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Category Archives: Philosophy
Everyday Beauty
Recently, I was blessed with the opportunity to travel abroad for some days, viewing parts of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria and Bavaria. It is a corner of the world I had long wished to see, and my expectations were not disappointed. … Continue reading
The Ethic of Compassion
Compassion, I think it is safe to say, is among the predominant values of our age. To a great extent its appeal controls our public discourse, charging our political sympathies and framing our estimations of good and evil as decisions … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy, Politics
Tagged Abortion, Compassion, Euthanasia, Love, Marriage, Truth
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The State Philosophy
‘Government cannot impose morality!’, we are often told. Indeed. And in the name of this lofty ethical principle (‘Thou shalt not impose’ – ‘respect equal rights of all parties’) we now find the stage set for the state recognition of … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy, Politics
Tagged Bigotry, Imposing Morality, Marriage, Sexuality, the Body
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Imposing Neutrality
I would like to conclude the course of reflection which I’ve pursued through the last few posts by returning to the concrete example from which I took my departure. In the marriage debate, as with the debates surrounding abortion and … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy, Politics
Tagged Liberalism, Marriage, Relativism, Tolerance, Truth
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The Nihilist Slide
We need to call the game, not only because it serves to conceal the covert imposition of truth-claims posing as neutralities, but also because it condemns mass society to ever greater meaninglessness and banality. As the common stock of inherited … Continue reading
Phantom Teleology and the Relativist Hypocrisy
Of course, the rules (per my previous post) are there for a reason: lofty truth-claims can be dangerous and over-wrought things. They can lead to wars and bigotry and intolerance, and all sorts of human ugliness. In many ways, our modern … Continue reading
‘Studies’ and the Eclipse of Thought
Studies! All the time, it seems, we are told that these “show” us things. Indeed it is curious just how many things they show us. “Studies show” us that children do best when their parents are married, and also that … Continue reading
A Dialogue
Generally, I try to avoid facebook debates, but I got into an interesting one last week at a friend’s request, and thought I would share it here to get others’ thoughts or comments. The matter, again, was the question of marriage, … Continue reading
For What It’s Worth…
This much is certain: marriage, and the question of who has a ‘right’ to it, is the topic of the hour. And while I admit that this horse has been well-nigh beaten ad mortem by the host of internet luminaries who … Continue reading
Was Wittgenstein Right? … I Hope Not!
I found an article today in the New York Times summarizing Ludwig Wittgenstein’s (1889-1951) self-destructive blow to philosophy. You can read it here. Basically, the author, Paul Horwich, praises Wittgenstein for having liberated human thought from the self-deluded snarls of … Continue reading
On Loving Sex [Part II]
In Part 1 of this post, I reflected on the hurdles that obstruct genuine conversation about sex and the body in contemporary liberal society. Here in Part 2, I will attempt to identify the real fault-lines of the debate that … Continue reading
On Loving Sex [Part I]
[This post will come in two parts: in the first I will treat the difficulty of discussing these issue at all in a Liberal culture; in the second I will move on to consider what is fundamentally at stake in … Continue reading
The NCAA and Our Need for Eternity
Any devotee of college athletics will readily grant the sobering truth. Over the past few years, once venerable institutions have warped themselves out of recognizable existence in service of the almighty dollar: the Big 10 now claims sixteen teams, extending … Continue reading
Freedom and Theology
A few weeks ago I ran across an opinion piece in the New York Times on the precarious situation in Egypt. (Can God Save Egypt? – 12/12/2012) The author, Thomas Friedman, described a billboard he saw on the way out … Continue reading
Strewn Seed 