Key words and concepts that struck me: Absolutely. Heart. God's Glory. Culture. Classical. Catholic.
Below are notes from the interview. Here is a link to the archived broadcast. I don't use quote marks but try to capture what Nick and Rolando say. I also don't distinguish what was said by Rolando and what by Nick. I try to represent the questions as the host asked them.
Host: What is classical education?
August 25, 2011
August 9, 2011
Classical Education: Part 1
Contrary to many discussions about education, focused as they are upon the latest method or the newest technique, the proper place to begin is not with the means but with a renewed understanding of the end of education. So then, let us ask, what is the end of education?
To discover the answer to this most important question we are driven to deeper questions, more inconvenient ones like: why are we here? What is the purpose of life? How do I become good? Within the Western Tradition many thinkers have addressed these questions.
August 3, 2011
Two Peas in a Pod: Contraception and Over-Population
Contraception was and still is encouraged and thought of as justified, at least in part, as a means for avoiding or slowing over-population. Over-population is largely a myth, popularized in part by Paul Ehrlich's 1968 The Population Bomb --a topic for another day. Nevertheless, the situation seemed dire and drastic measures were taken --massive contraception, sterilization plans, and other population control devices. There's nothing like a dire situation to make drastic measures routine. But what if the routine continues and the dire situation evaporates, like a forgotten tale told by strange people in foreign places, what justifies the routine then? Nothing. It's a routine. Its own history justifies its continuance.
I will end this short thought with a slightly abridged version of Anscombe's essay "Why Have Children?", which was delivered as a Plenary Session in 1989 at a meeting of the Catholic Philosophical Association. Like a good philosopher she questions the question, its assumptions, the context it gets sincerely asked, the circumstances of its importance, etc.
August 2, 2011
Birth Control and a Lame Objection to NFP-ers
This post is concerned with the larger discussion of the morality of contraception. Most people these days would think my mention of the morality of it is rather out of place. You know, philosophers in other peoples bedrooms, etc.? The privacy line in that sort of evasion is surely poppycock but the devil doesn't mind poppycock when it functions to deaden the conscience from the pricks that start life-changing inquiries. This post, however, isn't about the ethics of contraception per se. I only bring up parts of the discussion in hopes to get the gears turning and perhaps defuse at least one annoying objection that defenders of contraception throw back at the contra-contraception Catholic crew.
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