Jacques Maritain
Encyclopedia
Jacques Maritain was a French Catholic philosopher. Raised as a Protestant, he converted to Catholicism in 1906. An author of more than 60 books, he helped to revive St. Thomas Aquinas
for modern times and is a prominent drafter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
. Pope Paul VI
presented his "Message to Men of Thought and of Science" at the close of Vatican II to Maritain, his long-time friend and mentor.
Maritain's interest and works spanned many aspects of philosophy
, including aesthetics
, political theory, the philosophy of science, metaphysics
, education, liturgy
and ecclesiology
.
, and was reared in a liberal Protestant milieu. He was sent to the Lycée Henri-IV. Later, he attended the Sorbonne
, studying the natural sciences; chemistry, biology and physics.
At the Sorbonne, he met Raïssa Oumancoff, a Russia
n Jewish émigré. They married in 1904. Furthermore, she, a noted poet and mystic, was his intellectual partner who participated with his search for truth
. Raissa's sister, Vera Oumancoff, lived with Jacques and Raissa for almost all their married life.
Soon, he became disenchanted with scientism
at the Sorbonne, for it could not, for him, address the larger existential issues of life. In light of this disillusionment Jacques and Raïssa made a pact to commit suicide together if they could not discover some deeper meaning to life within a year. They were spared from following through on this because, at the urging of Charles Péguy
, they attended the lectures of Henri Bergson
at the Collège de France. Along with his deconstructionism of scientism, Bergson instilled in them "the sense of the absolute." Then, through the influence of Léon Bloy
, they converted to the Roman Catholic faith in 1906.
In the fall of 1907 the Maritains moved to Heidelberg
, where Jacques studied biology under Hans Driesch. Hans Driesch’s theory of neo-vitalism attracted Jacques because of its affinity with Henri Bergson. During this time, Raïssa fell ill, and during her convalescence, their spiritual advisor, a Dominican friar named Fr. Humbert Clérissac, introduced her to the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas. So enthusiastic, she, in turn, exhorted her husband to examine the saint’s writings. In Thomas, he found a number of insights and ideas that he had believed all along, he wrote:
From the Angelic Doctor (the honorary title of St. Aquinas), he was led to "The Philosopher" as St. Thomas christened him, Aristotle
. Still later to further his intellectual development, he read the neo-scholastics.
Beginning in 1912, Maritain taught at the Collège Stanislas
and later moved to the Institut Catholique de Paris
. For the 1916–1917 academic year, he taught at the Petit Séminaire de Versailles. In 1933, he gave his first lectures in North America in Toronto
at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies
. He also taught at Columbia University
; at the Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago
; at the University of Notre Dame
, and at Princeton University
.
From 1945 to 1948, he was the French ambassador to the Vatican
.
Afterwards, he returned to Princeton University where he achieved the "Elysian status" (as he puts it) as a professor emeritus in 1956. Raissa Maritain died in 1960. After her death, Jacques published her journal under the title "Raissa's Journal." From 1961, Maritain lived with the Little Brothers of Jesus
in Toulouse, France. He had had an influence in the order since its foundation in 1933. He became a Little Brother in 1970.
Learning the death of his friend Maritain, Pope Paul VI cried. Jacques and Raïssa Maritain are buried in the cemetery of Kolbsheim
, a little French village where he had spent many summers at the estate of his friends, Antoinette and Alexander Grunelius.
A cause for beatification
of him and his wife Raissa is being planned.
commentators, especially John of St. Thomas
. He is eclectic in his use of these sources. Maritain’s philosophy is one based, like his champions, on evidence of being first by the senses and second that which is acquired by an understanding of first principles (metaphysics). Fundamentally, Maritain is a metaphysician who defended philosophy
as a science against those who would degrade it. He promoted philosophy as the queen of sciences.
In 1910, Jacques Maritain’s completed his first contribution to modern philosophy, a 28 page article titled, "Reason and Modern Science" published in Revue de Philosophie (June issue). In it, he warned that science was becoming a divinity, its methodology usurping the role of reason and philosophy. Science was supplanting the humanities in importance.
