Found C.S. Lewis's term "Chronological Snobbery" in "Surprised by Joy" today. For some reason, I had it in my mind that it was used in his essay, On Reading Old Books, but it's not. Even though that essay is very much related to the concept.
Mortimer Adler's created the concept of "great ideas" to describe recurring ideas in Western thought. His goal was to create a useful framework for synthesis (or syntopical reading). The core challenge was finding the right level of abstraction. Specific enough to be meaningful and general enough to connect across contexts.
Albert Mohler uses the term "theological triage" to describe the "intellectual tool" that he uses to determine which doctrines deserve "first-rank attention in a time of theological crisis". Original article here.
Simply wonderful. How did C.S. Lewis remember his childhood with such insightful detail?
| Practical | Theoretical |
|---|---|
| knowledge for solving problems | knowledge for its own sake |
| what is the case | what to do about it |
| knowing that | knowing how |
| what (or how) you should act | what you should believe or know |
| practical reason | pure reason |
Letters from "Your Affectionate Uncle, Screwtape"