The Idea of Natural Rights-Origins and Persistence, 2 Nw
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Renaissance the Renaissance Approx
Renaissance The Renaissance approx. 1300 – 1600 (texts vary) • Means “rebirth,” specifically the rebirth of classical knowledge (ancient Greece & Rome) • “Birth” of the modern world (beginning of modern European history) • Bridges the Middle Ages to Modern Times • Begins in northern Italy (Florence) & spreads to the Italian city-states & then northern Europe (c.1450) By contrast to continental Europe, the Renaissance did not begin in England until the 16th century & lasted until the early 17th century (the time of Shakespeare) Renaissance vs. the Middle Ages • Renaissance was secular, not religious • Individual, not the group, was emphasized during the Renaissance • Renaissance occurred in urban ($), not rural, areas • It was the awakening of the human spirit - feelings & thoughts The Renaissance begins in Italy • Center of Greco-Roman civilization • Centrally located • Advantages of northern Italian city-states – Large urban centers – Wealth from trade – Merchants as patrons of the arts Rise of the Italian City-States • Northern Italian cities (centrally located) developed international trade which was linked to the Crusades & the Spice Trade – Cities included Genoa, Venice, Milan – The Renaissance started in Florence and followed the success of the Medici family which built their power on great wealth from banking & the manufacture & commerce of textiles Politics among the Italian City-States • Competition among the city-states meant that Italy did not unify politically which would lead to their downfall in the late 15th and early 16th centuries when French & Spanish armies invaded Italy • Before their downfall, an early balance-of- power pattern emerged • Italy would not unite until the mid-19th c. Major city-states & figures 1. -
The Naturalistic Fallacy and Natural Law Methodology
The Naturalistic Fallacy and Natural Law Methodology W. Matthews Grant It is customary to divide contemporary natural law theorists-at least those working broadly within the Thomistic tradition-into two main camps. In one camp are those such as John Finnis, Germain Grisez and Robert George, who deny that a natural law ethics need base itself on premises supplied by a methodologically prior philosophical anthropol ogy. According to these thinkers, practical reason, when reflecting on experience and considering possible ends of action, grasps in a non-in ferential act of understanding certain basic goods that ought to be pursued. Since these goods are not deduced, demonstrated, or derived from prior premises, they provide a set of self-evident or per se nota primary pre cepts from which all other precepts of the natural law may be derived. Because these primary precepts or basic goods are self-evident, natural law theorizing need not wait on the findings of anthropologists and phi losophers of human nature. 1 A rival school of natural law ethicists, comprised of such thinkers as Russell Bittinger, Ralph Mcinerny, Henry Veatch andAnthony Lisska, rejects the claims of Finnis and his colleagues for the autonomy of natural law I. For major statements and defenses of this position see John Finnis, Natural Law and Natural Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, I980); Germain Grisez, The Way of the Lord Jesus~ vol. I, Christian Moral Principles (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, I983);. Robert P. George, "Recent Criticism of Natural Law -
Antoine De Chandieu (1534-1591): One of the Fathers Of
CALVIN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY ANTOINE DE CHANDIEU (1534-1591): ONE OF THE FATHERS OF REFORMED SCHOLASTICISM? A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF CALVIN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY THEODORE GERARD VAN RAALTE GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN MAY 2013 CALVIN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 3233 Burton SE • Grand Rapids, Michigan • 49546-4301 800388-6034 fax: 616 957-8621 [email protected] www. calvinseminary. edu. This dissertation entitled ANTOINE DE CHANDIEU (1534-1591): L'UN DES PERES DE LA SCHOLASTIQUE REFORMEE? written by THEODORE GERARD VAN RAALTE and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy has been accepted by the faculty of Calvin Theological Seminary upon the recommendation of the undersigned readers: Richard A. Muller, Ph.D. I Date ~ 4 ,,?tJ/3 Dean of Academic Programs Copyright © 2013 by Theodore G. (Ted) Van Raalte All rights reserved For Christine CONTENTS Preface .................................................................................................................. viii Abstract ................................................................................................................... xii Chapter 1 Introduction: Historiography and Scholastic Method Introduction .............................................................................................................1 State of Research on Chandieu ...............................................................................6 Published Research on Chandieu’s Contemporary -