In 1917, a committee of French bishops commissioned Jacques to write a series of textbooks to be used in Catholic colleges and seminaries. He wrote and completed only one of these projects titled Elements de Philosophie (Introduction of Philosophy) in 1920. It has been a standard text ever since in many Catholic seminaries. He wrote in his introduction:
During World War II, Jacques Maritain protested the policies of the Vichy
government while teaching at the Pontifical Institute for Medieval Studies in Canada. "Moving to New York, Maritain became deeply involved in rescue activities, seeking to bring persecuted and threatened academics, many of them Jews, to America. He was instrumental in founding the École Libre des Hautes Études
, a kind of university in exile that was, at the same time, the center of Gaullist resistance in the United States". (1) After the war, he tried unsuccessfully to have the Pope
speak on the issue of anti-semitism
and the evils of the Holocaust
.
Many of his American papers are held by the University of Notre Dame
, which established The Jacques Maritain Center in 1957. The Cercle d'Etudes Jacques & Raïssa Maritain is an association founded by the philosopher himself in 1962 in Kolbsheim (near Strasbourg
, France), where the couple is also buried. The purpose of these centers is to encourage study and research of Maritain’s thought and expand upon them. It is also absorbed in translating and editing his writings.
is prior to epistemology. Being is first apprehended implicitly in sense experience, and is known in two ways. First, being is known reflexively by abstraction from sense experience. One experiences a particular being, e.g. a cup, a dog, etc. and through reflexion ("bending back") on the judgement, e.g. "this is a dog", one recognizes that the object in question is an existent. Second, in light of attaining being reflexively through apprehension of sense experience one may arrive at what Maritain calls "an Intuition of Being". For Maritian this is point of departure for metaphysics, without the intuition of being one cannot be a metaphysician at all. The intuition of being involves rising to the apprehension of ens secundum quod est ens (being insofar as it is a being). In Existence and the Existent he explains:
In view of this priority given to metaphysics, Maritain advocates an epistemology he calls "Critical Realism". Maritain's epistemology is not "critical" in Kant's sense, which held that one could only know anything after undertaking a thorough critique of one's cognitive abilities. Rather, it is critical in the sense that it is not a naive or non-philosophical realism, but one that is defended by way of reason. Against Kant's critical project Maritain argues that epistemology is reflexive; you can only defend a theory of knowledge in light of knowledge you have already attained. Consequently, the critical question is not the question of modern philosophy how do we pass from what is perceived to what is. Rather, "Since the mind, from the very start, reveals itself as warranted in its certitude by things and measured by an esse independent of itself, how are we to judge if, how, on what conditions, and to what extent it is so both in principle and in the various moments of knowledge?"
In contrast idealism inevitably ends up in contradiction, since it does not recognize the universal scope of the first principles of identity, contradiction, and finality. These become merely laws of thought or language, but not of being, which opens the way to contradictions being instantiated in reality.
Maritain's metaphysics ascends from this account of being to a critique of the philosophical aspects of modern science, through analogy to an account of the existence and nature of God as it is known philosophically and through mystical experience.
.
, rooted in his philosophical pluralism, in order to find ways Christianity could inform political discourse and policy in a pluralistic age. In this account he develops a theory of cooperation, to show how people of different intellectual positions can nevertheless cooperate to achieve common practical aims. Maritain's political theory was extremely influential, and was a primary source behind the Christian Democratic movement
.
Étienne Gilson
reported Fr. Carlo Balić's criticism of Maritain's "Integral Humanism," who said:
Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange
, doctoral thesis advisor of the future Pope John Paul II
, "advised him [Maritain] to stay away from political philosophy and to dedicate his time to his metaphysical epistemological issues." Maritain also corresponded with the revolutionary community organizer
Saul Alinsky
and French Prime Minister Robert Schuman
, which has caused some to doubt his committal to the kingship of Christ
as advocated most prominently in Pope Pius XI
's 1925 encyclical Quas Primas
.
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, O.P. , also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an Italian Dominican priest of the Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis, or Doctor Universalis...
for modern times and is a prominent drafter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...
. Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI
Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
presented his "Message to Men of Thought and of Science" at the close of Vatican II to Maritain, his long-time friend and mentor.
