The Special Case of CSI

Pieper speaks of Kant's "most momentous" epistemological dogmatic assumption: all knowledge is discursive. This point is proven by many detective stories. Holmes proves his points through discursus. The great array of CSI criminal forensic experts use discursive means to solve the crimes. One comes to the knowledge of the crimes in this scientific manner. "According to Kant man's knowledge is realized in the act of comparing, examining, relating, distinguishing, abstracting, deducing, demonstrating." These are all acts of aggression. All use of the intellect is activity. It denies passivity. It precludes contemplation. It will be interesting to see how Chesterton develops his detective, Fr. Brown. Will all be solved by discursion or is there a certain passivity, a contemplation of the crime involved?

A Reflection on the Second Chapter of Leisure:The Basis of Culture