I’m finding this a bit vague, to be honest. More examples would be good. For instance, modern mathematics is a living tradition, certainly, but modern mathematics would not help if you wanted to answer “how would Archimedes consider the Riemann hypothesis?” Now, Archimedes’s school certainly died, under a Roman sword, but a historian with some mathematical knowledge might be able to have a guess.
I think the post is conflating three things: a) Can anyone today say something correct about the origin of the tradition of knowledge, b) has the tradition of knowledge passed down the initial knowledge accurately, and c) is the tradition vibrant and productive today. Mathematics obeys c) but not b), and historians of mathematics can do a) about mathematics, but mathematics itself can’t. In my opinion, Catholic ethics obeys a), b) somewhat, and not really c).
I’m finding this a bit vague, to be honest. More examples would be good. For instance, modern mathematics is a living tradition, certainly, but modern mathematics would not help if you wanted to answer “how would Archimedes consider the Riemann hypothesis?” Now, Archimedes’s school certainly died, under a Roman sword, but a historian with some mathematical knowledge might be able to have a guess.
I think the post is conflating three things: a) Can anyone today say something correct about the origin of the tradition of knowledge, b) has the tradition of knowledge passed down the initial knowledge accurately, and c) is the tradition vibrant and productive today. Mathematics obeys c) but not b), and historians of mathematics can do a) about mathematics, but mathematics itself can’t. In my opinion, Catholic ethics obeys a), b) somewhat, and not really c).