such a return is highly unlikely. In my view, they despaired far too quickly of the possibility of reconciling the traditional understanding of quantum mechanics with a sound metaphysics, challenging though that task may be. They might have paid greater heed to one of Jaki’s own observations: “Truly, there is no exaggeration in the words of H. Margenau, who referred to the ‘enormous metaphysical wealth reposing largely untapped in modern physical theory.’” [First Things Jun-Jul 2009]

As can be seen from my quotations above it was hardly a "fear of subjectivism" that led Fr. Jaki to reject the Copenhagen Philosophy, but it was rather his fight to protect the reality of the universe, of those within it and of the One who is their savior. I also never recall reading that Jaki wished that physics would return to a more Newtonian framework and this is further evidenced by Haffner's statement that "Jaki has spoken highly of quantum mechanics from The Relevance of Physics onwards, yet always distinguished it from the Copenhagen antiontology grafted onto it by Heisenberg and Bohr." (p.168, Creation and Scientific Creativity, 2e)

I am led to despair when I read that Prof. Barr thinks that quantum mechanics has delivered us from a "deterministic cosmos". Re-read that point - he said "cosmos" not "philosophy". What is it exactly that Fr. Jaki has celebrated? Perhaps I am mistaken here (please correct me!), but I will let Fr. Jaki speak with his own words:

"Quite believable will sound, I think, the indignation which a President of the German Philosophical Society voiced on hearing me expound the anticausal misinterpretation of Heisenberg's principle. Do you mean, he asked me, that we have to return to universal mechanical causation, which swallowed up even man's free will? The question illustrated the fact that one can hardly endorse a philosophical error without endorsing some other as well. It was erroneous to identify causation with mechanical causation: the former is an ontological matter, whereas the latter is merely a manner of causation. But once that error was made, and the universality of mechanical causation firmly asserted, it was easy to draw the inference that this also meant the refutation of the reality of free will. One could, of course, retort that the refutation itself could not be a blind mechanical reaction if it was still a valid refutation, which has to be an act of free reasoning. Apart from this the question revealed a confusion between the manner or the how of causal interaction among physical bodies and the ontological reality of that causation. This confusion is endemic in the literature. No wonder that so many saw in the indeterminacy principle a scientific vindication of free will. One can hardly imagine a less reliable life belt thrown to humanists who still care about free will." [A Mind's Matter, p. 166]

Prof. Barr quotes (from The Relevance p.367) the eminent physicist's H.Margenau's observation about the metaphysical wealth untapped from modern physical theory. Margenau, the author of Scientific Indeterminism and Human Freedom, however, also recognised the laws of science are forever subject to revision (c.f. Relevance p.347). Fr. Jaki did not advocate concordance of the science of the day with scripture or with philosophy and he would not find Prof. Barr's declaration that the return of mechanistic physics was "highly unlikely" particularly reassuring.

The bedrock of the perennial philosophy was never far from Jaki's thought. His realism always started with things and never thoughts, even mathematical formulas. The words of F. Wilhelmsen in his introduction to E.Gilson's Thomist Realism and the Critique of Knowledge are particularly apt: "Once the critical starting point is adopted, once our living contact with the world of existing beings is cut, and we start from thought alone, no amount of abstract manipulation of concepts will ever reunite us with the world...". And the sad reality is that due to the Copenhagen philosophy, physicists do extol all sorts of basement-induced universes while reposing at the feet of Kant and other critical "realists". A clarification from Fr. Jaki is in order:

"The science of quantum mechanics states the impossibility of perfect accuracy in measurements. The philosophy of quantum mechanics states ultimately the impossibility of distinguishing between material and non-material, and even between being and non-being. Physicists who fail to realise what this means for their science should remind themselves of a remark of James R. Newman, for many years the editor of Scientific American and always full of admiration for the work of physicists: "The more creative physicists have in recent years cultivated philosophy. They are usually disinclined to admit to this weakness. But there is no escape, even if it be only to embrace anti-philosophical philosophies. For the physicist has come to realise that if he throws philosophy into the fire, his own subject goes with it." [Chance or Reality and Other Essays p.14]

I do not doubt that there will be other reviews like that of Prof. Barr and they serve a useful purpose. They witness the possibility of the peaceful co-existence of faith and reason . However, it is imperative that we ensure that the work of our masters does not follow the well trodden path. That path was the subject of a talk by Fr. Jaki, it was named - "Damned with faint praise or the Fate of Pierre Duhem".

