So the theme for tonight's talk is judging the truth, moral intolerance, or the dictatorship of relativism.

So thou shalt not judge for our contemporary culture and especially for the typical university culture today.

This is often treated like the first and greatest commandment,

and perhaps even the only commandment. The great sin of our epoch, I think, you could claim,

is to be judgmental. And in a way, in postmodernity, it's a kind of capital vice.

So this poses a special challenge for the university, and

especially, I think, for university students and for

university teachers.

But let's speak for a moment about students, since that's

mostly who's here in the room.

I think it's a challenge not only because there is a kind of stigma that can be attached

to someone who is judged to be judgmental, and that stigma can be painful and powerful,

even socially, but also because students have often come to the university after

many years of formation and socialization that being judgmental is a very bad thing to be.

And so they really don't want to be or be perceived as judgmental.

So the job that I'd like to tackle or the task that I'd like to tackle in this talk is really

whether being judgmental is a vice or a sin and if yes in what sense, and how this is related to contemporary claims about truth,

tolerance, and moral relativism.

So let's begin with the question of being judgmental.

Is it a vice or a sin to be judgmental?

And if yes, in what sense?

So you sometimes hear it said, well, that may be true for you,

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