If the study of philosophy seems a little daunting to most of us, Father Robert McTeigue, Jesuit and professor, has written a book to help. While the author doesn’t shy away from calling on, and educating readers about, philosophers from Aristotle to John Mill Stuart, he tempers the chapters with anecdotes from his students and applications to everyday life. His foundation, of course, is the truth of the Faith and the counsel of the saints, and his goal is to show how the principles of Catholic philosophy can guide our decisions and bring meaning to a world filled with “fake” philosophy and uncertain morals. Dr. Robert J. Spitzer, SJ, who contributes the afterword to the book, calls it “an essential readable ‘tool kit’ to help today’s readers assess and critique the many competing philosophies” encountered in the culture today.

Check the book listing at Our Sunday Visitor.

People who find philosophy to be of little practical value are “likely doing it wrong,” says the Catholic philosopher.

Socrates had important answers to the big questions in life. But he was especially good at asking questions, helping his students use their own reason to discover answers that were available to them all along.

I have had a similar experience whenever I am a guest on Jesuit Father Robert McTeigue’s “Catholic Current” radio show (distributed by the Station of the Cross Catholic Radio Network). He asks great questions, arising from a great depth of knowledge and his long experience as a philosophy and theology professor in North and Central America, Europe and Asia. 

Read the essay at The National Catholic Register.