I cannot be the particular individual I am without particular others (parents, teachers, friends, etc.). The others might have been other others (different parents, e.g.) but then I would be a different particular individual.
But I cannot be an individual at all without being a particular individual.
So, I cannot be particular without others.
There is no irreducibility without relation.
But of course, there is no relation without irreducible difference either. If I am not other than others, I am the same, and only self-related.
My irreducible uniqueness and my relations are not two things that need to be “balanced” on each side of a fulcrum. They constitute and define each other, and neither makes sense without the other.
Rome and the Church in the United States
Archbishop Michael J. Curley of Baltimore, who confirmed my father, was a pugnacious Irishman with a taste…
Marriage Annulment and False Mercy
Pope Leo XIV recently told participants in a juridical-pastoral formation course of the Roman Rota that the…
Undercover in Canada’s Lawless Abortion Industry
On November 27, 2023, thirty-six-year-old Alissa Golob walked through the doors of the Cabbagetown Women’s Clinic in…