released 7/31/2023
In a lecture given in Charlottesville in 2019, Thomas Pfau describes the nature of the disorder in the world shaped by the assumptions of economic liberalism. He looks particularly at the effects of the liberal orientation in higher education. Students in universities are consumers, expecting a good return on their investment. The result is “a spiritual wasteland of a pre-professional meritocracy.” In conclusion, Pfau muses on some strategies for “re-spiritualizing” education.
30 minutes
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Thomas Pfau is the Alice Mary Baldwin Professor of English at Duke University, and the author of Incomprehensible Certainty: Metaphysics and Hermeneutics of the Image (University of Notre Dame Press, 2022). He talked about that book on Volume 158 of the Journal. Dr. Pfau also has a secondary appointment on the Duke Divinity School faculty. His earlier books include Minding the Modern: Human Agency, Intellectual Traditions, and Responsible Knowledge (University of Notre Dame Press, 2013).
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