Maritain's interest and works spanned many aspects of philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, including aesthetics
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
, political theory, the philosophy of science, metaphysics
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
, education, liturgy
Liturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...
and ecclesiology
Ecclesiology
Today, ecclesiology usually refers to the theological study of the Christian church. However when the word was coined in the late 1830s, it was defined as the science of the building and decoration of churches and it is still, though rarely, used in this sense.In its theological sense, ecclesiology...
.
Life
Maritain was born in Paris, the son of Paul Maritain, who was a lawyer, and his wife Geneviève Favre, the daughter of Jules FavreJules Favre
Jules Claude Gabriel Favre was a French statesman. After the establishment of the Third Republic in September 1870, he became one of the leaders of the Opportunist Republicans faction.- Early life :...
, and was reared in a liberal Protestant milieu. He was sent to the Lycée Henri-IV. Later, he attended the Sorbonne
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
, studying the natural sciences; chemistry, biology and physics.
At the Sorbonne, he met Raïssa Oumancoff, a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n Jewish émigré. They married in 1904. Furthermore, she, a noted poet and mystic, was his intellectual partner who participated with his search for truth
Truth
Truth has a variety of meanings, such as the state of being in accord with fact or reality. It can also mean having fidelity to an original or to a standard or ideal. In a common usage, it also means constancy or sincerity in action or character...
. Raissa's sister, Vera Oumancoff, lived with Jacques and Raissa for almost all their married life.
Soon, he became disenchanted with scientism
Scientism
Scientism refers to a belief in the universal applicability of the systematic methods and approach of science, especially the view that empirical science constitutes the most authoritative worldview or most valuable part of human learning to the exclusion of other viewpoints...
at the Sorbonne, for it could not, for him, address the larger existential issues of life. In light of this disillusionment Jacques and Raïssa made a pact to commit suicide together if they could not discover some deeper meaning to life within a year. They were spared from following through on this because, at the urging of Charles Péguy
Charles Péguy
Charles Péguy was a noted French poet, essayist, and editor. His two main philosophies were socialism and nationalism, but by 1908 at the latest, after years of uneasy agnosticism, he had become a devout but non-practicing Roman Catholic.From that time, Catholicism strongly influenced his...
, they attended the lectures of Henri Bergson
Henri Bergson
Henri-Louis Bergson was a major French philosopher, influential especially in the first half of the 20th century. Bergson convinced many thinkers that immediate experience and intuition are more significant than rationalism and science for understanding reality.He was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize...
at the Collège de France. Along with his deconstructionism of scientism, Bergson instilled in them "the sense of the absolute." Then, through the influence of Léon Bloy
Léon Bloy
Léon Bloy , was a French novelist, essayist, pamphleteer and poet.-Biography:Bloy was born in Notre-Dame-de-Sanilhac, in the arondissement of Périgueux, Dordogne. He was the second of six sons of Voltairean freethinker and stern disciplinarian Jean Baptiste Bloy and his wife Anne-Marie Carreau,...
, they converted to the Roman Catholic faith in 1906.
In the fall of 1907 the Maritains moved to Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
, where Jacques studied biology under Hans Driesch. Hans Driesch’s theory of neo-vitalism attracted Jacques because of its affinity with Henri Bergson. During this time, Raïssa fell ill, and during her convalescence, their spiritual advisor, a Dominican friar named Fr. Humbert Clérissac, introduced her to the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas. So enthusiastic, she, in turn, exhorted her husband to examine the saint’s writings. In Thomas, he found a number of insights and ideas that he had believed all along, he wrote:
"Thenceforth, in affirming to myself, without chicanery or diminution, the authentic value of the reality of our human instruments of knowledge, I was already a Thomist without knowing it…When several months later I came to the Summa TheologiaeSumma TheologicaThe Summa Theologiæ is the best-known work of Thomas Aquinas , and although unfinished, "one of the classics of the history of philosophy and one of the most influential works of Western literature." It is intended as a manual for beginners in theology and a compendium of all of the main...
, I would construct no impediment to its luminous flood."
