- Feb 5, 2002
- 184,900
- 67,698
- Country
- United States
- Gender
- Female
- Faith
- Catholic
- Marital Status
- Married
- Politics
- US-Others
“It could be said that present-day man does not think things through to the end.”1 Karol Cardinal Wojtyla delivered that fine bit of understatement in 1976, at the outset of the spiritual conferences he gave to the Roman Curia that Lent. At the time, his primary concern seems to have been the tendency of secular men and women to falter in the search for truth, for, as Archbishop of Krakow, he was daily confronted by the doctrinaire atheism of the Eastern bloc. Yet he was also aware of the typical dynamic of experimental science wherever practiced, for he asked whether “human knowledge [has] chosen to branch off laterally along a minor road” instead of choosing to look “for a foothold in knowledge of him whom the book of Wisdom proclaims as the Creator.”2
Two decades later, when as Pope John Paul II he wrote the prologue to Fides et Ratio, his stated concern had shifted in a subtle but important way. Although still troubled that “the search for ultimate truth seems often to be neglected” in favor of the useful knowledge that comes from experimental science and technological innovation, now he noted that the problem was not merely one of motive, but also one caused by the sheer volume of the knowledge produced:
Continued below.
whatweneednow.substack.com
Two decades later, when as Pope John Paul II he wrote the prologue to Fides et Ratio, his stated concern had shifted in a subtle but important way. Although still troubled that “the search for ultimate truth seems often to be neglected” in favor of the useful knowledge that comes from experimental science and technological innovation, now he noted that the problem was not merely one of motive, but also one caused by the sheer volume of the knowledge produced:
The pope’s central observation, captured by the phrase “the weight of so much knowledge,” has to do with the phenomenology of our knowing. Do we experience the use of our minds as a kind of freedom, as an experience of play, and, consequently, as a source of joy? Or, to the contrary, would we say that the time we spend thinking is mainly burdensome to us because made up of a series of tasks to complete under deadlines and other constraints?
Continued below.
To Think Things through to the End
Christopher Blum inquires about a healthy integration of AI
whatweneednow.substack.com
