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This volume, the original version of which was published in 1988,
brings to a close the autobiographical writings of a modern
Christian philosopher who lived through the two World Wars and the
ecclesiastical upheaval in the Catholic Church in the context of
the Second Vatican Council. What stamps this philosopher throughout
the course of his life - with all its social and political
uncertainties - is his constant dedication to truth and his
manifest unswerving integrity. Themes with which the reader of his
previous works would be well acquainted recur in this volume. The
dedicated Catholic philosopher, who preferred his independence as a
trainer of teachers to the less independent role of a professor in
a Catholic university, was quite prepared to criticize developments
in the Church which resulted from Vatican II. In his defense of the
sacred, which he deemed threatened by popularizing trends in the
Church, he criticized what he saw as the watered down language in
modern German translations of Church liturgical texts; the growing
preference for secular garb; and the compromising developments
which saw the sacramental signs - surrounding baptism, for instance
- being reduced to such an extent that they no longer had the power
to signify their sacred meaning even to a well-intentioned
congregation. A great lover of the philosophy of Plato, Augustine,
and Aquinas - among many others -, Pieper highlighted the need for
living a life of truth. He did not consider truth to be merely
something abstract but as something to be lived existentially.
While he could explain his philosophy in clear rational terms,
something which especially stood to him in his post-war lectures to
eager students who were hungry for intellectual guidance and
leadership, the great interest of his philosophy was, possibly, his
preoccupation with mystery - that which impinges on our inner lives
but frustrates all our attempts to account for it in purely
rational terms. As a philosopher - one might say a Christian
philosopher - Pieper seems to have observed the traditional
boundaries drawn between philosophy and theology. His generation
was exposed to the modernist debates in the Church. It would have
been deemed heretical to say that the Divine could be grasped by
our purely human thought processes - access to the Divine being
only possible through faith and grace. Pieper was no heretic. But
he was also not altogether conservative. In fact, his philosophy,
closely allied to existentialism - despite his care, for instance,
to distance himself from the negative existentialism of Sartre -
focused on the individual's inner existential grasp of the most
profound reality. Truth is to be found within us, even if it
remains a mystery. What lies beyond death is, for the individual,
the ultimate mystery.
Pieper collects his contributions to radio programs and to a number
of journals and periodicals. The book also includes a selection of
notes and comments. The contributions fall into two main groups:
the period which encompasses the immediate pre-war period as well
as the war period itself, and the post-war period up to 1953.The
reader becomes witness, first, to Pieper's problems with the
National Socialist regime and, second, to his problems with the
ensuing challenges to religious life as it is exposed to increasing
secularization. As with his later works, Pieper draws on
traditional wisdom which, for him, dates back to Plato and
Aristotle, and in these contributions we also see his early
preoccupation with the wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas. The normal
boundaries between philosophy and theology are here not clearly
drawn. Pieper is preoccupied with the mystery of our world and its
importance as a source of symbols signifying deeper levels of
reality. He sees the sacraments as achieving their fundamental
effect from divine intervention, but he also highlights the need
for careful observance of the rituals, so that their meaning is not
obscured. Proper execution of the sacrament should enable the
faithful to enjoy the existential fruits of their participation in
the ritual. This work manifests the organic cohesion of Pieper's
thinking, and it reflects his profound awareness of the role to be
played not so much by the professional (academic) philosopher as by
the existential Philosophizer.
Pieper collects his contributions to radio programs and to a number
of journals and periodicals. The book also includes a selection of
notes and comments. The contributions fall into two main groups:
the period which encompasses the immediate pre-war period as well
as the war period itself, and the post-war period up to 1953.The
reader becomes witness, first, to Pieper's problems with the
National Socialist regime and, second, to his problems with the
ensuing challenges to religious life as it is exposed to increasing
secularization. As with his later works, Pieper draws on
traditional wisdom which, for him, dates back to Plato and
Aristotle, and in these contributions we also see his early
preoccupation with the wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas. The normal
boundaries between philosophy and theology are here not clearly
drawn. Pieper is preoccupied with the mystery of our world and its
importance as a source of symbols signifying deeper levels of
reality. He sees the sacraments as achieving their fundamental
effect from divine intervention, but he also highlights the need
for careful observance of the rituals, so that their meaning is not
obscured. Proper execution of the sacrament should enable the
faithful to enjoy the existential fruits of their participation in
the ritual. This work manifests the organic cohesion of Pieper's
thinking, and it reflects his profound awareness of the role to be
played not so much by the professional (academic) philosopher as by
the existential Philosophizer.
