These studies of Catholic higher education reflect the current passion for self-examination and self-criticism through social surveys in the United States. The main terms of reference are the American norms which claim to be religiously neutral; the treatment of the problems confronting Catholic education solely in the context of American society, is reflected in the absence of references in the footnotes or bibliographies to the relevant European literature. The main focus is on the shape and quality of undergraduate education, though (...) the research findings and the issues discussed have implications for the whole range of Catholic education from parochial primary schools to research-centred schools of graduate studies. Most of the research projects on which the conclusions are based were designed in the late ‘fifties and reflect that era’s preoccupation with the nature of the Authoritarian Personality and the relationship between closed minds and firmly held belief-systems, a preoccupation to which the ‘brain washing’ techniques used in Korea and the power of MacCarthyism doubtless contributed. In Catholic circles Monsignor Tracy Ellis’s criticism of the poor standard of scholarship within the colleges and the poverty of the Catholic contribution to American intellectual life made a remarkable impact. (shrink)

The problem explored in this volume is the reasonableness of regarding Burke as a natural law theorist. There is already a growing literature on the subject to which this study should make a useful contribution. It clarifies some of the difficulties which have obscured the underlying coherence of Burke’s thought. These arise mainly from his assuming rather than stating the common stock of reasonable moral principles shared by honest, sane, right-thinking men. This difficulty was compounded for professional philosophers by his (...) refusal to use philosophical terminology or state explicitly in each of his works the particular sense in which he was using terms such as ‘prejudice’, ‘utility’, ‘advantage’. (shrink)