From the Angelic Doctor (the honorary title of St. Aquinas), he was led to "The Philosopher" as St. Thomas christened him, Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
. Still later to further his intellectual development, he read the neo-scholastics.
Beginning in 1912, Maritain taught at the Collège Stanislas
Collège Stanislas de Paris
Le Collège Stanislas de Paris is a private Catholic school in Paris, situated on "Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs" in the Montparnasse arrondissement. It has approximately 3,000 students, and is the largest private school in France....
and later moved to the Institut Catholique de Paris
Institut Catholique de Paris
The Institut Catholique de Paris, or the Catholic University of Paris, is a private university located in Paris, France. The institute was founded in 1875, under the name Université Catholique de Paris, by Maurice Le Sage d'Hauteroche d'Hulst....
. For the 1916–1917 academic year, he taught at the Petit Séminaire de Versailles. In 1933, he gave his first lectures in North America in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies
Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies
The Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies is a research institute in the University of Toronto that is dedicated to advanced studies in the culture of the Middle Ages....
. He also taught at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
; at the Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
; at the University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
, and at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
.
From 1945 to 1948, he was the French ambassador to the Vatican
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
.
Afterwards, he returned to Princeton University where he achieved the "Elysian status" (as he puts it) as a professor emeritus in 1956. Raissa Maritain died in 1960. After her death, Jacques published her journal under the title "Raissa's Journal." From 1961, Maritain lived with the Little Brothers of Jesus
Little Brothers of Jesus
The Little Brothers of Jesus is a religious congregation of brothers within the Catholic Church; it is inspired by the life and writings of Blessed Charles de Foucauld...
in Toulouse, France. He had had an influence in the order since its foundation in 1933. He became a Little Brother in 1970.
Learning the death of his friend Maritain, Pope Paul VI cried. Jacques and Raïssa Maritain are buried in the cemetery of Kolbsheim
Kolbsheim
Kolbsheim is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.Between June 1974 and January 1983 the commune was merged with Duppigheim.-Geography:...
, a little French village where he had spent many summers at the estate of his friends, Antoinette and Alexander Grunelius.
A cause for beatification
Beatification
Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name . Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process...
of him and his wife Raissa is being planned.
Work
The foundation of Maritain’s thought is Aristotle, St. Thomas and the ThomisticThomism
Thomism is the philosophical school that arose as a legacy of the work and thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church. In philosophy, his commentaries on Aristotle are his most lasting contribution...
commentators, especially John of St. Thomas
John of St. Thomas
John of St. Thomas, , theologian, philosopher, born at Lisbon, 9 June 1589; died at Fraga, Spain, 17 June 1644....
. He is eclectic in his use of these sources. Maritain’s philosophy is one based, like his champions, on evidence of being first by the senses and second that which is acquired by an understanding of first principles (metaphysics). Fundamentally, Maritain is a metaphysician who defended philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
as a science against those who would degrade it. He promoted philosophy as the queen of sciences.
In 1910, Jacques Maritain’s completed his first contribution to modern philosophy, a 28 page article titled, "Reason and Modern Science" published in Revue de Philosophie (June issue). In it, he warned that science was becoming a divinity, its methodology usurping the role of reason and philosophy. Science was supplanting the humanities in importance.
In 1917, a committee of French bishops commissioned Jacques to write a series of textbooks to be used in Catholic colleges and seminaries. He wrote and completed only one of these projects titled Elements de Philosophie (Introduction of Philosophy) in 1920. It has been a standard text ever since in many Catholic seminaries. He wrote in his introduction:
"If the philosophy of Aristotle, as revived and enriched by St. ThomasThomas AquinasThomas Aquinas, O.P. , also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an Italian Dominican priest of the Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis, or Doctor Universalis...
and his school, may rightly be called the Christian philosophyChristian philosophyChristian philosophy may refer to any development in philosophy that is characterised by coming from a Christian tradition.- Origins of Christian philosophy :...
, both because the church is never weary of putting it forward as the only true philosophy and because it harmonizes perfectly with the truths of faith, nevertheless it is proposed here for the reader's acceptance not because it is Christian, but because it is demonstrably true. This agreement between a philosophic system founded by a pagan and the dogmas of revelation is no doubt an external sign, an extra-philosophic guarantee of its truth; but from its own rational evidence, that it derives its authority as a philosophy".
