- Feb 5, 2002
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Critical theorists seek to confuse concepts through the manipulation of language and promote ideas that fail to correspond to reality. Academic theories designed to confuse rather than to clarify must be confronted with calm reason. This is the most charitable thing we can do for those who will come after us.
Self-evident Truths
It can be difficult to get straight answers these days. It doesn’t have to be. The most penetrating answers can be so simple as to be self-evident. Take the preamble of the Declaration of Independence for example:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
The goal of promoting and protecting these unalienable Rights is made clear by the Founders. The fact that it has been very difficult to achieve does not make it any less clear. These days, it seems, little of what is important is made clear or straightforward. Those who seek power—I am referring to those who promote critical and related social theories, whether they apply to race, gender, or politics—muddy the clear water of self-evident truths.
St. Thomas pointed out that there are two kinds of self-evident truths: the kind that are self-evident in themselves but not to us, and the kind that are both self-evident in themselves and to us. (ST 1. Q2.) God falls into the first category because we cannot know his essence. Critical theorists would play god by rendering the essence of liberty and related terms as forever mysterious through blurred definitions. One man’s liberty then becomes another man’s prison. Abject relativism applied to language is these theorists’ weapon of choice.
Continued below.
Clarity as Charity ~ The Imaginative Conservative
Self-evident Truths
It can be difficult to get straight answers these days. It doesn’t have to be. The most penetrating answers can be so simple as to be self-evident. Take the preamble of the Declaration of Independence for example:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
The goal of promoting and protecting these unalienable Rights is made clear by the Founders. The fact that it has been very difficult to achieve does not make it any less clear. These days, it seems, little of what is important is made clear or straightforward. Those who seek power—I am referring to those who promote critical and related social theories, whether they apply to race, gender, or politics—muddy the clear water of self-evident truths.
St. Thomas pointed out that there are two kinds of self-evident truths: the kind that are self-evident in themselves but not to us, and the kind that are both self-evident in themselves and to us. (ST 1. Q2.) God falls into the first category because we cannot know his essence. Critical theorists would play god by rendering the essence of liberty and related terms as forever mysterious through blurred definitions. One man’s liberty then becomes another man’s prison. Abject relativism applied to language is these theorists’ weapon of choice.
Continued below.
Clarity as Charity ~ The Imaginative Conservative
