Or discovered, rather. Or in many cases confirmed. You may not exactly remember that fire is the phenomenon of combustion manifested in light, flame, and heat, but no one forgets being burned.
As it pertains to the vertical, one can learn a great deal without ever discovering anything. Come to think of it, this applies to every reality transcending matter: even a lifetime of learning may or may not result in the discovery of truth.
For example, the most learned feminist will, by definition, never discover human nature. Except in an inverse manner, in that the feminist must have an implicit awareness of human nature in order to be in rebellion against it.
By the way, in order for this psychodrama of rebellion to be successful, you and I must be enlisted into it. Truth requires the adherence of no one in order to be true, but the fragile lies of the left require everyone to be on board. Dissent provokes an unconscious reminder to their own denied truth, which is precisely why it "triggers" them.
"White fragility"? The very concept is proof of the fragility of the leftist hivemind.
If something triggers you, it is because of an unresolved unconscious emotional issue. The triggering puts you at a crossroads: introspection or acting out. Woke culture is the institutionalization of the latter. What they call activism the clinical psychologist calls acting-out.
Anyway, I've been reading Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange's Reality (see sidebar), and a good working definition of reality is what is and what is capable of being discovered; it is not imagined, or projected, or conceptualized (except to the extent that concepts function as points of reference that are fungible to reality). Or in the words of the Aphorist,
Nearly every idea is an overdrawn check that circulates until it is presented for payment.
The First Bank of Thomism always has sufficient funds to cover checks drawn on it, even the biggest, e.g., God.
True, God is infinite while the funds are finite. But here God is analogous to the concept of money itself, as opposed to any particular sum. In other words, money -- i.e., value -- is backed by God. No God, no value, period. Rather, you just make it up -- as in the way a feminist "values" womanhood. Where the mere prostitute sells her womanhood for cash, the gender studies professor sells it for cash and tenure.
To extend the banking analogy, the proofs of God allow us to open the account. They are more than adequate to function as collateral. We know in an indirect way that they are true, since we derive so much value from them and write so many checks. These checks would all bounce if not for the God reserve.
Not only do they not bounce, they fund an explosion of wealth and productivity, very much like the bank that lends money to fund more investment and construction. This is precisely how the God account functions. Ultimately it built western civilization, from art to science to liberal democracy. Nor -- as anyone can see -- can our civilization perdure without this backing (which is again the backing of reality).
Back to the stuff I discovered yesterday about reality. For example, this:
when the soul knows necessary and universal principles, it becomes, in some real fashion, all intelligible reality. This truth presupposes the immateriality of the intellective faculty.
"A lot to unpack" there, as they say. The first sentence specifies not whether but when we know necessary and universal principles.
Wait -- is that debate over? Well, either it is or it isn't; if it is over, it is because we have plenty of God in the bank. If it isn't, it is because there is Nothing in the bank, in which case two things: 1) the debate is not over, and 2) can never be over. But this reduces to: there is nothing to debate; or to a debate about nothing, AKA postmodernity.
The second part of the first sentence claims that the intellect is in some sense "all of intelligible reality." This looks like a rather large claim, but here again, it is either true or not true, simple as.
Here's a thought: on what can all intelligent men agree, by virtue of being intelligent?
Well? I suppose it depends on what we mean by "intelligence."
Yes, Petey? It means that in knowing any truth, the intellect must in principle be capable of knowing any and all truth. For what is truth? Correct: intelligible being. And what is intelligence? Correct: the potential to know intelligible being. And who can put a limit to the intellect? The intellect? Yes, but only arbitrarily.
Man is the microcosm. As such, he has essentially unlimited funds in a local branch of the Macrocosmic Savings & Loan.
I would go even further and say that the Macrocosm is backed by the infinite funds of the nonlocal Metacosm, somewhat like vine to branch to fruit. Our knowledge is the fruit, but fruit doesn't just grow on trees, unless we're talking about an upside-down tree with its roots aloft and branches herebelow.
Necessary and Universal. What are those? Oh, little things like the principle of non-contradiction, or of identity: that things either are or are not. In short, all knowledge reduces to the question of being: does this exist? Is this the case? Then it is true.
Note that all philosophies derived from Kant enclose us in our own subjectivity. Thus, even if they were true, we could never know it. Existence detached from being is like a tree with no roots. No fruit for you!
This is why the left is equal parts cynicism and credulity. Cynicism is too easy. Think of the sneer on Bill Maher's ugly face, forever. Credulity is much too difficult. Have you seen a Jen Psaki press conference? Imagine being as dumb as her, and then realize that the press must be even dumber. The credulity of the press is ordered to the incredible Biden administration, which is in turn ordered to....
Yes, the left is overdrawn again. And yes, they're printing money as fast as they can. But inflation isn't just a monetary problem. Rather, it must be the reflection of an intellectual and ultimately spiritual problem -- a loss of contact with reality and real value.
Put it this way: the left is usually bankrupt in every way except monetarily. The return of stagflation means they've run out of other people's money again.
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