Josef Pieper's readers become accustomed to the clarity of thought
and expression in his writing-in combination with the impression he
gives of being profoundly in touch with fundamentals. His
conceptual clarity emerges from his awareness of basic human
experience. This book began life in 1933 as a small book produced
in a sociological research institute and was encumbered, not
surprisingly, with unwieldy academic jargon. It took on a new life
as a result of a challenging statement by Max Frisch, who, in 1976,
stated that establishing peace in the world required the
transformation of society into a community. Amazed by the naivety
of Frisch's claim, Pieper set about defining three types of social
interaction and describing how they function. 1. The community is
an intimate grouping based on mutual affirmation of its members
what they share in common. The family is an example. 2. Society is
the sphere we enter on leaving the intimate circle in which we
live. Here, tact, etiquette and contract come into play for the
protection of one another's privacy. 3. Organization is the sphere
dominated by usefulness of the individual. Pieper is particularly
concerned about the cog in the wheel mentality of certain political
regimes. The book is a characteristic example of the philosopher's
concern with political reality.
This volume, the original version of which was published in 1988,
brings to a close the autobiographical writings of a modern
Christian philosopher who lived through the two World Wars and the
ecclesiastical upheaval in the Catholic Church in the context of
the Second Vatican Council. What stamps this philosopher throughout
the course of his life - with all its social and political
uncertainties - is his constant dedication to truth and his
manifest unswerving integrity. Themes with which the reader of his
previous works would be well acquainted recur in this volume. The
dedicated Catholic philosopher, who preferred his independence as a
trainer of teachers to the less independent role of a professor in
a Catholic university, was quite prepared to criticize developments
in the Church which resulted from Vatican II. In his defense of the
sacred, which he deemed threatened by popularizing trends in the
Church, he criticized what he saw as the watered down language in
modern German translations of Church liturgical texts; the growing
preference for secular garb; and the compromising developments
which saw the sacramental signs - surrounding baptism, for instance
- being reduced to such an extent that they no longer had the power
to signify their sacred meaning even to a well-intentioned
congregation. A great lover of the philosophy of Plato, Augustine,
and Aquinas - among many others -, Pieper highlighted the need for
living a life of truth. He did not consider truth to be merely
something abstract but as something to be lived existentially.
While he could explain his philosophy in clear rational terms,
something which especially stood to him in his post-war lectures to
eager students who were hungry for intellectual guidance and
leadership, the great interest of his philosophy was, possibly, his
preoccupation with mystery - that which impinges on our inner lives
but frustrates all our attempts to account for it in purely
rational terms. As a philosopher - one might say a Christian
philosopher - Pieper seems to have observed the traditional
boundaries drawn between philosophy and theology. His generation
was exposed to the modernist debates in the Church. It would have
been deemed heretical to say that the Divine could be grasped by
our purely human thought processes - access to the Divine being
only possible through faith and grace. Pieper was no heretic. But
he was also not altogether conservative. In fact, his philosophy,
closely allied to existentialism - despite his care, for instance,
to distance himself from the negative existentialism of Sartre -
focused on the individual's inner existential grasp of the most
profound reality. Truth is to be found within us, even if it
remains a mystery. What lies beyond death is, for the individual,
the ultimate mystery.
