Why they want what they want and do what they do?

Irony of Ironies: 

Vatican II Triumphs Over Moribund Modernity

by Samuel Gregg

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The warnings, however, about undue optimism concerning modernity turned out to be quite justified. The cultural and intellectual chaos that erupted in the late-1960s should have been proof enough. Since then, we’ve witnessed what might be considered an ongoing crack-up on modernity’s part.

One symptom is the ever-increasing hyper-specialization and subsequent fragmentation of knowledge. Leading contemporary scholars turn out to have an adolescent’s understanding of anything falling outside their immediate areas of expertise. An accomplished biologist like Richard Dawkins thus resorts to ad hominem arguments when debating God’s existence and displays a rather inadequate command of basic logic. Nor does he even seem to understand why ad hominemarguments are invalid!

Yet such developments were predictable. Much Enlightenment thinking was characterized by the desire to arrange information along the lines of an encyclopedia. In this model of knowledge, the subject of “God” is relegated to a line-entry somewhere between “goats” and “gold.” The problem is that such an organizational method makes it easier to avoid acquiring integrated knowledge. Instead you simply pick out the things you want to know about while ignoring or denigrating the rest. Welcome to the modern university.

Another characteristic of late-modernity is the manner in which moral arguments are increasingly “settled” by appeals to opinion-polls, choice for its own sake, or that ultimate first-year undergraduate trump-card: “Well, I just feel that X is right.” For proof, just listen to most contemporary politicians discussing the ethical controversy of your choice.

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