Dr. Peter Kreeft: "Seeking and Responding to Truth"

Peter J. Kreeft, Ph.D., spoke on "Seeking and Responding to Truth" in January 2010 as part of AQ's annual St. Thomas Aquinas Week festivities. Kreeft is a professor of philosophy at Boston College and The King's College, and is the author of over 55 books.

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Education

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• Aquinas College
• lecture
• catholic studies
• Peter Kreeft
• St. Thomas Aquinas Week
• education
• liberal arts
• speakers

[wishfulfilment]

Does anyone know what the name and edition of the book Kreeft is reading in which he quotes St. Augustine?

Amazing lecture. Simple, elegant and well spoken.

[AquinasCollegeGR]

@wishfulfilment In speaking with one of our Catholic Studies faculty members, he believes the book to be Augustine's "Confessions."

[wishfulfilment]

@AquinasCollegeGR

For those that are interested, I assume that Kreeft is reading Frank J. Sheed's translation of Augustine's "Confessions."

[wishfulfilment]

Does anyone know, what the name and edition of the book Kreeft is reading in which he quotes St. Augustine?

[Learnerwp]

I don't know how much more of this I can take. I'm only up to the "honesty" part of the lecture and I'm already pullin my hair out. Yes, one must be absolutely honest. Really? Is this guy married?

"Honey does this dress make my ass look fat."

Yes, dear. It does. But that's all right because your ass always looks fat."

[Learnerwp]

This is such simple-minded stuff. The reason that we think about time and space is because we can. We're human beings. We can let animals worry about what they're going to have for their next meal. Men think, question, experiment. One thought leads to another in such a way that we are not as two squirels circling around a tree. Our ideas and thought experiments lead us somewhere. Although, having fun, like the squirels, is a happy part of life, too.

[cellomon09]

You know, I've only recently read two of James' lectures on pragmatism, but it seems a little strange hearing Dr. Kreeft describing him as one of his favorite philosophers, considering his theory on truth.

That said, he didn't elaborate much on that, it is possible to agree and disagree with components of one's philosophy, and I could very well be ignorant of some aspect on Catholic teaching on truth. Anyway, I enjoyed the lecture very much.

[ninjatoothpaste]

I'd like to add this discussion: A lot of scientific discovery is done for the sake of doing so in the knowledge from past experience that it may become useful in the future. The MRI machine is the product of what happens when engineers get hold of the proceeds of theoretical physics, the useless but interesting becomes useful and interesting - I think the same is true of philosophy, which itself gave birth to science.

[djNerd42]

@2nDoppelganger Oh sure, and I think professor Kreeft would agree with you. His characters discuss how that can be fun in his book, "The Best Things in Life"

[2nDoppelganger]

@djNerd42 Right but even if you debate truths that are unimportant, like "are the squirrels going around each other or are they going around the tree?" then it is still very useful because you are training your rational faculties for later situations whereas a truthful outcome is more important. It is always good to practice these disciplines. In fact, matters like the squirrels are very important because no one has a bias for either way, and so everyone is straightforward and honest.