Humanism in Brief
HUMANISM IN BRIEF These days, it seems, more and more of our performing guilds and vendors are involved in a wider spectrum of “Renaissance” events: Henrican and Marian, as well as Elizabethan; Celtic and Continental, as well as English. One thing that all these sixteenth century venues had in common was the primary intellectual engine of the Renaissance ‐ Humanism. All the well‐traveled merchants, clerics, and courtiers many of us portray were aware, to one degree or another, of the tectonic‐like shift in education, culture, and philosophy that was slowly and steadily making itself felt throughout all Europe. The medieval, God‐centered, “rational” order was being challenged by students and teachers of ancient Greek and Latin classics who championed the importance (if not the primacy) of human passions and emotions in the quest of perceiving and living the “moral life.” After all, who doesn’t want to be able to teach their children how to be a “good person”, to be well thought of in this life, and safe and secure in the next? Scholasticism and Aquinas Supposedly, when Abe Lincoln was asked his opinion on sin, he replied, “I’m agin’ it.” And so, too, it is sometimes easier to define a historical concept by first getting a handle on the earlier concepts with which it sought to contend, and eventually replace. The dominant educational, philosophical, and theological system of the late Middle Ages was Scholasticism, and its personification was the Dominican friar Thomas Aquinas. The “Dumb Ox” (no, really: his buddies at university called him that; at 300+ pounds, he was so clumsy they wouldn’t let him in the kitchen) explained the moral life this way: God possesses, knows and, in fact, is all ultimate truth; God has expressed this truth through creation, establishing the moral order of all things (the natural law); God created humans with an intellect capable of knowing this truth and so control the human passions which would distract or disable us from leading the moral life we were created to live. -
Thomist Natural Law
The Catholic Lawyer Volume 8 Number 1 Volume 8, Winter 1962, Number 1 Article 5 Thomist Natural Law Joaquin F. Garcia, C.M. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/tcl Part of the Catholic Studies Commons This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Catholic Lawyer by an authorized editor of St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THOMIST NATURAL LAW JOAQUIN F. GARCIA, C.M.* N THE Summer 1960 edition of The Catholic Lawyer, Dr. R. D. Lumb, a Lecturer in Law at the University of Queensland, had an article entitled "Natural Law - An Unchanging Standard?", in which he con- sidered the doctrines of two thinkers, St. Thomas and Suarez. It is the opinion of this writer that as far as Thomist Natural Law is concerned, Dr. Lumb could have omitted the question mark. It is an unchanging standard. Dr. Lumb set himself the task of ascertaining whether the traditional Thomist system takes into account the variables to be found in any system of rules or institutions. The Thomist system of law does take account of the variables but through positive law, through the application of the universal Natural Law principles to particular changing conditions. By no means does it replace positive law. Unlike 18th century rationalis- tic Natural Law which often ignored experience, which often contained personal, social and political programs, and which often was not Natural Law at all but positive law under a Natural Law label, Thomist Natural Law offers the widest scope for positive law and stresses the importance of experience. -
Massimo Lollini Humanisms, Posthumanisms, and Neohumanisms
Massimo Lollini I dedicate this volume to Paolo Bollini, in memoriam Humanisms, Posthumanisms, and Neohumanisms: Introductory Essay1 Incipit ecent bibliography, from Michele Ciliberto (Pensare per contrari. R Disincanto e utopia nel Rinascimento) to Paolo Rossi (Il tempo dei maghi. Rinascimento e modernità), upholds that Humanism and Italian Renaissance have been characterized within a too harmonic and coherent frame and that it is necessary to valorize the richness and plurality of its cultural models, if one wants humanism to be part of contemporary cultural and literary debate, addressing contemporary society’s most profound cultural needs. This volume, entitled Humanisms, Posthumanisms and Neohumanisms, proposes a reflection articulated in different parts. Its first section, Revisiting Early Humanism, presents contributions engaged in rethinking early humanism, its origins and developments, from the classical tradition to Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. The second section, Humanism in Perspective, studies how the notion of humanism has been articulated in an historical perspective that comprises the beginning of European Colonialism in the “New World,” with its epistemological paradigm shift and scientific revolution between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and then the violent historical events that took place in the twentieth century, including the Shoah. The volume’s third section, From Vico’s New Science to Contemporary Neohumanisms, introduces the notion of Neohumanisms and has Giambattista Vico’s New -
