DE Weekly: Maritain, Personalism, & Existence and the Existent
Today, I am going to introduce a philosopher I have not written about in this newsletter to date, whose name is Jacques Maritain. Born in 1882, Maritain was a twentieth-century philosopher and theologian who revitalized Thomism, the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Maritain used the philosophy of Aquinas to address modern issues, drawing from Aquinas on issues such as the dignity inherent in every human person, and emphasizing a God-centered approach to politics and ethics.
DE Weekly: Kierkegaard, Paradox, & Theistic Existentialism
Anthony Bourdain once said something like, “To say you’ve had Mexican food is to say nothing at all.” What he meant was, if one was to explore the different regions of Mexico, the local cuisine varies so much, so drastically that you would almost think you’re eating a totally different type of food.
In the same way, to say you could define existentialism in one sentence is to say nothing at all. You can’t.