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May 3, 2023Liked by O.G. Rose

very interesting thoughts here,

it makes me think of "For the letter killeth, but the spirit quickeneth."

or in some translations "for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life."

I tend to think of the Spirit of the law as the Principle, an unchanging metaphysical Principle

that is above human reason or ability to fully express

and the letter of the law as more contextual or preference based (more at the human level)

it depends if the letter of the law refers to Scripture,

in which case then the letter of the law does become more like a principle,

and the interpretations of it are the Spirit of the law

(i think this gets to the "operational principles" that you refer to)

but if we think the "letter of the law" refers to the natural law,

or the limited context of our particular human situation,

in relation to a transcendent Principle,

then this would suggest the more situational, Aristotelian idea of Principle

there is a natural harmony between particular context and eternal truth

"The term in business is meant more like “operating principles,” though if we still lived in an Aristotelean society there might indeed be a blurring of “ethical principles” and “operating principles,” since for Aristotle humans are “good” when they are acting according to their nature. (Perhaps Aristotelian and Thomist thought is a reason why “principles” are used like they are in business? Hard to say.)"

it seems to me that the 'operational principles' as the term is used in finance,

derives more from thinking of principles as individual interpretations

and replaces the eternal truth with truths of the "market" and "self-interest"

i like this insight: "It seems our minds are constantly engaged in games of hiding the meanings of words from us so that we can continue to live and think as we prefer: when we don’t know what “love” means (for example), we can believe we are “being loving” when in facts we are only engaged in “niceness.” If love demands more of us than niceness, with the word wrongly defined in our minds, this means we can do less and yet fancy ourselves as living out the virtue of love, deserving all the honor and respect that follows."

see all these bumper stickers that say "Be nice, be kind, etc." Sure, have manners, but also hold each other accountable !

Great exploration of our cultural assumptions

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