Tuesday, January 7, 2014
"The Enlightenment is Not Enough"
MOJ readers are probably familiar with the conversations/arguments/debates swirling around over the extent to which "the Enlightenment", or "liberalism", or "rights talk", or "individualism", or "libertarianism" (a) is or is not responsible for what ails us and (b) is or is not compatible with Catholic social teaching and moral anthropology, correctly understood. For a taste, check out Patrick Deneen's "Unsustainable liberalism" (here) and Robert Miller's "Eudaimonia in America" (here). (My own views, for what it's worth, are closer to Miller's on this one.) Here's another contribution that caught my eye: Jason Jones and John Zmirak's "The Enlightenment is not Enough" (at Aleteia). And no, I'm not endorsing everything in the piece. It does seem to me, though, that criticisms of "liberalism" need to concede its strengths and accomplishments just as defenders of it need to similarly concede its failings and weaknesses.
https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2014/01/the-enlightenment-is-not-enough.html