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A Free Society Reader rises to the challenge of freedom in the
twenty-first century, offering thoughts and insights with
significant implications for citizens of today's brand new world.
Our era's most prominent figures in the fields of Christianity and
liberty speak about Pope John Paul II's vision of a free society,
conceptualize Christianity and political economy, debate issues of
democracy and the free society, and question the role of culture.
Together for the first time in one volume, these preeminent
thinkers provide inspiration and insight to scholars, students, and
general readers charting the enormous changes the new millennium
has seen.
Gibt es eine Wahrheit, die es verdient, als objektive Wahrheit
bezeichnet zu werden? Heute wird das oft bestritten. Mussen wir uns
also mit einem grenzenlosen Zweifel abfinden - ohne Hoffnung, unser
Leben an der Wahrheit ausrichten zu koennen? Andererseits erscheint
es uns oft so, dass wir die ganze Wahrheit zu besitzen glauben, und
dann mit restloser Gewissheit und uneingeschranktem Anspruch
meinen, uber sie verfugen zu koennen. Wir sind im Alltag also
entweder Skeptiker - oder Dogmatiker. Dieses Buch versucht, vor dem
Hintergrund der Wahrheitsfrage die Lage des Menschen zu schildern:
Er strebt nach Wahrheit, beruhrt sie bisweilen auch, kann sich
ihrer aber doch nie endgultig bemachtigen. Wahrheit hat eine
objektive und eine subjektive Seite. Sie gewinnt Gestalt im
Menschen - als Person. Was bedeutet das fur unser Leben, unsere
UEberzeugungen, unseren Glauben? Und was heisst das fur die
Politik: Fordert Demokratie die Ausklammerung der Wahrheitsfrage?
Der Herausgeber Christoph Boehr ist Professor fur Philosophie an
der Hochschule Heiligenkreuz/Wien.
The achievements of John Paul II in recent years cannot be
overstated. Led by this man and his profound contribution to
Catholic social thought, the Catholic Church has become the world's
single greatest voice for democracy and human rights. Protestants,
too, have found in Pope John Paul II a brave and steadfast
Christian pastor. Few people, however, know the Pope's background
or the philosophy behind his thinking. Written by Rocco
Buttiglione, one of the Pope's closest friends and counselors, this
volume is the standard work for all who want to understand the
philosophical mind of Karol Wojtyla, the man who became Pope John
Paul II. Based on an accurate reading of all of Wojtyla's works and
of all relevant secondary literature, this English edition of
Buttiglione's book provides a complete introduction to the Pope's
philosophy and his original contribution to the philosophy of
freedom. The early chapters give biographical information on
Wojtyla and examine his early philosophical formation. The middle
chapters explore in depth two of the Pope's central philosophical
and theological conceptions--human love and the acting person. The
closing chapters look at Wojtyla's role at the Second Vatican
Council, examine his poetic works, and place his thought in
dialogue with contemporary philosophy. New to this English edition
of Buttiglione's work are a foreword by Michael Novak, an appendix
published for the third edition of The Acting Person, and an
afterword that updates the book with a survey of secondary
literature on the Pope's thought published between 1982 and 1996.
Metafisica della Conoscenza e Politica in S. Tommaso d'Aquino was
originally published in Bologna in 1985 by the Centro Studi Europa
Orientale. This English translation has been prepared with the
explicit permission and encouragement of Buttiglione. The work grew
from a series of lectures Buttiglione gave on the relationship
between metaphysics, knowledge, and politics based on a critical
reading of Thomas Aquinas's Commentary on Aristotle's Politics and
other relevant texts. His aim was to advance Thomistic thinking by
incorporating the insights of modern philosophy on subjectivity and
relationality. In addition to its primary audience of philosophers,
theologians, and political theorists, the book surprisingly enjoyed
a wide general readership in Italy at the time of its publication.
It represented an exciting attempt to harmonize medieval philosophy
and the insights of personalism that had already had a deep impact
on European intellectual life. Buttiglione was able to describe
this attempt in a way accessible to a general readership, and in a
way that confronted the political challenges Italy had been
confronting for the last forty years. Now, thirty-five years after
the book's initial publication, the conclusions Buttiglione draws
from reading Thomas Aquinas's commentary on Aristotle's
Politics--and the connections he makes between philosophy,
theology, and political theory--are more relevant than ever. He
argues that the traditional definition of "person" as rationalis
naturae individua substantia--an individual substance or substrate
(hypokeimenon) of a rational nature--"lacks that certain element
that makes Augustine's approach to personhood so appealing." Hence
Aquinas's definition "is left wanting since it fails to elaborate
on the crucial aspect of interpersonal relationship." The ingenuous
way in which Buttiglione enlivens Thomistic political thinking with
personalist philosophy helps to explain not only why free societies
are more stable, tolerant, and respectful of human rights than
totalitarian states, but theocratic ones as well. Only by raising
the interpersonal aspects of political society to an ontological
level-indeed, only by affirming and esteeming the
self-transcendence of the human person as evidenced through
ontological analysis-do the personal relationships that root and
enliven the human person also lead to a realistic, dynamic, and
convincing vision of the person's real existence. Buttiglione was
startlingly prescient of the problems we confront at the beginning
of the third millennium. This book will spark new discussions as it
explains the importance of both the medieval tradition and
twentieth-century personalism. The book also draws on a wide range
of secondary sources unavailable to English readers that I and will
have the unique ability to introduce readers to the "Italian" way
of relating speculative and political philosophy in a relatively
slim volume.
“In his Emile Rousseau proposes a new plan of education closely
connected with a universal overthrow of civil order. The goal of
the Emile is to prepare souls by means of a total revolution in
their modes of thinking.”—These words were penned in 1763, by
the young Catholic philosopher, H. S. Gerdil, more than two decades
before the French revolution. In a prophetic moment in the history
of the philosophy of education, Gerdil noted that the pedagogy of
Rousseau’s book will inspire “vexation with and aversion for
religious and social institutions . . . it will make bad Christians
and bad citizens.” The disenchantment with any authority or
social forms sunk deep roots in the modern European social
imagination. It has informed the many liberal reforms of education
of the last two centuries. The Emile is still with us.
In his eminently readable reflections,
H. S. Gerdil exposes the error of Rousseau’s Romantic naturalism.
In the process, he illustrates sensible judgment regarding concrete
curricular matters and pedagogical practices. Gerdil’s philosophy
of education is grounded in the reality of original sin and the
transcendent destiny of mankind. He provides both philosophical
principles and concrete suggestions as to how parents and teachers
might craft hearts and minds capable of serving “peace of
families, the tranquility of states, and the general advantage of
all men.” Gerdil’s humane Christian realism has lost none of
its timeliness. The Anti-Emile is an
original English translation of Gerdil’s work, first published in
French under the title Réflexions sur la théorie, & la
pratique de l’education contre les principes de Mr. Rousseau. In
its day, the book was quickly diffused throughout Europe in its
original French as well as in English, German, and Italian
translations, and it soon picked up its popular title, The
Anti-Emile. This translation is preceded by Frank’s Introductory
Essay, which draws out the radically different views of human
nature represented by Rousseau and Gerdil. It makes clear what is
at issue in Rousseau’s rejection and Gerdil’s advancement of
the living tradition of classical education. In his essay, Frank
also introduces H. S. Gerdil as an historical figure with a
distinctive place in the history of modern philosophy.
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