Grace again. Misc.

[Mark Kohut]

"Why then do you try to 'enlarge' your *mind*? *Subtilize* it."--Melville
in Moby Dick

Weber's Protestant Ethic lives....
(recent study and stories; last couple days actually)
Christians are twice as likely to blame a person’s poverty on lack of
effort.--Independent.

*Washington Post*‏Verified account @washingtonpost
<https://twitter.com/washingtonpost>  7h7 hours ago
<https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/894237391338295297>
More

Christians are more than twice as likely to blame a person’s poverty on
lack of effort

To continue this thread, for anyone interested, Anthony Giddens
introduction to this edition of The Protestant Ethic is clear and thorough.
If no time for it all, then pages Xii thru XV
in that intro focus on Weber's key historical ideas....the Lutheran idea of
"a calling"...and its effect in history......page XiX also quotes the
Eastern [Confucianism in Weger's study] focus on 'things as they are" by
contrast.
These are nice glosses on some of TRP's scenes and ideas.

https://is.muni.cz/el/1423/podzim2013/SOC571E/um/_Routledge_Classics___Max_
Weber-The_Protestant_Ethic_and_the_Spirit_of_Capitalism__
Routledge_Classics_-Routledge__2001_.pdf

On Sun, Aug 6, 2017 at 12:04 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> I love the Ishmael quote. Such a dance of thought.
>
> David Morris
>
> On Sun, Aug 6, 2017 at 6:06 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On free will. Ishmael:
>> "Though I cannot tell why it was exactly that those stage managers, the
>> Fates, put me down for this shabby part of a whaling voyage, when others
>> were set down for magnificent parts in high tragedies, and short and easy
>> parts in genteel comedies, and jolly parts in farces – though I cannot tell
>> why this was exactly; yet, now that I recall all the circumstances, I think
>> I can see a little into the springs and motives which being cunningly
>> presented to me under various disguises, induced me to set about performing
>> the part I did, besides cajoling me into the delusion that it was a choice
>> resulting from my own unbiased freewill and discriminating judgment."
>>
>> There's this anecdote I've always liked re this 'scientific' question.
>> William James had a young man crisis of mind, a 'depression'
>> that immobilized him, at least mentally, for awhile, over whether he/we had
>> free will or all was determinism all the way down. He reported that he got
>> out of it by self-declaring that his first act of free will will be
>> believing in it.
>>
>> I debated whether to post this since it is not really Pynchon-related,
>> but I had to anyway.
>>
>> On Sat, Jul 29, 2017 at 5:16 PM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> In the way back, Pelagius (St Agustine's antagonist) thought we didn't
>>> need Grace--that our free will was sufficient to overcome sin. So, the
>>> opposite of Grace is Free Will.  Which science now says doesn't exist.
>>>
>>> On Sat, Jul 29, 2017 at 4:03 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> From the wayback (but eternal?) religious uses, the opposite might be
>>>> damnation.
>>>>
>>>> What might it be in Pynchon's transformation of the meaning of the
>>>> word?
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, Jul 29, 2017 at 3:28 PM, Jochen Stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> You are the native speaker, Mark, but I would say it's bullshit if you
>>>>> don't provide context. What kind of grace? You have disgrace, you have
>>>>> clumsiness, I'm sure you have more opposites of grace.
>>>>>
>>>>> 2017-07-29 21:11 GMT+02:00 Erik T. Burns <eburns at gmail.com>:
>>>>>
>>>>>> I suggest "trump"
>>>>>> ------------------------------
>>>>>> From: Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
>>>>>> Sent: ‎7/‎29/‎2017 20:06
>>>>>> To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>>>>>> Subject: Grace again. Misc.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Gracelessness is an absence of grace, but the English language lacks
>>>>>> a word for the opposite of grace.--Cass Sunstein, very recent essay.
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
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