St. John Henry Newman on the Complexity of Human Knowledge | Prof. Joshua Hochschild
Nov 19, 2019
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Prof. Joshua Hochschild dives into St. John Henry Newman's critique of liberalism and knowledge, exploring its impact on human understanding of truth. They discuss liberalism's providential purpose in politics, the complexity of human knowledge and faith, and the impact of liberalism and Vatican II on the church's evolution.
Newman faced accusations of liberalism for advocating reason and change in Christian doctrine.
Newman critiqued liberalism by emphasizing intellectual virtues and rejecting unproven first principles.
Newman's illative sense expanded understanding of faith, linking philosophical virtues to grasping truth.
Deep dives
Newman's Label as Liberal or Not
There was a dispute regarding whether Newman was a liberal or not, with traditionalist Catholics suspicious of his liberal positions while some progressives felt Benedict didn't sufficiently acknowledge Newman's liberalism.
Accusations of Liberalism Against Newman
In his lifetime, Newman faced accusations of being a liberal due to his writings seeming to advocate Protestant or liberal ideas, such as endorsing the power of reason and defending change in Christian doctrine.
Newman's Philosophical Focus on Knowledge
Newman's wide-ranging interest in knowledge spanned faith, morals, human sciences, history, and more, with a particular emphasis on the corrupted philosophical mistake he termed liberalism.
Newman's Critique of Liberalism
Newman's critique of liberalism centered on rejecting the rejection of unproven first principles and emphasized the importance of intellectual virtues like discernment, reflected in his works on liberal education and Christian doctrine.
Supernatural Nature of Knowledge and Faith
Newman's concept of the illative sense extended the ability to grasp first principles beyond the natural to the supernatural, highlighting a deeper understanding of faith and emphasizing philosophical virtues in comprehending truth.
This lecture was given at the University of Toronto on 22 October 2019.
Joshua Hochschild is the Monsignor Robert R. Kline Professor of Philosophy at Mount St. Mary’s University, where he also served six years as the inaugural Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. His primary research is in medieval logic, metaphysics, and ethics, with broad interest in liberal education and the continuing relevance of the Catholic intellectual tradition. He is the author of The Semantics of Analogy: Rereading Cajetan’s De Nominum Analogia (2010), translator of Claude Panaccio’s Mental Language: From Plato to William of Ockham (2017), and co-author of A Mind at Peace: Reclaiming an Ordered Soul in the Age of Distraction (2017). His writing has appeared in First Things, Commonweal, Modern Age and the Wall Street Journal. For 2020-21 he’s been elected to serve as President of the American Catholic Philosophical Association.
For more information of this and other events go to thomisticinstitute.org/events-1
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