Cardinal was wise to ‘philosophical frauds’

I DISAGREE with most of what your columnist Diarmaid Ferriter had to say about Cardinal Connell (February 14).

In many ways Ferriter unwittingly underlines the great wisdom of the cardinal who was most prescient in his advice to the UCD department of philosophy regarding the dangers inherent in contemporary European philosophy. This was at a time when such dangerous frauds (philosophically speaking) as Sartre, Foucoult, Greer and others, were being lionised by gullible continental universities.

Now we can see the absolute justification for the cardinal’s fears. Many universities (particularly philosophy departments) have degenerated into empty repositories of reactionary liberal/feminist dogma. Just recently, such zealots prevented a lecture at La Sapienza university in Italy by the eminent philosopher Joseph Ratzinger because he dared to question their puerile world view. The cardinal’s position is further vindicated by the eminent English philosopher Roger Scruton in his recent book, Culture Counts: Faith and Feeling in a World Besieged.