[RC] Resomodernity Café v6: On Notice (The Fourth Ethos) | Radical Centrism

[Ernest Prabhakar]

Title: Resomodernity Café v6: On Notice (The Fourth Ethos) | Radical Centrism

I like to think I have the failure modes of all three “ethos”, so they occasionally cancel each other out… https://radicalcentrism.org/2026/01/01/resomodernity-cafe-v6-on-notice-the-fourth-ethos/ Resomodernity Café v6: On Notice (The Fourth Ethos) ​ ​ December 9, 2025 Sequel to Resomodernity Café v5: The Exposers’ Parlor Where MacIntyre, Weil and Heidegger define and name the first three ethē, as well as a fourth built on noticing the unnoticeable. ChatGPT Prompt Cast Alasdair MacIntyre — the tradition-detective Simone Weil — the watcher of attention Martin Heidegger — the seer of disclosure Setting A quiet study. Three chairs in a rough triangle. A blackboard dusted with old chalk. Light shifts as if undecided what it wants to illuminate. I. Naming What Already Is MacIntyre (standing, chalk in hand) Let us begin where all rational inquiry must: not with conclusions, but with what is noticed. What we call disagreement is often merely trained blindness. Weil (softly, already watching the room) Then we must name the forms of attention that already govern us. She writes the first word on the board: Contemplation A discipline of attention ordered toward depth. Weil This is the Greek–Socratic ethos: reality approached through patient regard. Truth is not seized, but waited for. What matters most is what remains when impatience falls away. (A nod toward theoria and the long schooling of wonder.) Heidegger (rising abruptly) Yes—but let us not forget how reality shows itself. He writes beneath it: Disclosure A mode of revealing that determines what can appear at all. Heidegger This is the Enlightenment–Scientific ethos. Not merely a method, but a way beings come forth—as measurable, usable, optimizable. What is real is what can be brought into standing reserve (Gestell). MacIntyre (finally steps forward) And yet neither contemplation nor disclosure explains why we are answerable. He writes the third word: Responsiveness A life shaped by answerability to goods not of one’s own making. MacIntyre This is the Biblical–Moral ethos. Reality is not neutral; it addresses us. Rationality here is learned through practice, tradition, and obligation (tradition-constituted rationality). II. The Problem Emerges Weil Each of these sees something true. Heidegger And each hides something essential. MacIntyre More precisely: each forgets what it has trained itself not to see. A pause. Weil Contemplation forgets command. Responsiveness forgets questioning. Disclosure forgets meaning. Heidegger And when any one claims completeness, it becomes dangerous. III. The Turn MacIntyre So the question is not which ethos is correct. Weil But how they might become visible to themselves. Heidegger And that can occur only through encounter. A silence long enough to feel deliberate. IV. The Fourth Ethos Weil (almost whispering) There is another discipline—rarer, harder. Heidegger Not a new method. MacIntyre But a posture toward the limits of posture. They look at the empty space in the center of the board. Together, they write: Notice The disciplined attention to what one’s own way of seeing cannot see. V. Defining the Fourth MacIntyre This fourth ethos arises only among rivals. It notices the background assumptions that each tradition treats as obvious. Weil It is attention turned sideways—toward absence, silence, marginalia. Toward what is excluded by efficiency, certainty, or piety (attention). Heidegger It is vigilance toward concealment itself. A readiness for what resists enframing, even by the noble. VI. Naming the Set Weil Then we have four: Contemplation — noticing depth Responsiveness — noticing address Disclosure — noticing pattern Notice — noticing what all the others overlook MacIntyre And the fourth is not optional. Without it, the others harden into ideology. Heidegger With it, they remain ways—rather than prisons. VII. Closing Weil We do not notice ourselves directly. MacIntyre We notice one another— Heidegger —in order to notice ourselves. They step back from the board. The chalk remains. No one erases it. Epilogue To live “on notice” is not to hover above all ethē, but to dwell humbly among them— awake to what each reveals, and to what each must learn to see. Appendix: The Three Ethē Write an Appendix with inline links explaining the first three – and how they invisibly shape how we may think. ChatGPT Prompt This appendix explicates the three established ethē named in On Notice, not as abstract philosophies, but as invisible disciplines of attention that quietly govern what feels obvious, rational, or even thinkable. They do not merely influence what we think. They shape how thinking itself shows up. A. Contemplation (The Greek–Socratic Ethos) What It Trains Us to Notice Depth beneath appearances Coherence, form, and contradiction What endures when noise subsides Rooted in classical Greek philosophy—from Socrates through Plato to Aristotle—this ethos treats reality as intelligible and truth as something that discloses itself through patient attention (theoria). Key concept: Theoria How It Invisibly Shapes Thinking Slowness feels virtuous; haste feels suspect Arguments matter more than outcomes Insight is prized over effectiveness Under this ethos, what cannot be contemplated is quietly downgraded. Urgency, command, and brute necessity feel philosophically “impure.” Its Blind Spot Moral interruption Historical urgency The demand to act before understanding is complete Contemplation struggles to notice address—that reality might call us now, not after reflection. B. Responsiveness (The Biblical–Moral Ethos) What It Trains Us to Notice Command, call, and obligation Good and evil as objective realities Faithfulness over cleverness Formed through biblical religion and its moral traditions, this ethos understands reality as something that addresses us first. Meaning precedes explanation; obedience precedes mastery. Key concepts: Imago Dei Covenantal ethics How It Invisibly Shapes Thinking Some questions feel disobedient, not neutral Wisdom is measured by faithfulness, not originality Moral clarity outweighs epistemic doubt Within this ethos, hesitation can feel like betrayal. The demand to respond crowds out prolonged uncertainty. Its Blind Spot Internal contradiction Cultural accretion mistaken for revelation The need for critical self-examination Responsiveness can fail to notice when tradition replaces encounter—a pathology named repeatedly by the biblical prophets themselves (e.g., Isaiah 1). C. Disclosure (The Enlightenment–Scientific Ethos) What It Trains Us to Notice Patterns, regularities, and mechanisms What can be measured, modeled, or predicted Explanatory power and control Emerging from early modern science and philosophy—especially Francis Bacon, René Descartes, and Isaac Newton—this ethos treats knowledge as that which reveals how the world works. Key concepts: Scientific method Gestell (Enframing) How It Invisibly Shapes Thinking What cannot be quantified feels subjective or secondary Efficiency substitutes for wisdom Success validates truth Under this ethos, reality appears as resource. Even humans show up as systems to be optimized. Its Blind Spot Meaning Value Personhood As Martin Heidegger warned, disclosure becomes pathological when it forgets it is one way reality appears, not reality itself. D. The Shared Invisibility All three ethē: Feel obvious from within Treat their exclusions as trivial or unreal Become dangerous when mistaken for completeness This is why they cannot fully correct themselves. Each must be noticed by another ethos in order to notice its own limits. E. Why the Fourth Ethos Is Necessary The fourth ethos—Notice—does not replace the first three. It arises between them. It trains attention toward: Presuppositions Silences What each ethos must ignore in order to function Only then do the first three become visible as ethē rather than as “just reality.” Closing Remark We do not think freely. We think as trained noticers. To live on notice is to remain awake to the ethē that shape us— and to those we need in order to finally see ourselves. 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