Disputatio and the 1619 Project

In this episode, Chris is joined by Prof. Jack Gist, a humanities professor and contributor to Catholic World Report, Crisis, The Imaginative Conservative, New Oxford Review, Academic Questions, and St. Austin Review. They discuss what St. Thomas Aquinas called “disputatio” — a dispute in the healthiest sense of the word, in that through the rational argumentation it entails, persons come to know the truth. At least they should, if, as Josef Pieper observed, they are more interested in clarifying their opponents arguments than they are in creating a “sensation.” Professor Gist describes why the abandonment of disputatio through so-called academic curriculum such as the 1619 Project has led to forming citizens in falsehoods about the American experiment. This erasure of cultural memory, Professor Gist explains, can be understood in light of what Pope Benedict described as the “dictatorship of relativism.” Chris points out similar ideological projects can be observed in public universities in the region; for example, in widespread instruction of college students in critical gender theory.