Volume 2 of Josef Pieper's three-part autobiography is here
presented for the first time in English translation. The volume
represents not just a simple continuation of a seamless story. The
first volume dealt with Pieper's life from his birth in 1904 to the
time of World War 2. The current volume deals with the post-war
years, 1945-1964, offering a personal documentation of the
institutional rubble through which an emerging academic and
philosopher had to find his way. This included finding work,
re-establishing himself in the family home, completing his academic
education, and beginning to teach philosophy in a climate of
despair and disillusionment. In this context, the quintessential
Pieper emerges. His positive philosophy of being, firmly based on
Plato and Thomas Aquinas, finds extraordinary resonance with
students, who flock to his lectures in surprising numbers - seeking
and finding a positive way forward. His dedication to training
teachers sees him declining higher academic posts in Germany in
favor of work which, though less lucrative and more obscure, he
considered more fruitful. These years are also marked by his
fiercely independent stance over against the Catholic hierarchy -
despite his staunch adherence to the tradition values of
Christianity. His popularity as a philosopher and teacher quickly
spread to America, where he was invited to teach at famous
universities. His fame led to further travels - to Switzerland,
England, France, Spain, India, China, Saigon, and Thailand. Such
travels enriched his thinking and nourished the open-mindedness of
the Western philosopher.
This book exemplifies Pieper's skills as a communicator. Despite
his concentration on the depths-which, beneath the stormy surface
level of life, he is constantly able to plumb-Pieper is able to
stage his profoundest thoughts. Here, in a clear and appealing
Pieper re-enacts the central meanings of three of Plato's most
famous dialogues, all touching on the central purpose of life: how
do we gain by giving, what is love and how do we show it, what is
the purpose of our action and where do we find full happiness? In
the first of the three plays, Gorgias: Or the Abuse of Words and
Power, he is able to vent his concerns about the dishonest use of
language for purely political purposes or for purely personal
advancement. Socrates contends that gaining power does not lead to
happiness, and that, in the end, suffering wrong is to be preferred
over doing wrong. In the second of the plays, The Symposium,
Socrates sits back and listens to all the speakers say what they
understand by Eros, for love is seen here in many forms from the
speakers. Then, when his turn comes, he merely reports the wise
words which Diotima spoke to him about the highest form of
Eros-which is love of that which is beautiful in itself, that "is"
eternal, that neither becomes nor passes away. In the third play,
The Death of Socrates (from Plato's dialogue Phaedo) Pieper shows
how Socrates' profound values enable him to face death with
equanimity. Even his close disciples and friends (Plato is absent)
are nonplussed as they witness his total selfless integrity.
Without popularizing, this book succeeds in highlighting some
fundamental issues which are not only central to Plato's thought,
but are also shown to be acutely relevant to our current society.
What Does "Academic" Mean? focuses, in two essays, on the prospects
of contemporary universities. The term "academic" is traced back to
Plato's Academy in a grove in Athens. The Academy is isolated, far
away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Western universities
founded in the Middle Ages show continuity, via Byzantium, with
Plato's Academy. Not surprisingly, the Oxford Dictionary quoted by
Pieper defines "academic" as "Not leading to a decision;
unpractical." The preoccupation of the academic as academic is seen
by Pieper to be fundamentally theoretical, not practical. Pure
theory is that which cannot at all be pressed into service.
Clearly, many university disciplines that are richly funded by
industry and business concerns tend to be favored by university
administrations, which, intent on financial survival, frown on
"unproductive" disciplines such as pure philosophy: metaphysics
being a case in point, since it is the discipline least capable of
practical application. Pure philosophy, unlike any other
discipline, has as its "subject" the totality of being. Every other
discipline deals with a particular aspect of being - for example,
the physical, the psychological, the technical - but not the
totality. For Pieper, spirit is that which makes us open to truth -
all truth - without any need to exploit it in the concrete world.
The sciences open up more and more access to reality, more and more
for us to contemplate. They show us more of the totality, but none
of the sciences is interested in the totality as such. The
philosophy which deals with the totality and asks, with Alfred
North Whitehead, "What is it all about?" is seen by Pieper as
central to the university. Essentially, it contemplates the wonder
of being.
