Thursday, January 24, 2008

Ever tried to talk to a "liberal"?

Card. Pell:
Lacking a common philosophical framework and sometimes even any coherent framework, it seems as though it is becoming increasingly difficult for educated westerners to perceive truth and accept it...At a broader and deeper level we have the hostility to the concept of truth among the deconstructionists, the post-modernists.


as I've said elsewhere:
The situation around the world that became apparent with the advent of legalized abortion did not occur randomly but was the logical outcome of certain trends in philosophy that began, some contend, as far back as 17th century France, Germany and England. The replacement of traditional, Natural Law-based philosophies and ethics with a new, subjective[43] and relativistic model of ethics began recognizably with the advent of the humanist movement in the 17th century.

The clash between the traditional system of thought and the new is the basis of a state of philosophical and social instability, often referred to as “the Culture Wars,” of which the life issues form perhaps the most significant front. The split in this war is, loosely described, between “liberals” who want greater relaxation of traditional legal restraints on sexual and other behavior, and “conservatives” who believe that society has a right and a duty to maintain laws restricting the private behavior of citizens.

But more profoundly, the true philosophical and ethical split of the Culture War is that between traditional objective[44] moral laws, and the imposition of the new subjectivism as the criterion for morality.

Establishing what is and is not ethical is not so straightforward in our current state of vast philosophical flux. There are a number of different schools of thought – of philosophical presuppositions[45] – currently in vogue and they, naturally, produce a different set of conclusions in ethical questions. It stands to reason, therefore, that our ethical situation is chaotic.


Me n' Cardinal Pell...booyah!

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