It seems that health is not a common good, because health characterizes an individual. In scholastic terms, it is a qualitative accident of a living substance, an organism. Thus: An individual’s life and health are particular goods, not common goods. It is an obvious metaphysical truth that my health and my life can only be … Continue reading On health as a common good
Funeral Mass near the ruins of the Urakami Cathedral, held on November 23, 1945, for the victims of the atomic bomb. (WikiMedia) Seventy-five years ago today, the USAAF B-29 Bockscar dropped one of the last bombs of the Second World War in the Urakami valley, on the industrial port city of Nagasaki, Japan. Tens of … Continue reading Silencing the bells of Nagasaki
Vasily Perov, The Drowned (1867; WikiMedia) In a recent post at The Josias, “The New Natural Law Theory as the Source of Bostock’s Error,” James Berquist analyzes a particular case of the general mistake made by the “new” natural law theory. The core of his philosophical criticism of the jurisprudence of Bostock lies in the … Continue reading Trying to take the good out of things
Caravaggio, Christ Driving the Money-Changers from the Temple (1610; WikiMedia) Paul Oslington’s essay—“Why are Philosophers and Theologians so Hostile to Economics?”—provides a case study of the academic phenomenon of failure to obtain joinder of issue. The essay is an underwhelming and confused mix of agreement and critique. My interest was drawn to reading it through … Continue reading The insubordination of economics
Over at Thomistica.net, one can find my review-essay of Dr. John F. X. Knasas’s recent book, Thomistic Existentialism and Cosmological Reasoning. From the introduction: In the following review-essay, I explore in some detail Knasas’s argumentation and some of its consequences. First, I will look at some of the background to the issues regarding the contemporary … Continue reading At the Heart of Being
[N.b.: Updated, 2020 May 31: Future posts about integralism are in the works, so I hope this will be my last update to this one. I’ve added a Public Discourse essay that was overlooked by the first version.] The purpose of this post is to recall the contours of the debate about Catholic integralism that … Continue reading The Question of Catholic Integralism: An Internet Genealogy
Over at Public Discourse, an essay by Joseph E. Capizzi and V. Bradley Lewis—entitled “Bullish on the Common Good?”—attempts to put recent conservative discussion about “the common good” in a more realistic and pragmatic light. They refer to C. C. Pecknold’s First Things essay, “False Notions of the Common Good” as well as two other … Continue reading Shorting the Market on the Common Good
A recent case heard by the Supreme Court of the Netherlands found that "a doctor had not acted improperly when he euthanized a 74-year-old woman with advanced dementia, even though the woman had to be repeatedly sedated and physically restrained during the procedure." The woman had previously set out in her advanced directives a request … Continue reading The “Perfect” System Would Eliminate Being Human
Mattias Joseph Scheeben's The Mysteries of Christianity begins with a reflection on the nature of Christian mystery. It can also be read as a commentary on the prooemium to the Summa contra Gentiles Book IV (which is itself an echo of the prooemium to the work as a whole, SCG I.1–8). At key points—either by … Continue reading The cosmos of Christian mystery
From Fr. Ronald Knox, a sermon entitled “The Risen Christ,” from Pastoral and Occasional Sermons. There is nothing new under the sun. — Ecclesiastes 1:9 Behold, I make all things new. — Apocalypse 31:5 When Easter comes, the Church delights to remind herself of that newness which is in the risen Christ. [...] We are beginning … Continue reading Something ever new under the sun
John G. Brungardt 