Mondays are usually for letters from students. Some are philosophical or theological; others, like this one, more practical.
A colleague of mine worries about the cacophony of voices in the modern world. Instead of complaining that we have no answers, he complains that we have too many – there are too many religions, too many philosophies, too many sacred texts. We are in a new and unprecedented intellectual condition, he tells me -- a Pluralism.
A good many years ago, I was contacted by a couple of speechwriters and policy folk for one of the presidential candidates to ask me for help with “the vision thing.” I gathered that they were talking to a lot of people. Since the specific issue they were asking about was one I know something about, we had a conference call.
Aristotle’s question endures: Which is better, the active or the contemplative life? The one wrapped up in doing things, or the one absorbed in gazing on the truth?