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Through the Heart of Every Man

Trinity Concepts

9 July 2023 | Philosophy Christianity Mises

I was reading Mises' Human Action the other day, and was struck by the following paragraph:

The pricing process is a social process. It is consummated by an interaction of all members of the society. All collaborate and cooperate, each in the particular role he has chosen for himself in the framework of the division of labor. Competing in cooperation and cooperating in competition all people are instrumental in bringing about the result, viz., the price structure of the market, the allocation of the factors of production to the various lines of want-satisfaction, and the determination of the share of each individual. These three events are not three different matters. They are only different aspects of one indivisible phenomenon which our analytical scrutiny separates into three parts. In the market process they are accomplished uno actu. Only people preposessed by socialist leanings who cannot free themselves from longing glances at socialist methods speak of three different processes in dealing with market phenomena: the determination of prices, the direction of productive efforts, and distribution.

— Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, XVI.3

Its praxeological content, though interesting is mostly irrelevant to the point I want to make. Islamic apologists often identify the Trinity as a bald contradiction in the nature of Christian יהוה—a single entity composed of three parts? Fully God and fully man? Surely incompatible with reason. Mises argument, I believe, lifts to this context: "…the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent nature of God, his physical manifestation in the person of Jesus, and his spirit inhabiting the hearts of the justified…these three aspects are not different matters. They are only different aspects of one individible phenomenon which our analytical scrutiny separates into three parts. In actuality, they exist unus res."

I'd like to identify anything satisfying Mises' characterization—amenable to analysis, but ontologically inseparable—as Trinity Concepts. I maintain a list of examples, with links to explanatory posts, if extant, below. Email me with more if you encounter any.