Does it still matter in this third decade of the 21st century whether people speak truthfully and allow truth to shape their lives? Those are pressing questions, according to two new books by Catholic authors.

“Tools for Truthful Living” is the subtitle of Jesuit Father Robert McTeigue’s “Real Philosophy for Real People.” A goal of his book is to provide readers with “at least the minimum” of what they need to know “to be able to think and act humanly well” for themselves and others.

Read the essay on the Catholic News Service.

Our culture lacks anything resembling a consistent intellectual and moral framework.

This problem is one of those tackled by radio host and lecturer Robert McTeigue, S.J. in his book Real Philosophy for Real People: Tools for Truthful Living. He suggests we suffer from two dilemmas. Not only do we find it difficult to talk with our neighbors (who often subscribe to an entirely different conception of truth and the good), but we even find it difficult to articulate our own conception of such things. As philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre argues, it is emotivism—not coherent, rational logic—that pervades our social and political institutions, and modernity and postmodernity have, in effect, left us up an epistemological creek without a paddle. This is compounded by the fact that most Americans lack the “time, energy, ability, or inclination” to sort through the many “competing voices, ideologies, or enthusiasms” found in the diversity of our media sources.

Read the essay at The American Conservative.

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.