Cicero and St. Augustine's Just War Theory: Classical Influences on a Christian Idea Berit Van Neste University of South Florida
University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 4-12-2006 Cicero and St. Augustine's Just War Theory: Classical Influences on a Christian Idea Berit Van Neste University of South Florida Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons, and the Religion Commons Scholar Commons Citation Neste, Berit Van, "Cicero and St. Augustine's Just War Theory: Classical Influences on a Christian Idea" (2006). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/3782 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Cicero and St. Augustine's Just War Theory: Classical Influences on a Christian Idea by Berit Van Neste A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Religious Studies College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: James F. Strange, Ph.D. Paul G. Schneider, Ph.D. Michael J. Decker, Ph.D. Date of Approval: April 12, 2006 Keywords: theology, philosophy, politics, patristic, medieval © Copyright 2006 , Berit Van Neste For Elizabeth and Calista Table of Contents Abstract ii Chapter 1 1 Introduction 1 Cicero’s Influence on Augustine 7 Chapter 2 13 Justice 13 Natural and Temporal Law 19 Commonwealth 34 Chapter 3 49 Just War 49 Chapter 4 60 Conclusion 60 References 64 i Cicero and St. -
The Utilitarian Foundations of Natural Law
University of Chicago Law School Chicago Unbound Journal Articles Faculty Scholarship 1989 The Utilitarian Foundations of Natural Law Richard A. Epstein Follow this and additional works at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/journal_articles Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Richard A. Epstein, "The Utilitarian Foundations of Natural Law," 12 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 711 (1989). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Chicago Unbound. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal Articles by an authorized administrator of Chicago Unbound. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 10 SYMPOSIUM ON THE COMPATIBILITY OF RIGHTS AND CONSEQUENTIALIST ANALYSES HeinOnline -- 12 Harv. J. L. & Pub. Pol'y 711 1989 0Q HeinOnline -- 12 Harv. J. L. & Pub. Pol'y 712 1989 THE UTILITARIAN FOUNDATIONS OF NATURAL LAW RICHARD A. EPSTEIN* Contemporary thinking about rights draws a sharp line be- tween deontological and consequentialist ethical theories. De- ontological theories are associated with the natural law tradition as it has developed in this century, while consequen- tialist theories may be conveniently, if inexactly, grouped as utilitarian. The points of opposition between these approaches have been so often rehearsed that it is only necessary to sum- marize them briefly here. Natural rights theories regard them- selves as theories of individual entitlement, not as theories of social good. Their emphasis on the justice of the individual case, the intimate connection between the doer and the sufferer of harm, makes them overtly anti-instrumental in orientation.' They disavow the idea that the consequences of any legal rule could justify its adoption or rejection. -
Retrieving a Catholic Tradition of Subjective Natural Rights from the Late Scholastic Francisco Suárez, S.J
Copyright © 2012 Ave Maria Law Review RETRIEVING A CATHOLIC TRADITION OF SUBJECTIVE NATURAL RIGHTS FROM THE LATE SCHOLASTIC FRANCISCO SUÁREZ, S.J. Steven J. Brust, Ph.D. g INTRODUCTION There is good reason to inquire into the Catholic contributions to the foundation of human rights.1 There is a global proliferation of natural rights in nation-states, international treaties, charters and conventions, as well as in political rhetoric, court decisions, law, and even in personal conversation. Furthermore, the Catholic Church herself has emerged as one of the leading advocates of natural rights in its moral and social teachings as well as in its charitable practices. As a result of these omnipresent rights claims, debates have arisen with respect to the origin and nature of, and justification for, natural rights. These debates are not only between Catholics and those outside the Church (e.g., with contemporary secular liberals), but also between Catholics themselves. At the heart of these debates are a number of questions: Do natural rights even exist? If so, what is a right? Are natural rights compatible with or contradictory to natural law understood as an objective order of justice? Are natural rights derived from natural law or is natural law derived from natural rights? Which is given a priority? Do natural rights entail a rejection or diminution of virtue and the common good? For some Catholics, a very important aspect of this overall debate is the supposed break between pre-modern views on natural right/law and modern views on natural rights. They offer a narrative which includes the claim that rights are more of an invention of the modern political philosophers such as Hobbes and Locke, and/or have their g Steven J. -