During World War II, Jacques Maritain protested the policies of the Vichy
Vichy
Vichy is a commune in the department of Allier in Auvergne in central France. It belongs to the historic province of Bourbonnais.It is known as a spa and resort town and was the de facto capital of Vichy France during the World War II Nazi German occupation from 1940 to 1944.The town's inhabitants...
government while teaching at the Pontifical Institute for Medieval Studies in Canada. "Moving to New York, Maritain became deeply involved in rescue activities, seeking to bring persecuted and threatened academics, many of them Jews, to America. He was instrumental in founding the École Libre des Hautes Études
École libre des hautes études
The École Libre des Hautes Études was a sort of university-in-exile for French academics in New York during the Second World War. It was chartered by the French and Belgian governments-in-exile and located at the New School for Social Research...
, a kind of university in exile that was, at the same time, the center of Gaullist resistance in the United States". (1) After the war, he tried unsuccessfully to have the Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
speak on the issue of anti-semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
and the evils of the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
.
Many of his American papers are held by the University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
, which established The Jacques Maritain Center in 1957. The Cercle d'Etudes Jacques & Raïssa Maritain is an association founded by the philosopher himself in 1962 in Kolbsheim (near Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
, France), where the couple is also buried. The purpose of these centers is to encourage study and research of Maritain’s thought and expand upon them. It is also absorbed in translating and editing his writings.
Metaphysics and epistemology
Maritain's philosophy is based on the view that metaphysicsMetaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
is prior to epistemology. Being is first apprehended implicitly in sense experience, and is known in two ways. First, being is known reflexively by abstraction from sense experience. One experiences a particular being, e.g. a cup, a dog, etc. and through reflexion ("bending back") on the judgement, e.g. "this is a dog", one recognizes that the object in question is an existent. Second, in light of attaining being reflexively through apprehension of sense experience one may arrive at what Maritain calls "an Intuition of Being". For Maritian this is point of departure for metaphysics, without the intuition of being one cannot be a metaphysician at all. The intuition of being involves rising to the apprehension of ens secundum quod est ens (being insofar as it is a being). In Existence and the Existent he explains:
"It is being, attained or perceived at the summit of an abstractive intellection, of an eidetic or intensive visualization which owes its purity and power of illumination only to the fact that the intellect, one day, was stirred to its depths and trans-illuminated by the impact of the act of existing apprehended in things, and because it was quickened to the point of receiving this act, or hearkening to it, within itself, in the intelligible and super-intelligible integrity of the tone particular to it." (p. 20)
In view of this priority given to metaphysics, Maritain advocates an epistemology he calls "Critical Realism". Maritain's epistemology is not "critical" in Kant's sense, which held that one could only know anything after undertaking a thorough critique of one's cognitive abilities. Rather, it is critical in the sense that it is not a naive or non-philosophical realism, but one that is defended by way of reason. Against Kant's critical project Maritain argues that epistemology is reflexive; you can only defend a theory of knowledge in light of knowledge you have already attained. Consequently, the critical question is not the question of modern philosophy how do we pass from what is perceived to what is. Rather, "Since the mind, from the very start, reveals itself as warranted in its certitude by things and measured by an esse independent of itself, how are we to judge if, how, on what conditions, and to what extent it is so both in principle and in the various moments of knowledge?"
In contrast idealism inevitably ends up in contradiction, since it does not recognize the universal scope of the first principles of identity, contradiction, and finality. These become merely laws of thought or language, but not of being, which opens the way to contradictions being instantiated in reality.
Maritain's metaphysics ascends from this account of being to a critique of the philosophical aspects of modern science, through analogy to an account of the existence and nature of God as it is known philosophically and through mystical experience.
Ethics
Maritain was a strong defender of a natural law ethics. He viewed ethical norms as being rooted in human nature. For Maritain the natural law is known primarily, not through philosophical argument and demonstration, but rather through "Connaturality". Connatural knowledge is a kind of knowledge by acquaintance. We know the natural law through our direct acquaintance with it in our human experience. Of central importance, is Maritain's argument that natural rights are rooted in the natural law. This was key to his involvement in the drafting of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human RightsUniversal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...