Two more tributes: one old, one new

Yesterday our canonical member, Magdalen posted the link to a very good article about Fr. Jaki by Dr. Stephen Barr which appeared in First Things back in May. I thought I ought to call it to your attention. One of the interesting points for me was the comment about Peter Hodgson, whose work I will have to investigate. It is this sort of "collecting" force of our wonderful net which makes me so grateful for it: just as Chesterton once wrote "I have often thanked God for the telephone" [GKC What's Wrong With the World CW4:112] we of the Duhem Society must also say "I have often thanked God for the INTERNET." Yes, there are many dull and useless things out here in the E-cosmos, but also good and useful ones too: certainly this blogg has begun to link scholars of all kinds from all around the world... It is the sort of thing which recalls these words of our Lord: "Again the kingdom of heaven is like to a net cast into the sea, and gathering together of all kinds of fishes. Which, when it was filled, they drew out, and sitting by the shore, they chose out the good into vessels, but the bad they cast forth. [Mt 13:47-48, emphasis added] As I have said elsewhere, echoing all our great ones, we need to have this catholic view, to learn to see things with the larger, universal view.

Another view on Jaki (and containing at least a nod to Duhem) is presented in the most recent edition of "Gilbert!" the magazine of the American Chesterton Society, which is a kind of Chestertonian Festschrift in memory of Father Jaki. Here is the cover as it was posted on the ACS "facebook" site:
There are essays on Father's work and on several of his essays, including one by Dale Ahlquist, president of the ACS, on the very important chapter "Champion of the Universe" (the title of a chapter in SLJ's Chesterton a Seer of Science). There is also a rather lengthy and wandering interview of someone who had visited Father Jaki a few times in recent years, but you will have to read that for yourself if you care to do so. It may appear to be irrelevant to our work, but then it may help to shed some light on this blogg.

100th post of the Duhem Society

As my colleague "Jakian Thomist" reminds me, this posting marks the one hundredth since our founding on April 7, 2009. He has sent me some wonderful news about a new edition of the Haffner study of Jaki's work, and we'll hear it shortly.

But first I think we ought to review a little about our Society. You can read Jaki's own statement of why a "Duhem Society" ought to be founded. I have augmented it simpy by including study of Jaki's work, intending that we enlarge our vision as Newman and Chesterton. Why? Here is why:

...all sciences being connected together, and having bearings one on another, it is impossible to teach them all thoroughly, unless they all are taken into account... ...all branches of knowledge are connected together, because the subject-matter of knowledge is intimately united in itself, as being the acts and the work of the Creator... ...if you drop any science out of the circle of knowledge, you cannot keep its place vacant for it; that science is forgotten; the other sciences close up, or, in other words, they exceed their proper bounds, and intrude where they have no right.
[Newman, The Idea of a University IV.15, V.1, IV.2]

The rebuilding of this bridge between science and human nature is one of the greatest needs of mankind. We have all to show that before we go on to any visions or creations we can be contented with a planet of miracles.
[Chesterton, The Defendant 75]

It is the perfection of the intellectual endeavor to unite all the subjects as one: this is the way taken in that most fruitful time called the Middle Ages - and the one which we must also take. We may not yet have our Society journal, our annual conference, our International Symposia with its published Proceedings - we may not yet have any tangible item of formal existence as the world considers such things - but if we work true to our own fields, and keep in mind the Light from these great minds, we have all we need to proceed. And perhaps, as we have been told, if we seek first the Kingdom of God, we shall receive all the other things we need... Let us keep this in mind as we proceed.

