 |
| Replies |
 (Return) |
 Source Document |
| On Property |
| Ayesha
Speaking
|
| By the way, the
Catholic tradition is rich with writers on all
aspects of ethics. You don't have to go back to
Aquinas to find interesting ideas. You might want to look at some of the writings of the French philosopher Jacques Maritain, especially his book The Rights of Man and The Natural Law. Let me give you some idea of the flavor of Maritain's thought. Maritain views the individual person as what he calls a "whole" rather than merely a "part." By that I think he means that a person is never to be completely subordinated to a larger whole. He or she has his own "dignity" or value because he or she has a direct relationship with God or the "Absolute" and is not simply a "part" of society. [The Rights of Man and Natural Law, p. 67] This is due to the fact that each person is made in the image of God. As a result, society or the state cannot use a person solely as a means to its own good or for its own interests. Each person finds his fulfillment or goal in a higher order of sacred things and not simply in the things of this earth. The state or society is obligated to respect that goal and not to interfere with it's realization. Political society exists in order to: Society has a common good which consists in part of the good of each and every person within it. "In the light of the eternal value and absolute dignity of the soul, society exists for each person and is subordinated thereto." [The Rights of Man and Natural Law, p. 73]procure the common good of the multitude, in such a manner that each concrete person, not only in a privileged class, but throughout the masses, may truly reach that measure of independence which is proper to civilized life and which is insured alike by the economic guarantees of work and property, political rights, civil virtues and the cultivation of the mind. [The Rights of Man and Natural Law, p. 93. Italics in original.] Although it is legitimate to pursue the "temporal" common good, and to require certain things from the individual in order to pursue that good, there is also a "supernatural" common good that takes precedence. Each of us "possesses rights because of the very fact that he is a person, a whole, master of himself and of his acts, and who consequently is not merely a means to an end, but an end, an end who must be treated as such." [The Rights of Man and Natural Law, p. 106]I am part of the State by reason of certain relationships to common life which call my whole being into play; but by reason of other relationships (with which my whole being is also concerned) to things more important than common life, there are in me gifts, rights and values which exist neither by the State nor for the State and which are outside the sphere of the State. [The Rights of Man and Natural Law, p. 75] Notice that Maritain does not speak of maximizing welfare or any other temporal good. He is not a utilitarian.
|
|
|
||
| Ariadne's Home | Contact Ariadne at: | Property Home |
| Property Bibliography |  |
Property Contents |
|
|
||