.
Political theory
Maritain advocated what he called "Integral Humanism." He argued that secular forms of humanism were inevitably anti-human in that they refused to recognize the whole person. Once the spiritual dimension of human nature is rejected, we no longer have an integral, but merely partial, humanism, one which rejects a fundamental aspect of the human person. Accordingly in Integral Humanism he explores the prospects for a new ChristendomChristendom
Christendom, or the Christian world, has several meanings. In a cultural sense it refers to the worldwide community of Christians, adherents of Christianity...
, rooted in his philosophical pluralism, in order to find ways Christianity could inform political discourse and policy in a pluralistic age. In this account he develops a theory of cooperation, to show how people of different intellectual positions can nevertheless cooperate to achieve common practical aims. Maritain's political theory was extremely influential, and was a primary source behind the Christian Democratic movement
Christian Democracy
Christian democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Christian principles to public policy. It emerged in nineteenth-century Europe under the influence of conservatism and Catholic social teaching...
.
Criticism
In 1959 the Thomist philosopherThomism
Thomism is the philosophical school that arose as a legacy of the work and thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church. In philosophy, his commentaries on Aristotle are his most lasting contribution...
Étienne Gilson
Étienne Gilson
Étienne Gilson was a French Thomistic philosopher and historian of philosophy...
reported Fr. Carlo Balić's criticism of Maritain's "Integral Humanism," who said:
Jacques Maritain is considered a heretic. He would have already been condemned—on the twofold ground of progressismus [progressivismThe 20th century's great Thomist theologianProgressivismProgressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
] and laicismus [laicism]—were it not that he had been French ambassador to the Holy See.... He will not be condemned ... never! Still progressivism and laicism are heretical. Integral Humanism is a dangerous book.
Thomism
Thomism is the philosophical school that arose as a legacy of the work and thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church. In philosophy, his commentaries on Aristotle are his most lasting contribution...
Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange
Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange
Réginald Marie Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. was a Catholic theologian and, among Thomists of the scholastic tradition, is generally thought to be the greatest Catholic Thomist of the 20th century. Outside the ranks of Thomists of that sort, his reputation is somewhat more mixed. He taught at the...
, doctoral thesis advisor of the future Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
, "advised him [Maritain] to stay away from political philosophy and to dedicate his time to his metaphysical epistemological issues." Maritain also corresponded with the revolutionary community organizer
Community organizing
Community organizing is a process where people who live in proximity to each other come together into an organization that acts in their shared self-interest. A core goal of community organizing is to generate durable power for an organization representing the community, allowing it to influence...
Saul Alinsky
Saul Alinsky
Saul David Alinsky was a Jewish American community organizer and writer. He is generally considered to be the founder of modern community organizing, and has been compared in Playboy magazine to Thomas Paine as being "one of the great American leaders of the nonsocialist left." He is often noted...
and French Prime Minister Robert Schuman
Robert Schuman
Robert Schuman was a noted Luxembourgish-born French statesman. Schuman was a Christian Democrat and an independent political thinker and activist...
, which has caused some to doubt his committal to the kingship of Christ
Christ the King
Christ the King is a title of Jesus based on several passages of Scripture. It is used by most Christians. The Roman Catholic Church, together with many Protestant denominations, including the Anglican Churches, Presbyterians, Lutherans and Methodists, celebrate the Feast of Christ the King on the...
as advocated most prominently in Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI , born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, was Pope from 6 February 1922, and sovereign of Vatican City from its creation as an independent state on 11 February 1929 until his death on 10 February 1939...
's 1925 encyclical Quas Primas
Quas Primas
Quas Primas was an encyclical of Pope Pius XI. Promulgated on December 11, 1925, it introduced the Feast of Christ the King.The encyclical summarizes both the Old Testament and the New Testament teaching on the kingship of Christ...
.
Sayings
- "Vae mihi si non Thomistizavero" [Woe to me if I do not Thomistize].
- "Je n’adore que Dieu" [I adore only God].
- "The artist pours out his creative spirit into a work; the philosopher measures his knowing spirit by the real."