Natural Law by Gordon Babst
Natural Law by Gordon Babst Encyclopedia Copyright © 2015, glbtq, Inc. Entry Copyright © 2004, glbtq, inc. Reprinted from http://www.glbtq.com Natural Law refers to the tradition of reading into nature laws that are not merely descriptive, but prescriptive. For adherents of natural law, nature does not merely state natural facts, but also offers a moral code, or reveals a moral order, usually anchored in a god whose intentions can be read in nature. In Christian theology, natural law is that part of God's teaching that can be discerned through nature (as opposed to revelation or grace or scripture). As developed by medieval scholasticism, it became the basis of both sacred and secular law, including laws regulating sexual practices. Top: A Roman copy of a From the perspective of natural law, nature is viewed as the basis for morality and the Greek sculpture of the civil law. Significantly, however, natural law does not refer to the regularities found in head of Aristotle. Above: An altarpiece the natural world as discovered by natural scientists, who, qua scientists, are not depicting Thomas engaged in ethical evaluations of the natural world. Acquinas created by Carlo Crivelli in 1476. Origins in the Ancient World The image of the sculpture of Aristotle appears under the The natural law tradition began with the Stoics of ancient Greece, who viewed reason Creative Commons as mankind's common tool, one connecting human beings to the natural reality of the Attribution ShareAlike cosmos that revealed itself and its objective principles through the natural light of 2.5 License. -
Catholics, Culture and the Renewal of Christian Humanism
religions Article Catholics, Culture and the Renewal of Christian Humanism John Sullivan Theology Department, Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool L16 9JD, UK; [email protected] Abstract: If Catholic educators are to equip students to engage with contemporary culture in a way that is credible and winsome, they need first, to be able to draw upon the living tradition of their faith appreciatively, critically and creatively, and second, to articulate a renewed form of Christian humanism. This paper addresses the second of these prerequisites by taking two steps towards the development of a Christian humanism for our times. First, I propose a rationale for the task of rethinking the case for Christian humanism as a resource for both cultural engagement and for educational practice. Second, I consider three potential sources and guides for becoming confident and competent in communicating this renewal of Christian humanism: Jacques Maritain, Romano Guardini and Pope Francis. Keywords: culture; Christian humanism; Catholic education; Jacques Maritain; Romano Guardini; Pope Francis Catholic educators have always had to draw upon and respond to the cultures in which they are embedded. The transmission of faith and the invitation to participate in God’s life never occurs in a cultural vacuum. The language used in Catholic education, the features of the faith to be given salience, the prevailing assumptions about knowledge, the aims of education, pedagogy, curriculum and the teacher-student relationship, even Citation: Sullivan, John. 2021. the tone and shape of the theology that underpins and illuminates Catholic education—all Catholics, Culture and the Renewal of these are unavoidably and deeply influenced by the nature of the society and culture which Christian Humanism. -
Atheists and Cultural Mormons Promote a Naturalistic Humanism
Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011 Volume 7 Number 1 Article 17 1995 Atheists and Cultural Mormons Promote a Naturalistic Humanism Louis Midgley Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Midgley, Louis (1995) "Atheists and Cultural Mormons Promote a Naturalistic Humanism," Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011: Vol. 7 : No. 1 , Article 17. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr/vol7/iss1/17 This Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011 by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Title Atheists and Cultural Mormons Promote a Naturalistic Humanism Author(s) Louis Midgley Reference Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 7/1 (1995): 229–97. ISSN 1050-7930 (print), 2168-3719 (online) Abstract Review of Religion, Feminism, and Freedom of Conscience: A Mormon/Humanist Dialogue (1994), edited by George D. Smith. George D. Smith, ed., Religion, Feminism, and Freedom of Conscience: A Mormon/Humanist Dia logu e. Buffalo, NY, and Salt Lake City, UT: Prometheus Books and Signature Books, 1994. xxiii + 162 pp. $29.95, hardback. xiii + 162 pp. $14.95, paperback. Atheists and Cultural Mormons Promote a Naturalistic Humanism Reviewed by Louis Midgley The humanist revolts against the dogmatisms of typical theism but does not admit the dogmatisms that plague his own system. Sterling M. McMurrinl Latter-day Saints may be unaware of the agenda of Prome theus Books.