1. Peter Kreeft’s The Journey: A Spiritual Roadmap for Modern Pilgrims

2. Who is Peter Kreeft?

3. Seven “Right” Questions 1.Shall I question? Shall I search for truth at all? 2.If I question, is there hope of answers? Is there objective truth? 3.If there is any objective truth, is there objective truth about the meaning of life? 4.If there is objective truth about the meaning of life, is it that life is meaningless?

4. Seven “Right” Questions 5. If life has real meaning, is it spiritual and not merely material? 6.If this meaning is spiritual, is it moral as well? Is there a real (objective) right and wrong? 7.If there is a real right and wrong, is it a religious meaning? Is there a God?

5. 1) Should we question? Why would so many want to stay in the “cave” contented? Is contentment a barrier to happiness? What are the perks to not questioning too much? What is Epicurus’ Garden of Delights? What is commonly found there? Why is thinking for your self more difficult than at first thought?

6. Should we question? Why do you think there was a grinning skull behind Epicurus’ garden? What does Kreeft mean by ‘reindoctrination’?

7. 2: Is there hope of Answers? Skepticism? Is there objective truth, or is all truth subjective? Protagoras the Sophist and his “computers of virtual reality”? Consequences of reality of objective truth? Our subjective truths may be wrong…. How is subjectivism and skepticism self- contradictory?

8. Review Questions How does Kreeft/Socrates refute skepticism? How does Kreeft/Socrates refute cynicism? How does Kreeft/Socrates refute Nihilism? How does Kreeft/Socrates refute Materialism? How does Kreeft/Socrates refute relativism?

9. Chapter 1: To Question or Not? What might the ‘contented cows’ teach us regarding happiness and truth? Ok, sure, question….but, can you question too much? May it wreck your happiness? How might you know if you’re on the “Road to Death”, or the “Road to Life”?

10. Chapter 2:Skepticism: Is it True There is no Truth? Does subjectivism really refute itself? –i.e.: To state that all truth, even moral truth, is subjective, is a version of an objective truth? How should we (you) approach objective MORAL TRUTH? How do you hope to know, or recognize it? So…what does it mean to be a skeptic?

11. Chap 3: Cynicism: Can we be cynical about it? Do our lives have some kind of objective, moral meaning? Can we know such ‘non- material things’ such The Good, the ‘Meaning of Life’, etc.? Or, is it all random chance and luck, and whatever happens happens, so “look out for Number One (yourself)?

12. Chapter 4: The Nihilist: What if Life is Meaningless? Gorgias’ 3 Maxims? –Nothing is real? –If something is real, we can never know –Even if we can know, can’t communicate it Can such a personal philosophy be grounded in experience? How? Could love be the answer to such empty experience? Must one always be critical to move closer to Truth? Can we learn any wisdom from children?

13. Chapter 5: The Materialist: Nothing but Matter Matters? Are Mind and Spirit limited to ‘grey matter’, i.e. the brain? How persuasive is Kreeft’s analogy of a materialist philosophy as leaves on a tree, where neither are right or wrong, true or false, each simply is? Can a material ‘Self’ be morally responsible? If so, does it refute materialism, since a material being only acts as it is programmed (instinct)? Does any morality imply some non-material (spiritual) Truth, or morality?

14. Chap 5 continued Three great critics of Religion: –Darwin: nothing more than clever apes in latest evolutionary stage? –Freud: immoral behavior reduced to natural ‘drives’ for sex and aggression? –Marx: opiate for the masses?: all are pawns in economic system Is ‘Free Will’, or moral responsibility, even possible under such “materialisms”, or Determinism?

15. Chap 6: The Relativist So….does objective, universal Truth, or Goodness, exist beyond our own experience or fabrications? If all morality and truth are relative and subjective (and empty of any higher meaning), is morality inevitably reduced to an exercise of power of the rulers over the ruled?

16. Chap 6 continued Is such a distinction between relativism and objective moral truth really the ‘crucial issue of our times’? Why, why not? What are virtues? Why are they important? List your most important virtues