June 16, 2020
HERE'S A HINT...:
Where (Not) to Begin with the Common Good (MARK HOIPKEMIER, 6/15/20, Public Discourse)
The coronavirus pandemic has re-opened the question of the common good for liberal societies that generally prefer to ignore it. This represents an opportunity for Catholic thinkers, since the Aristotelian tradition is the only corner of the contemporary scene where the idea of the common good remains vibrantly alive. [...]Aristotle remarked that the beginning is "half of the whole." Where then should we begin thinking about the common good? We should begin where he himself begins: from the (philosophically clarified) standpoint of thoughtful persons, who are trying to understand how to act together.The most prominent example of an inauspicious start is the formulation found in the Second Vatican Council's Gaudium et Spes, paragraph 26, where the common good is said to be "the sum of those conditions of social life which allow social groups and their individual members relatively thorough and ready access to their own fulfillment." Since its promulgation in 1965, any number of magisterial documents have confidently referred back to this text as the best definition (or handy summary, or at least starting point for investigation) of the common good.
...if you're starting with the historically anti-protestant, anti-democratic, anti-capitalist Vatican you've already abandoned the "common."
Posted by Orrin Judd at June 16, 2020 12:00 AM