- "I do not know if Saul AlinskySaul AlinskySaul David Alinsky was a Jewish American community organizer and writer. He is generally considered to be the founder of modern community organizing, and has been compared in Playboy magazine to Thomas Paine as being "one of the great American leaders of the nonsocialist left." He is often noted...
knows God. But I assure you that God knows Saul Alinsky." - "We do not need a truth to serve us, we need a truth that we can serve"
I. (His most important and influential works.)
- The Degrees of Knowledge, orig. 1932
- Integral Humanism, orig. 1936
- A Preface to Metaphysics, engl. 1962
- Education at the Crossroads, engl. 1942
- The Range of ReasonThe Range of ReasonThe Range of Reason is a book of essays written by Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain and published in 1952. The text presents a Thomist philosophy regarding religion and morality...
, engl. 1952 - The Person and the Common Good, fr. 1947
- Approaches to God, fr. 1953
- Creative Intuition in Art and Poetry, engl. 1953
- Moral Philosophy,
- Introduction to Philosophy, Christian Classics, Inc., Westminster, MD, 1st. 1930, 1991.
- Existence and the Existent, (fr. 1947) trans. by Lewis Galantiere and Gerald B. Phelan, Image Books division of Doubleday & Co., Inc., Garden City, NY, 1948, Image book, 1956. ISBN 9780837180786
- Man and The State, (orig.) University of Chicago Press, Chicago, ILL, 1951.
- The Peasant of the Garonne, An Old Layman Questions Himself about the Present Time, trans. Michael Cuddihy and Elizabeth Hughes, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, NY, 1968; orig. 1966.
- God and the Permission of Evil, trans. Joseph W. Evans, The Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee, WI, 1966 (orig. 1963).
- Art and Scholasticism with other essays, Sheed and Ward, London, 1947
II. (original)
- La philosophie bergsonienne, 1914 (1948)
- Eléments de philosophie, 2 volumes, Paris 1920/23
- Art et scolastique, 1920
- Théonas ou les entretiens d’un sage et de deux philosophes sur diverses matières inégalement actuelles, Paris, Nouvelle librairie nationale, 1921
- Antimoderne, Paris, Édition de la Revue des Jeunes, 1922
- Réflexions sur l’intelligence et sur sa vie propre, Paris, Nouvelle librairie nationale, 1924.
- Trois réformateurs : LutherMartin LutherMartin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
, Descartes, Rousseau, avec six portraits, Paris [Plon], 1925 - Réponse à Jean CocteauJean CocteauJean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
, 1926 - Une opinion sur Charles MaurrasCharles MaurrasCharles-Marie-Photius Maurras was a French author, poet, and critic. He was a leader and principal thinker of Action Française, a political movement that was monarchist, anti-parliamentarist, and counter-revolutionary. Maurras' ideas greatly influenced National Catholicism and "nationalisme...
et le devoir des catholiques, Paris [Plon], 1926 - Primauté du spirituel, 1927
- Pourquoi Rome a parlé (coll.), Paris, Spes, 1927
- Quelques pages sur Léon Bloy, Paris 1927
- Clairvoyance de Rome (coll.), Paris, Spes, 1929
- Le docteur angélique, Paris, Paul Hartmann, 1929
- Religion et culture, Paris, Desclée de Brouwer, 1930 (1946)
- Le thomisme et la civilisation, 1932
- Distinguer pour unir ou Les degrés du savoir, Paris 1932
- Le songe de Descartes, Suivi de quelques essais, Paris 1932
- De la philosophie chrétienne, Paris, Desclée de Brouwer, 1933
- Du régime temporel et de la liberté, Paris, DDB, 1933
- Sept leçons sur l'être et les premiers principes de la raison spéculative, Paris 1934
- Frontières de la poésie et autres essais, Paris 1935
- La philosophie de la nature, Essai critique sur ses frontières et son objet, Paris 1935 (1948)
- Lettre sur l’indépendance, Paris, Desclée de Brouwer, 1935.
