Here is the Great Mind Alisdair MacIntyre addressing Notre Dame students on the very Percian question of, aside from Catholicism, what else is there? In the talk, he speaks to some extent about the violent (or at least highly uncomfortable) claims that truth makes in this world – to the extent that every expression of the Creed is a revolution (sometimes bloody, more often not) against the secular status quo. The respondent’s words are also important, too – given, incidentally by my grammar/high school/college chum, Dr. Sean Kelsey, one of Notre Dame’s philosopher-kings.
In which a Great Mind speaks and a fellow Freeholdian makes good, better, best
August 12, 2013 by at 1:33 pm
Reminiscent of, if not really analogous to, a general point Fr Michael Buckley, SJ, makes in At the Origins of Modern Atheism: Buckley says that ‘modern atheism’ isn’t just godlessness, full stop; it has been, and still is, shaped by the specific religion(s) it defined/defines itself against.
Thanks. Much to mull over.
Ran this in the background as I’m looking over some accounting texts. The Q&A at the end yielded some thought-provoking things in particular, one of which reminded me of the regrettable beginning of The Newsroom when a girl asks McAvoy’s panel about American Exceptionalism. Of course the answer here is more thoughtful and wasn’t written by Sorkin in response to a straw man(girl).
MacIntyre said, roughly, that a culture must be aware of everything in its past not just the great things. He mentions the Civil War being the bloodiest conflict to that date in history and the silence of Americans on the end of Vietnam, that no one could really converse about what led us there and why we fought.
He preceded those remarks by hoping all Americans continue to think themselves exceptional and stating his hope that they really are, despite a dark feeling in his heart that they may not be… 🙂
If I had the time I’d peg this as video responses to clips of McAvoy on youtube hehehe