Episode 20: Transcendental Truth

La Bonne Vie

Kyle and Deacon Conque continue to get transcendental this week by talking about truth. Join us as we seek to conform our minds to being by nourishing our souls on truth.

Show Notes and Outline of Topics

Quote from Pope St. John Paul the Great, Fides et Ratio

"With a false modesty, people rest content with partial and provisional truths, no longer seeking to ask radical questions about the meaning and ultimate foundation of human, personal and social existence. In short, the hope that philosophy might be able to provide definitive answers to these questions has dwindled."

1. Truth as a Transcendental

𐄁 a primer on the transcendentals

𐄁 analogy of food: transcendentals as soul food

𐄁 sin as a corruption of being: the need to order our loves

𐄁 being nourished by what is more noble, has more being: analogy of music

𐄁 definition of truth: being as known

𐄁 grounding life everyday in God through truth

𐄁 by knowing Jesus, we know truth, and the truth will set us free

𐄁 distinguishing ontological and epistemological truth

𐄁 truth strengthens the intellect

2. Truth and Educational Methods

𐄁 work of classical education prepares truth to nourish souls like a great chef prepares a nourishing and delicious meal

𐄁 modern education: cram-test-forget cycle (John Mays)

𐄁 people love learning: the innate desire to know truth

𐄁 knowing truth versus knowing information

𐄁 educational methods should nourish the desire for truth

𐄁 the danger of educational methods that makes idols out of lower truths

𐄁 being is radically intelligible; transcendental truth is an invitation to a feast

𐄁 being a school community of homes that nourish knowledge of the Father through Jesus in the Holy Spirit

3. Truth and the Home

𐄁 encouraging the pursuit of truth as a priority in our homes

𐄁 the virtue proper to transcendental truth is docility

𐄁 docility is the virtue of being able to quickly recognize truth, apprehend it, comprehend it

𐄁 ordering our loves through transcendental truth: sacramentality of being

𐄁 baptism binds us to the truth: special obligation to truth as Christians

𐄁 the vice opposed to transcendental truth is the vice of curiosities

𐄁 being ruled by curiosity makes us effeminate

𐄁 the vice of curiositas is the misuse of the intellect for entertainment, power, prestige, or for any uses opposed to the good of the intellect

𐄁 gossip is part of the vice of curiositas

𐄁 pornography as a perversion of truth

𐄁 the problem of having a low threshold for belief: need to encounter things as true before belief

𐄁 excited about information versus animated by truth

𐄁 don't settle for mere information, seek truth

𐄁 love is the animating principle of the search for truth

𐄁 the role of a parent in speaking the truth

𐄁 take the risk to pursue truth rather than easy outcomes: have meaningful conversations about learning

La Bonne Vie is a podcast offering from John Paul the Great Academy dedicated to discussing the joys, triumphs, struggles, and issues with boldly living out our Catholic, classical mission in Acadiana through vibrant family lives.

Our theme music, "Vive La Bonne Vie," is by L'Angelus.