- Science et sagesse, Paris 1935
- Humanisme intégral. Problèmes temporels et spirituels d'une nouvelle chrétienté; zunächst spanisch 1935), Paris (Fernand Aubier), 1936 (1947)
- Les Juifs parmi les nations, Paris, Cerf, 1938
- Questions de conscience : essais et allocutions, Paris, Desclée de Brouwer, 1938
- La personne humaine et la societé, Paris 1939
- Le crépuscule de la civilisation, Paris, Éd. Les Nouvelles Lettres, 1939
- Quattre essais sur l'ésprit dans sa crudition charnelle, Paris 1939 (1956)
- De la justice politique, Notes sur le présente guerre, Paris 1940
- Scholasticism and politics, New York 1940
- A travers le désastre, New York 1941 (1946)
- Conféssion de foi, New York 1941
- Ransoming the time (Redeeming the time), New York 1941
- La pensée de St.Paul, New York 1941 (Paris 1947)
- Les Droits de l'Homme et la Loi naturelle, New York 1942 (Paris 1947)
- Saint Thomas and the problem of evil, Milwaukee 1942;
- Essays in Thomism, New York 1942;
- Christianisme et démocratie, New York 1943 (Paris 1945)
- Education at the crossroad, New Haven 1943
- Principes d'une politique humaniste, New York 1944 (Paris 1945);
- De Bergson à Thomas d'Aquin, Essais de Métaphysique et de Morale, New York 1944 (Paris 1947)
- A travers la victoire, Paris 1945;
- Messages 1941-1944, New York 1945;
- Pour la justice, Articles et discours 1940-1945, New York 1945;
- Le sort de l'homme, Neuchâtel 1945;
- Court traité de l'existence et de l'existent, Paris 1947;
- La personne et le bien commun, Paris 1947;
- Raison et raisons, Essais détachés, Paris 1948
- La signification de l'athéisme contemporain, Paris 1949
- Man and state, Chicago 1951
- Neuf leçons sur les notions premières de la philosophie morale, Paris 1951
- Approches de Dieu, Paris 1953.
- L'Homme et l'Etat (engl.: Man and State, 1951) Paris, PUF, 1953
- Creative intuition in Art and Poetry (engl.), 1953
- On the philosophy of history, ed. J.W. Evans, New York 1957
- Truth and human fellowship, Princeton 1957
- Reflections on America, New York 1958
- Pour une philosophie de l'éducation, Paris 1959
- Le philosophe dans la Cité, Paris 1960
- The responsibility of the artist, New York 1960;
- La philosophie morale, Vol. I: Examen historique et critique des grands systèmes, Paris 1960
- Man's approach to God, Latrobe/Pennsylvania 1960
- On the use of philosophy, Princeton 1961
- A preface to metaphysics, New York 1962
- Dieu et la permission du mal, 1963
- Carnet de notes, Paris, DDB, 1965
- L'intuition créatrice dans l'art et dans la poésie, Paris, Desclée de Brouwer, 1966 (engl. 1953)
- Le paysan de la Garonne. Un vieux laïc s’interroge à propos du temps présent, Paris, DDB, 1966
- Challenges and renewals, ed. J.W. Evans/L.R. Ward, Notre Dame/Ind. 1966
- The education of man, The educational philosophy of J.M., ed. D./I. Gallagher, Notre Dame/Ind. 1967
- De la grâce et de l'humanité de Jésus, 1967
- De l'Église du Christ. La personne de l'église et son personnel, Paris 1970
- Approches sans entraves, posthum 1973.
- Oeuvres complètes de Jacques et Raissa Maritain, 16 Bde., 1982-1999.
External links
- Études maritainiennes-Maritain Studies
- Maritain Center, Kolbsheim (in French)
- Cercle d'Etudes J. & R. Maritain at Kolbsheim (France).
- Jacques Maritain Center at the University of Notre DameUniversity of Notre DameThe University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
. - Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyStanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyThe Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is a freely-accessible online encyclopedia of philosophy maintained by Stanford University. Each entry is written and maintained by an expert in the field, including professors from over 65 academic institutions worldwide...
: Jacques Maritain by William Sweet. - International Jacques Maritain Institute.
- Bibliography of the primary and secondary literatures on Jacques Maritain.