Next, "Jakian Thomist" presents an announcement of an important book. I have not yet seen this new edition, but I have read the first one and it is a useful synoptic study of the many works of SLJ. Perhaps we can take this opportunity to propose another project: simply that someone begin on a comparable work on Pierre Duhem. There is much work to be done; may God give us light and strength to do it.

--Dr. Thursday.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

Fr. Paul Haffner composed his PhD on the work of Fr. Jaki and this was first published by Christendom Press in 1990 with a list of Fr. Jaki's publications. It is with great joy that we announce that this excellent review is once again available in print in memoriam of Fr. Jaki. It has been republished in a new expanded and updated edition by Gracewing Publishing with a full bibliography of Fr. Jaki's work approved by him.

It is available now from Amazon.com at the following link:

http://www.amazon.com/Creation-scientific-creativity-Study-Thought/dp/0852444540

That Enduring Rock

Permanence in a world of change is hard to come by. However, the announcement from the Vatican this week about the establishment of the Anglican Rite within the church is so seismic that I cannot leave it pass without comment. Indeed hailed as perhaps the largest development since the Reformation, this inspired decision by Pope Benedict will change the face of Christianity for hundreds of years to come. What strikes me in particular is that we are witnessing not a reform (which is transient) but instead a new form, in that permanent sense that only the See of Peter the Rock can achieve. I am also humbled by the Holy Father's uncompromising generosity, a true gift.

I live in Ireland and indeed Anglicanism has had a major impact on the history of the islands of Britain and Ireland. I have attended funeral services of friends who were Anglican and each time I was struck by a sense of loss in that the litergy was beautiful but yet so tragic since it was empty of the Real Presence of Jesus. So it fills me with joy that at last the two can be reunited in a very special way and made whole.

I suspect that this decision will have a much larger impact in the UK than in Ireland, even though the Church of Ireland - Ireland's largest Protestant denomination - is part of the Anglican Communion. Several of the CoI archbishops are very liberally minded and are unlikely to be interested. That said, fifty years ago no one would have imagined that Trinity College Dublin would have an institute of Catholic theology, which is expected to be confirmed in the coming weeks. It will be fascinating to watch.

Fr. Jaki of course had a large interest in the Church of England, mostly through his studies of Newman. Angelo is more qualified than I am to speculate on how Fr. Jaki would view the developments. I can only imagine the reception Pope Benedict will receive from Catholics -from every rite - next year when he visits England and perhaps even presides over the Beatification of Cardinal Newman!

This brings me to the excerpt I have reproduced in full below. It is Macaulay's review of Ranke's History of the Popes, much loved by Fr. Jaki. Macaulay may be an accurate forecaster but he may yet be wrong about St. Paul's! One must never forget to consider the work of the Holy Spirit who works in mysterious and truly creative ways!

~ Jakian Thomist
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There is not, and there never was, on this earth, a work of human policy so well deserving of examination as the Roman Catholic Church. The history of that Church joins together the two great ages of human civilization. No other institution is left standing which carries the mind back to the times when the smoke of sacrifice rose above the Pantheon, and when camelopards and tigers bounded in the Flavian amphitheatre. The proudest royal houses are but of yesterday, when compared with the line of the Supreme Pontiffs. That line we trace back to an unbroken series, from the pope who crowned Napoleon in the nineteenth century, to the Pope who crowned Pepin in the eight; and far beyond the time of Pepin the august dynasty extends, till it is lost in the twilight of fable. The republic of Venice came next in antiquity. But the republic of Venice was modern when compared with the Papacy; and the republic of Venice is gone, and the Papacy remains. The Papacy remains, not in decay, not a mere antique; but full of life and youthful rigor. The Catholic Church is still sending forth to the farthest ends of the world, missionaries as zealous as those who landed in Kent with Augustine; and still con-fronting hostile kings with the same spirit with which she confronted Attila. The number of her children is greater than in any former age. Her acquisitions in the New World have more than compensated her for what she has lost in the Old. Her spiritual ascendancy extends over the vast countries which lie between the plains of the Missouri and Cape Horn - countries which a century hence, may not improbably hence contain a population as large as that which now inhabits Europe. The members of her communion are certainly not fewer than a hundred and fifty million, and it will be difficult to show that all the other Christian sects united, amount to a hundred and twenty million. Nor do we see any sign which indicates the term of her long domination is approaching. She saw the commencement of all governments, and of all the ecclesiastical establishments, that now exist in the world; and we feel no assurance that she is not destined to see the end of them all. She was great and respected before the Saxon had set foot in Britain - before the Frank had passed the Rhine - when Grecian eloquence still flourished in Antioch - when idols were still worshipped in the temple of Mecca. And she may still exist in undiminished vigour when some traveller from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's.

