Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2018 March 27

Welcome to the Wikipedia Humanities Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

March 27

family connection to two tragedies

I'm well-aware Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt perished in the RMS Lusitania disaster. I also know his sister Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney sculpted and erected the Women's Titanic Memorial. How are the aforementioned siblings related to Timothy Olyphant?142.255.69.73 (talk) 03:17, 27 March 2018 (UTC)

A quick look at those articles shows us that Alfred and Gertrude were great-grandchildren of Cornelius Vanderbilt, while Olyphant is a great x4 grandson. That makes them second cousins three times removed. Rojomoke (talk) 05:08, 27 March 2018 (UTC)

Thank you so much.142.255.69.73 (talk) 10:34, 27 March 2018 (UTC)

Qui vult finem, vult etiam media

What does the Latin phrase "Qui vult finem, vult etiam media" mean? FreeKnowledgeCreator (talk) 18:11, 27 March 2018 (UTC)

I would translate it as "He who desires the end, likewise desires the means (to that end)". --Antiquary (talk) 18:27, 27 March 2018 (UTC)

And when I look around, another common phrasing of it seems to be "He who wills the end wills the means". --Antiquary (talk) 18:55, 27 March 2018 (UTC)

The earliest reference I can find is from a Robert South sermon in 1692 - though he actually quotes it as an already well known aphorism. [1] Wymspen (talk) 13:48, 28 March 2018 (UTC)

"John Edwards (1637–1716) on Human Free Choice and Divine Necessity: The Debate on the Relation Between Divine Necessity and Human Freedom in Late Seventeenth-Century and Early Eighteenth-Century England" attributes this Latin phrase to Francis Turretin (1623–1687), a Reformed scholastic theologian. See: https://books.google.gr/books?id=YDRpDuBNxQQC&pg=PA204&dq="Qui+vult+finem,+vult+etiam+media"&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj7meqI-o_aAhUOZVAKHZqtBLQ4ChDoAQguMAE#v=onepage&q=%22Qui%20vult%20finem%2C%20vult%20etiam%20media%22&f=false

In "Institutio Theologiae Elencticae" (1679–1685), Turretin writes: "Qui vult finem, vult etiam media, sed non semper eadem volitione; si media sunt diversae naturae, potest velle finem volitione effectiva, quia finis per se bonus est; sed medium volitione tantum permissiva, si sit mallum, non tam volendo medium ipsum, quam usus medii, nimir. peccati ipsius permissionem, et ordinationem. "Dimadick (talk) 21:38, 28 March 2018 (UTC)