‘The Range of Goods We Live By’: Some Reflections on the Garner Controversy

Abstract

As you'll gather, my interest in The First Stone isn't so much in the details of the the so-called 'Ormond College affair' as in the terms or discourses in which it has been framed, first by Garner herself and then by the various commentators who have written on her book. My ultimate aim is to set the book and the commentary in a broad and I hope illuminating framework of ideas; ideas partly derived from the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor. Taylor is a Catholic, and although that orientation is important as an ultimate horizon in his work, he's certainly not a 'Catholic philosopher' in the sense that his philosophical arguments depend on a body of faith. The respect in which he's held in philosophical and literary circles, especially in the US, extends well beyond the Catholic community. One reason for highlighting his work this morning is that he doesn't seem to be as well known as he deserves to be here in Australia.