From Macaulay's essay review of Ranke's History of the Popes

Edinburgh Review 72 (1840) pp. 227-28

Quoted in Stanley L. Jaki, And on this Rock pp. 165-166

The Message must justify the Means

To conclude my review of the foundations of Jaki's philosophy, this week we consider his stance that "only if one takes the realist alternative is it possible to work out a philosophical system which can be communicated by a real means such as a book." [Numbers Decide p. 18-19]

In Cosmos and Creator (p. 94) Jaki recalls Spinoza's succinct survey of the choices available in philosophy:
"The Scholastics start from things, Descartes from thought, I start from God" [1]

On page 87, Jaki describes how this variety of competing philosophical systems easily give the impression of a cacophony and he suggests that "the only thing they have in common is that they are published in books". Jaki's realism places much importance on books and already in Cosmos and Creator we witness the seeds of what was to become the key-stone of Jaki's philosophical work Means to Message:

Since any book is a tangible product and obviously made for a purpose, any book written either against tangible reality or against the reality of purpose is the very refutation of its author's claim. But a book is also a refutation of the slighting of the excellence of thinking, that age-old citadel of metaphysics.
Materialists and positivists, be they logical or not, who must exorcise even the most rudimentary form of metaphysics which is embodied in thinking about any physical thing, are also refuted by the very books they write. A book is a thing, if it is anything. But a thing, any thing, is so loaded with metaphysical realism that, tellingly enough, Wittgenstein's second statement in his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is the defensive declaration that 'the world is the totality of facts not things'. [Cosmos and Creator p.88-89]

But yet the Tractatus was not the aspired end of philsophy but rather an 'illusory march', since the Tractatus itself was as much a thing as it was a fact. Wittgenstein's search for clarity ignored the means that carried his message and hence it degenerated into mere 'talk about talk'.

Objects cannot be vindicated in terms of something else. The registering of objects cannot be reduced to any other proposition which is still addressed to others. The use of means, of any means, obligates the philosopher to recognize the objective truth of means, so many objects. This is a truth, the very first to be unfolded from among the steps that allow one to go from means to messages. This truth cannot be evaded, let alone be refuted, because the refutation itself is an act of communication, an implicit falling back on objective means whereby alone can other philosophers be reached. [Means to Message p. 13]

Wittgenstein sensed that cheating was to be expected in professional philosophizing (c.f. Means p. 12) and through Jaki's emphasis on the means, he exposes the "clever maneuvers" required when objects are denied their right to independent existence and relegated to the "disembodied conceptual shadows" of either the mind or sensations.

Realist philosophy surpasses these contortions and hence qualifies as the true love of wisdom, since as Jaki reminds us "whatever else a treatise on truth must account for, it must first do full justice to that most immediate reality which any object is." [Means to Message p. 16]

~ Jakian Thomist

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[1] Jaki relies on Gilson for this quotation. I have found it quoted slightly differently in T.S. Gregory's introduction to Andrew Boyle's 1959 translation of Spinoza's ethics: "The popular philosopy starts from creatures: Descartes starts from mind: I start from God." (page v). According to Gregory this was communicated to Leibniz. This translation also features in v.1 of Leon Brunschvicg's Ecrits philosophiques (1951).