Intellectual Exploration and Discovery

In “The Idea of a University,” Michael Oakeshott likens the “interval” a student experiences between school and post-graduate life to a “boundless sea” rather than to a “road.” He says it is a time when one can be free from the pressure to make up one’s mind and free to experience mystery without looking for an explanation. I agree that such an unhindered intellectual adventure ought to be an important part of every student’s liberal education. But a Christian liberal arts education requires that one also chart a course toward Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life.

Friendly Fighting in Marriage

After years of research based on observing married couples in his “Love Lab,” University of Washington professor of psychology John M. Gottman claims to be able to predict with 91% accuracy whether a couple will divorce. He has also discovered that the marriages most likely to succeed are based on a deep friendship characterized by mutual respect and enjoyment of each other’s company. Gottman says friendship minimizes adversarial feelings and enables couples to quarrel without destructive results. He says since “most marital arguments cannot be resolved,” married couples should work to deepen their friendship rather than to win their arguments.

Ancient Art & Aristotle's Four Causes

I visited the Getty Villa in Malibu recently. While there, I heard a docent talk about a piece in their collection: a Greek storage jar featuring a painting of “The Judgment of Paris” from 360 B.C. The guide’s explanation touched on each of Aristotle’s four causes: what it is (a storage jar with paintings of mythical scenes), what it is made of (terracotta, pigment, and gold), how it was made (probably progressively in an Athenian workshop by artisans with different skills), and why it was made (as an export to Kersh on the Black Sea coast of today’s southern Russia).

Abnormal Psychology & Human Perfection

What is the meaning of ‘abnormal’ in “Abnormal Psychology”? Should we understand it descriptively or normatively? That is, is an abnormal person or behavior merely a person or behavior that is statistically infrequent relative to a particular population or instead a person or behavior that deviates in some way from some ideal standard or other? If the former, then it is hard to see why abnormal psychology should be of interest to clinical psychologists; therapy implies a need for healing. If the latter, then psychologists will need to engage in evaluative judgments based on a specific conception of human perfection.

Capitalism Then & Now

In The Worldly Philosophy, Robert Heilbroner traces the history of the discipline of economics. He looks to Adam Smith as its founder, since Smith was the first to attempt a thorough and comprehensive description and explanation of capitalism. Before Smith’s time, there had not been a free market. Instead, the material needs and wants of societies had been fulfilled (or left unmet) by systems governed by tradition or government edict. Since Smith, other theorists, such as Malthus, Ricardo, Mill, Marx, Hobson, Veblen, and Keynes came along to make economic observations, prognostications, and prescriptions. What is the state of capitalism today?

Understanding Human Beings

Aristotle defined human beings as rational animals. We are animals insofar as we are embodied. And our embodiment in biological organisms makes us suitable objects of study by the natural sciences of physics, chemistry, and biology. But we are also rational, and, given a Christian perspective, spiritual animals. Can the natural sciences provide a complete explanation of our rationality and spirituality? If we are rational and spiritual in virtue of having or being immaterial souls, then the answer is “no.” If substance dualism is true, our full understanding of ourselves will have to be based on additional, non-natural human sciences.

Christians, Politics, & Faithfulness

In To Change the World, James Davison Hunter argues that in general, Christians are using politics as their primary tool to further the purposes of Christianity in the world. He thinks this is true of the Christian Right, who want to save the U.S. from secularism and liberalism, the Christian Left, who oppose the Christian Right and side with the poor and the oppressed, and the Neo-Anabaptists, who reject the government but do so for political reasons. Hunter urges against all three that a faithful public Christian witness need not employ political means or achieve political ends to be biblical.