Comments for Our Greatest Living Political Philosopher at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 6 out of 6 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Thu, 23 May 2013 16:21:58 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/our-greatest-living-political-philosopher.html#comment-8790 Alice von Hildebrand has written an essay called The Murder of Culture that I believe should give her a degree of preeminence in the philosophical world. Culture and civilization are certainly entwined with political philosophy. She warns that the power that technology gives man may cause a deadly illusion that given time there is nothing he cannot control– that one day he would become a god without God. Satan's promise to Adam and eve was that you will be like God. Pride is the monster lurking in the background that will drive us toward an abyss hiding the fact we are headed for ruin. I was fascinated by her reasoning. - Bob Rowland Thu, 03 Nov 2011 18:25:56 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/our-greatest-living-political-philosopher.html#comment-8768 St. Thomas Aquinas II.II. 161 holds that humility is a double virtue together with magnanimity. together they are the means between Pride and timidity. The double virtue humility/magnanimity controls the passions in regard to the arduous good that is to say a good that is difficult to achieve. We are attracted by its goodness and repulsed by the difficulty. Humility keeps our pursuit of the good in the bounds of reason, magnanimity keeps us from shrinking in the face of difficulty. - vincent capuano, sj Wed, 02 Nov 2011 08:11:48 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/our-greatest-living-political-philosopher.html#comment-8765 @Mark Tardiff: Hear! Hear! The pervasiveness of redefining terms infects us as people of faith, as well. So often, while reading articles and blogs, I am left thinking to myself, he really should have said magnanimity so called, or as it used to be shown by putting the word in quotations in order to disclose that the term had been inappropriately co-opted and redefined (i.e. "magnanimity" or "humility"). However, having said that, there are 7 billion people in the world and if 1 billion are Catholics and 1 billion the collective Protestant denominations and let's be generous and say there are 1 billion Jewish and 1 billion Muslim believers that leaves 3 billion secularists. If we are going to evangelize them we may legitimately use the terms as they do in order to enter into dialogue and find common ground, and then attempt to redeem the interlocutor by bringing him back to the classical and Catholic sense of those terms, rescuing the term to its original meaning and redeeming the secularist, perhaps, in the process. - Michael Cawley Wed, 02 Nov 2011 03:04:18 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/our-greatest-living-political-philosopher.html#comment-8715 Peter, This is terrific, the best thing I've read in a while! I hope we'll be hearing more from you! - Martha Rice Martini Sat, 29 Oct 2011 10:41:21 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/our-greatest-living-political-philosopher.html#comment-8714 Dear Mr. Lawler, I liked the article but the choice of terms strikes me as odd. I learned of "magnanimity" and "humility" as virtues but here they are defined as defects. Wouldn't it better to call these poles of the dialectic "pride" and "insecurity"? - Mark Tardiff Sat, 29 Oct 2011 09:15:14 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/our-greatest-living-political-philosopher.html#comment-8713 Welcome to TCT, Prof. Lawler! I found your essay quite interesting. When I dial into a utility or a public company, I am asked by the computer voice if I wish to continue in English or Spanish. The English speakers in the U.S., as well as the indigenous peoples of Europe, are simply not reproducing themselves to compete with the immigrants who are poring in. The condition you describe of the self-isolated individual stems in part from an educated class which has felt itself betrayed by both the Church and the Government. It has lost its faith in both and, quite frankly, really cannot seem to find a reason to bother. The Tea Party and the Occupiers (around the World!) are just the more vocal tip of the iceberg. The malaise is widespread and it is due in part to many Americans realizing that their "future" is behind them. Europeans, on the other hand, realize they will have work as hard as the Americans, French and Germans in order to pay their own bills and that idea is more than they can face. After two world wars and dozens of governments, who can blame them. - Manfred Sat, 29 Oct 2011 07:39:00 +0100