Josef Pieper's The Platonic Myths is the work of a scholar and
philosopher whose search for the level of truth contained in the
myths is carried out with a series of careful distinctions between
the kinds of myths told by Plato. In the Platonic stories Plato
crystallizes mythical fragments from the mere stories which contain
them, and in the genuine Platonic myths he purifies the proper
mythical elements, freeing them of the non-mythical elements which
tend to obscure them. In examining the 'accepted' scholarly
interpretations of the myths, Pieper succeeds in establishing the
case for a truth, found particularly in the eschatological myths,
that is not reducible to the rational truth normally sought by
philosophers. While it is not purely rational truth, it is not
inferior. It is different. It stems from tradition, which reaches
back to the ultimate beginnings of man's existence - back into our
pre-history and to events of which, naturally, we have no
experience. The only access we have to this truth is through
'hearing' (ex akoes), which is not dependent on mere 'hearsay,' but
which, in Pieper's interpretation, reflects the handing on, in
stories, of what the gods first communicated to man about the
creation of the world and about the afterlife. These truths are to
be found - long before the New Testament (or even the Old
Testament) - in the myths of a variety of civilizations and give
evidence of an extraordinary consensus: that there was a creating
hand, that primeval man incurred guilt in the eyes of the gods;
that he could be saved; that there is an afterlife in which man is
rewarded or punished; that he can undergo a kind of purgatory for
lesser offenses; and that in the afterlife he can dwell with the
gods. What is the basis for accepting such truth as is contained in
the myths? No purely rational argument will suffice. What man
cannot experience himself he either tends to reject or, if he
accepts it, he does so on the authority of another - ex akoes. Even
before - or even without - Christian revelation, men have based
their lives on a conviction, for instance, that there is an
afterlife. They have this conviction not from experience or from
some rational philosophical argument. They have it on the basis of
'belief.' With the coming of Christian revelation, the logos, or
word, of the myth is seen - to the believer - to be the Logos of
the New Testament. But even here the 'believer' can depend neither
on purely rational argument nor on satisfactorily verifiable fact.
He has only - belief.
For Pieper, the study of tradition is anything but antiquarian. He
begins with a consideration of tradition in a changing world and is
well aware of the need to confront the all-too-common perception
that "tradition" is nowadays irrelevant. On the basis of his
profound knowledge of the Western philosophical tradition from
Plato and Aristotle through Augustine, Boethius, Thomas Aquinas,
and Descartes, to modern Existentialism and Marxism, Pieper is able
to highlight the values established - and challenged - down through
the centuries. He sees the need to re-examine these values, to rid
them of the false interpretations and misunderstandings that
threaten to consign them to oblivion. He attempts to restate them
in language which, in fact, not only reflects the clarity of his
mind but also expresses his conviction that these values, freshly
examined and understood, provide a sound basis for healthy living
and for our survival against the dangers that pose a serious threat
to the very existence of Western civilization. He illustrates these
values by examining the contrast between an exponent of them, like
Socrates, and an opportunist, like the Sophist Protagoras; between
the man of principle and the nihilistic pragmatist. The book
consists of a mixture of articles and speeches, produced by a man
who, though often wooed by the academy, was not concerned with
achieving personal status as an academic professor. He insisted,
for the most part, in combining purely academic teaching with the
education of teachers in teacher-training colleges. He would not be
removed from close contact with "learners," and he remained a
"learner" himself - from tradition.
What Does "Academic" Mean? focuses, in two essays, on the prospects
of contemporary universities. The term "academic" is traced back to
Plato's Academy in a grove in Athens. The Academy is isolated, far
away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Western universities
founded in the Middle Ages show continuity, via Byzantium, with
Plato's Academy. Not surprisingly, the Oxford Dictionary quoted by
Pieper defines "academic" as "Not leading to a decision;
unpractical." The preoccupation of the academic as academic is seen
by Pieper to be fundamentally theoretical, not practical. Pure
theory is that which cannot at all be pressed into service.
