Recent Catholic Philosophy: The Twentieth Century

449 Pages·2011·2.28 MB·English

by  Alan Vincelette

RECENT CATHOLIC PHILOSOPHY
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

RECENT CATHOLIC PHILOSOPHY
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
by
AlAn Vincelette
mArquette studies in philosophy
no. 71
Andrew tAllon, series editor
librAry of congress cAtAloging-in-publicAtion dAtA
Vincelette, Alan Roy.
Recent Catholic philosophy : the Twentieth Century / by Alan Vincelette.
p. cm. — (Marquette studies in philosophy ; no. 71)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-87462-803-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-87462-803-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Christianity—Philosophy—History—20th century. 2. Catholic Church and
philosophy—History—20th century. I. Title.
BR100.V56 2011190.9’04--dc22
2011008997
© 2011 Marquette University Press
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201-3141
All rights reserved.
www.marquette.edu/mupress/
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction .............................................................................................7
Chapter One: Phenomenology ..............................................................9
Stein.......................................................................................................14
Von Hildebrand ...................................................................................25
Dussel ....................................................................................................39
Chapter Two: Neo-Thomism ...............................................................43
Gilson ....................................................................................................45
Maritain ................................................................................................56
Wojtyła [John Paul II] ........................................................................69
Chapter Three: Transcendental Thomism ..........................................81
Rousselot ..............................................................................................83
Rahner ...................................................................................................97
Lonergan .............................................................................................104
Chapter Four: Personalism .................................................................117
Ebner ...................................................................................................117
Mounier ..............................................................................................121
Nédoncelle ..........................................................................................131
Chapter Five: Existentialism ..............................................................143
Lavelle .................................................................................................146
Marcel..................................................................................................161
Zubiri ..................................................................................................173
Chapter Six: Analytical Philosophy...................................................183
Anscombe ...........................................................................................184
Taylor ..................................................................................................195
Jacques .................................................................................................205
Chapter Seven: Postmodernism ........................................................213
Marion.................................................................................................214
Lacoste ................................................................................................228
Desmond .............................................................................................235
Conclusion ............................................................................................245
6 Recent CAtholic Philosophy  The Twentieth Century
Abbreviations .......................................................................................249
Notes .....................................................................................................255
Bibliography .........................................................................................417
Index ......................................................................................................429
introduction
T
his work continues the discussion of recent Catholic
philosophy begun in Recent Catholic Philosophy: The
Nineteenth Century (Milwaukee: Marquette University
Press, 2009), treating Catholic philosophy through the
end of the twentieth-century.1 There have been ap-
proximately 3000 Catholic philosophers who made significant contri-
butions to philosophy in the twentieth-century [including around 70
bishops, two popes—Leo XIII (1810-1903) and John Paul II (1920-
2005), and over 130 converts]. Hence a survey of twentieth-century
Catholic philosophy cannot be anything but selective.
I have hence chosen those who I think are the 21 most important
and representative of the twentieth-century Catholic philosophers in
seven major movements [with the percentage in each movement given
in brackets]: Phenomenology [6%], Neo-Thomism [52%], Transcen-
dental Thomism [8%], Personalism [4%], Existentialism [11%], Ana-
lytic Philosophy [7%], and Postmodernism [4%]—two other com-
mon movements in the twentieth-century are Augustinianism [4%]
and Idealism, typically Hegelianism [1%]). Interestingly, Thomism—
which makes up a combined 60% of twentieth-century Catholic phi-
losophers—is particularly rare in the Continental philosophers born
between 1930 and 1960 (except for Spain), even as it has maintained
a popularity in America and Britain (and in Continental philosophers
born after 1960). I discuss two philosophers in some depth and in-
clude a shorter account of one additional figure for each movement
(with a focus as before on Western European and North American
thought, and also on epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, and the phi-
losophy of religion).2

1
phenomenology
1900-2000 in Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, Liechtenstein,
Netherlands, Poland, & the United States
W
ith the rise of National Socialism (1933-1945)
under Adolph Hitler in Germany, the lives of
two notable German Catholic phenomenolo-
gists, namely Edith Stein and Dietrich von
Hildebrand, were imperiled—and indeed in
the former case tragically put to an end. A third celebrated thinker,
Martin Heidegger, however, had already abandoned his Catholic roots
and was now a member of the Nazi Party. Meanwhile, the Jesuit Al-
fred Delp, who had written a book critical of Heidegger called Tragic
Existence [Tragische Existenz] (1935), sadly and ironically suffered his
own tragic existence and was put to death by the Nazis in 1945 on
account of his efforts on behalf of the resistance group Kreisau Circle.
Such was Catholic intellectual life in Austria and Germany during the
Nazi Era.
Initially the German Catholic bishops (who had earlier often been
critical of National Socialism) agreed to a Concordat with the Nazi
Party in 1933. This Concordat allowed for the continued functioning
of the Catholic hierarchy, private Catholic schools, seminaries, chari-
table organizations, and Catholic Theological Faculties at the universi-
ties (though open advocacy for Catholicism was considered unprofes-
sional in the German university system of the day), state funding of
the Church, the publication of pastoral letters and Catholic journals,
and expanded religious education in the public schools. In turn the
Catholic Church agreed to forbid priests from making overt politi-
cal criticisms of National Socialism, to disband the Catholic German
Center Party, and to merge the Catholic Youth Organizations with
the National Socialist Youth Organizations (the Hitler Youth and the