When a woman claims to be a man, should the university and the press play along?
Pillar: Education & Culture
Education & Culture
The fourth pillar, education and culture, is built upon the recognition of two essential realities. First, the Western intellectual tradition requires a dedication to and desire for truth. Second, education takes place not only within colleges and universities but within our broader culture, whose institutions and practices form us as whole persons.
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The Shock of Recognition
Newly defined and vigorously enforced rights have proliferated even as they are uprooted from any philosophic grounding.
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Ambiguity at the American Acropolis
An exhibition by contemporary artist Enrique Martínez Celaya at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (on view through November 23rd) is a unique chance to contrast the uncertainty of our own age with the New Medievalism of the great American architect, Ralph Adams Cram.
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Campus Political Correctness and the Costs of Free Speech
It is difficult to speak up and defend certain unpopular truths on today’s college campuses. But it is also urgently needed and greatly rewarding.
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Intellectuals and the Masses
Intellectuals have failed to recognize the real character of the Tea Party.
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Tea Party Metaphysics: Where Do We Go From Here?
Social conservatives must understand and embrace America’s traditional economic culture before they can contribute to its renewal. Economic conservatives must expel the infection of shallow anthropology, vulgar utilitarianism, and metaphysical blindness that they picked up from progressivism in the 20th century.
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The Argument Over Pregnancy: And Why it Matters
Accepting the “liberal” definition on pregnancy can actually help clarify the morality of contraception, abortion, and embryo adoption.
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Women, Abortion, and the Brain
Women are hard-wired for relationships—and a woman’s relationship to her baby is one of the most powerful of all, whether she realizes it or not. The hard-wiring of the brain may explain many women’s disturbing post-abortion feelings.
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The Sources of Liberal Intolerance
Liberal intolerance is rooted in a secular disregard for the dignity of individuals, coupled with the veneration of Progress and the belief that liberal ideologies can’t win in public debate.
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Stephen Hawking’s Creation Confusion
Scientists have begun to doubt whether there was a “Big Bang.” But in claiming that this disproves the existence of a Creator, they confuse temporal beginnings with origins.
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Universities and the Graciousness of Being
Civility is at the foundation of democratic society, but our educational institutions have lost their manners and the grace of gentility.
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Health Care, Abortion, and the Call of Conscience
Under the new health-care law, pro-lifers may have to accept inferior health plans, rather than wrongly pay into abortion providing ones.
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Toward a Renewed Culture of Building
An adapted commencement address arguing that traditional building provides us with a durable and beautiful built environment, which in turn provides the best physical and spatial context for the inventiveness and daring that modern life demands.
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The Dangerous Vacuity of Our Public Discourse
Our failure to engage in substantive political debate can tempt us to write our opponents out of the political community.
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Remembering the Pill
The fiftieth anniversary of oral contraceptives is a reminder of all the things the Pill lets us forget.
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On Markets and Morals: The SEC, Apple, and Internet Pornography
The recent SEC scandal reminds us of the prevalence of pornography. Steve Jobs’ decision to ban pornography on the iPhone might provide a way forward.
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The New Maritainians
Can Thomistic art theory provide an alternative to postmodern “Neutralism”?
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Arizona, Congress, and the Immigration Mess
Illegal immigration is a national problem, but Arizona’s solution is not the answer. We need to secure our borders, allow a more generous pathway to citizenship, and create a guest worker program.
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Liberalism and Higher Education
Sometimes a defense of shared liberal values can become the partisan promotion of one of liberalism's strands.
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The Way of Wendell Berry
Americans know how to talk of progress in terms of consumer goods, individual liberties, and power over nature, but have no use for the language of communal health and the idea of discipline. Wendell Berry provides a way forward.
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How Red States Reduce the Abortion Rate: A Response to Andrew Koppelman
Andrew Koppelman’s claim that red states and the religious right increase abortions doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.
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Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies
A new book warns against the political consequences of abusing language.
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Putting Ethics Back Together Again: A British Perspective
Much of our moral confusion comes from our failure to find a replacement for the Judaeo-Christian outlook that once animated the West. We need, and generally now lack, a philosophical understanding of human life.
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Beauty as a Conservative Birthright?
A recent series by James Matthew Wilson highlights the connection between conservatism and beauty.