Truth is the Telos of a Catholic University, by Michael Pakaluk
The Truth Behind Human Trafficking, by Dr. Marilyn M. Singleton
October 12, 2022
THE GREAT RESIST: From Cardinal Müller to Giorgia Meloni & from Musk to Putin, by Michael J. Matt
October 12, 2022
Newman reading, learning
By Michael Pakaluk, The Catholic Thing, Oct. 12, 2022
Michael Pakaluk, an Aristotle scholar and Ordinarius of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, is a professor in the Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America. …
Is truth the telos of a Catholic university? I’m using telos here the way social scientist Jonathan Haidt does in an influential essay. (Available by clicking here.) The telos of a thing is its inherent, pervasive, and even dominant purpose. It is dominant in the sense that it trumps other purposes in cases of conflict.
Looking at the many recent cases of “canceling” and blackballing scholars, Haidt wonders whether for many universities some conception of social justice has become the telos. (One must say “some conception of” because once detached from truth, who can say whether that conception really does represent social justice?) Universities must choose either truth or social justice as their dominant telos, Haidt says. …
