[I created this post a couple of days ago, but WordPress has changed – without warning – the way posts are created. I am suddenly left having to relearn everything about blogging and apparently haven’t figured out how to click “publish” in the new format. I’m still painting most of the days and haven’t checked back here so didn’t realise it hadn’t published.]

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The great philosopher, Prof. Robert Spaemann has died. Aged 91. Of your charity, please pray for this steadfast defender of the Faith, who was ill-treated by the mighty.

I was immensely chuffed to learn a few years ago that he was an avid reader here, and even kept a copy of this post on his desk. 

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Things I thank God for:

That there is such a thing as the logical principle of non-contradiction.

That “a thing and its opposite cannot both be true in the same sense at the same time.”

That “A thing is that thing and not some other thing”

That “each thing is the same with itself and different from another”

That “things which equal the same thing also equal one another,”

That A = A

That “tertium non datur” – for any proposition, either that proposition is true, or its negation is true.

That “To say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is false”

That there is no “third way” between true and not true.

That there are fundamental axiomatic rules upon which rational discourse itself is based.

That it is possible to know that some things are true and some things not true.

That it is possible to discover which is which.

That yes means yes and no means no and that there is a difference between them.

That there is a difference between here and there, that up is not the same as down

That there is such a thing as distinctions and differences.

That reality is a thing.