Which discipline?
For the most part I’m quite happy with my decision to end up studying ethics, rather than philosophical or systematic theology, since it’s nearly always the material meaning of philosophical concepts I’m interested in emphasizing. But I do sometimes have a pang of regret, not knowing when it is I’ll finally have a chance to do the kind of reading I’d really like to do in Trinitarian debates, fundamental ecclesiology, etc. It may actually be that I occasionally regret not being a philosopher: what really fascinates me in the Trinitarian debates is the viability and consequence of the thought of the infinite, and my real interest in fundamental ecclesiology has to do with the essential relation between individual and the collective subjects… Though in a philosophy department of the sort that intrigues me, I doubt if I would have been able to think those questions in an unapologetically theological frame; or at least, a great deal of prolegomena would always seem necessary.
Not really saying anything. Especially after a long conversation this afternoon about “making ourselves marketable” to one institutional niche or another, just once again feeling the strictures of academic life that, as often as not, severs thought into so many discrete lifeless pieces.
Comments (2)
Tags: Academia,Personal,Whining
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Hello, Brian.
I found yr blog in a search on “analogical interval” and hit a post with notes after a joint lecture including D.B. Hart, whom I also admire and enjoy reading.
I am a middle-aged homeschooling housewife, so a bit distant from your world in terms of quotidian particulars, but have also an awakening interest in orthodox (RC) theology, metaphysics and ethics. Plus, am plugged in vicariously, through friends, to a little of the ND grad school world…philosophy department of recent years. So, I find yr blog interesting.
Anyway, what I wanted to ask is, do you know the work of philosopher J. Budziszewski? I don’t see him mentioned on yr blog. He is a natural law guy, but really coherent and readable, after the style (some say) of a Chesterton or Lewis -ish sort. His latest, The Line Through the Heart, is really lovely, and has more than a little bearing on ethics and theology. If you don’t know him, you should. He is bold as bold about not merely allowing but requiring the logic of solid theological and revelational principles to inform philosophical discourse. A refreshing outlook in these austerely secularist times.
The freedom of not being an academic myself I consider a great blessing, as the marketability and fashionability aspects of the world you walk in are real hindrances to the development of the honest mind. But, too, of course, it is a world of comparative privilege and freedom, as no doubt you already appreciate.
Good luck to you. I have no blog as yet, just a blog idea. Visit if ever you’re curious about how all this might mesh with the world of dirty diapers and reconstructing the roots of do-it-yourself classical education for the very young.
Cass, thanks for dropping by. I sometimes envy the “freedom of not being an academic,” but you’re right to say that this life is an incredible privilege.
I’ve seen Budziszewski’s work around, but I’ve never gotten the chance to read any of it. I’ll have to check it out! Thanks for the suggestion.