Clearly, many university disciplines that are richly funded by
industry and business concerns tend to be favored by university
administrations, which, intent on financial survival, frown on
"unproductive" disciplines such as pure philosophy: metaphysics
being a case in point, since it is the discipline least capable of
practical application. Pure philosophy, unlike any other
discipline, has as its "subject" the totality of being. Every other
discipline deals with a particular aspect of being - for example,
the physical, the psychological, the technical - but not the
totality. For Pieper, spirit is that which makes us open to truth -
all truth - without any need to exploit it in the concrete world.
The sciences open up more and more access to reality, more and more
for us to contemplate. They show us more of the totality, but none
of the sciences is interested in the totality as such. The
philosophy which deals with the totality and asks, with Alfred
North Whitehead, "What is it all about?" is seen by Pieper as
central to the university. Essentially, it contemplates the wonder
of being.
For Pieper, the study of tradition is anything but antiquarian. He
begins with a consideration of tradition in a changing world and is
well aware of the need to confront the all-too-common perception
that "tradition" is nowadays irrelevant. On the basis of his
profound knowledge of the Western philosophical tradition from
Plato and Aristotle through Augustine, Boethius, Thomas Aquinas,
and Descartes, to modern Existentialism and Marxism, Pieper is able
to highlight the values established - and challenged - down through
the centuries. He sees the need to re-examine these values, to rid
them of the false interpretations and misunderstandings that
threaten to consign them to oblivion. He attempts to restate them
in language which, in fact, not only reflects the clarity of his
mind but also expresses his conviction that these values, freshly
examined and understood, provide a sound basis for healthy living
and for our survival against the dangers that pose a serious threat
to the very existence of Western civilization. He illustrates these
values by examining the contrast between an exponent of them, like
Socrates, and an opportunist, like the Sophist Protagoras; between
the man of principle and the nihilistic pragmatist. The book
consists of a mixture of articles and speeches, produced by a man
who, though often wooed by the academy, was not concerned with
achieving personal status as an academic professor. He insisted,
for the most part, in combining purely academic teaching with the
education of teachers in teacher-training colleges. He would not be
removed from close contact with "learners," and he remained a
"learner" himself - from tradition.
In The Christian Idea of Man Josef Pieper brings off an
extraordinary feat. He acknowledges that whoever introduces the
theme of "virtue" and "the virtues" can expect to be met with a
smile - of various shades of condescension. He then proceeds to
single out "prudence" as the fundamental virtue on which the other
cardinal virtues are based. In defining it, he does away with the
shallow connotations which have debased it in modern times.
Similarly, he manages to divest it of all traces of "moralism,"
which, to a large extent has become identified with the Christian
idea of virtue and has made it fall into general disrepute. For
Pieper, prudence is fundamentally based on a clear perception of
reality - of things as they are - and the prudent person is the one
who acts in accordance with this perception. It has nothing to do
with knowing how to avoid decisions which might be to one's
disadvantage. Similarly, justice, which is based on prudence,
involves acting toward other persons according to one's perception
of the truth of the circumstances - again, a perception of things
"as they are." This is not a reference to any "status quo," but to
the reality as constituted by the Creator. In referring to courage
[fortitude], Pieper discusses the overcoming of fear. This does not
imply having no fear but, precisely, overcoming it. With regard to
the fundamental fear of death, Pieper rejects the approaches which
contend that there is nothing to fear in death. On the contrary,
there is everything to fear in death: it concerns the question of
possible absolute annihilation! Here Pieper introduces the
consideration of the "theological" virtues of faith, hope, and love
[charity]. When confronted with the question of possible
annihilation, the Christian's faith is paramount. Belief in God
lets him confront danger and overcome even the most radical fear -
through hope in God. His love of God does not wipe out fear but
gives him courage. Moderation is seen as the last in the hierarchy
of the cardinal virtues. Through its manifestation, in recent
Christian thinking, with chastity and abstinence, it became in the
Christian mind the most prominent characteristic of the Christian
idea of man and one that dominated everything else. It has been
reduced to the status of the most private of the virtues and is
combined with a moralistic conception of the good. Pieper's
analysis of moderation shows how this virtue needs to be rethought,
although, even then, it will remain the last in the hierarchy of
virtues.
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