To: Thomas C. White who wrote (16510 ) 1/16/1999 12:57:00 AM From: Jacques Chitte Respond to
I am a little surprised that Penni has so egregiously punted this opportunity to enlighten - and has instead chosen to publicly bathe in uncharacteristic contrition.in et de se ipso , which presumably comes from the Greek. We can't be sure, because they <emphatic participle> torched Alexandria, and the Arabic stewards of the scattered remnants of this great pool of knowledge were ill-equipped to preserve this subtle yet powerful phrase. Y'see, their un-Western grammar did not support this duality.In itself and Of itself are used to denote two different qualities. The first phrase - in itself is a bookkeeper's thing, an objective assignment of category, of rubric. It speaks to the engineer among us. It assigns the highlighted object, event or property (the thing that is "in and of itself") its epistemological place . Furthermore, this place is definite and complete.Of itself , on the other hand, is a brush dipped in a more ethereal pigment. It is an affirmation of ontological sufficiency. This part of the phrase invokes the poet/philosopher within us. The thing "of itself" has enough Aristotelian substance to sustain itself without being an accident to or a shadow of a more real thing. It contains within it the foundation, or a significant part of the foundation, of its own being. By no means as self-referent and self-defining as Augustine's Deity, but still - you can speak the word or phrase without requiring an externally, expressly assigned context and it brings the force to conjure meaning. Not to put too fine a point on it - a declaration of self.
