Person And The Common Good [Paperback]

Jacques Maritain (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 100 pages
• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press (October 31, 1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0268002045
• ISBN-13: 978-0268002046
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #63,635 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Philosopher Who Cares, May 26, 2006

By 

Special Agent Dale Cooper "Trevor" (Saint Louis, MO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Person And The Common Good (Paperback)

A modern French philosopher, Maritain uses his Catholic background to make progress in the field of ethics. Contrary to Kantian Duty Ethics or Mill's Utilitarianism, Maritain makes strives by contrasting two aspects of humanity: individualism and personalism. According to Maritain, if all actions sought the good of one's "personal" side, rather than promoting his/her "individual" side, it would support the common good. Examinig both aspects of faith and reason, JM's essay is a triumph of humanity and an inspiration to modern and ethical philosophers.

18 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars M.L.King. Jr. borrowed heavily from this outstanding book!, March 28, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Person And The Common Good (Paperback)

No one should blame Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. forborrowing heavily from this profound philosopher and french immigrant.I believe that King borrowed heavily from Maritain for several excellent reasons. If, in fact, King did make use of Maritain's "The Person and the Common Good," he did so because it was as close as humanly possible to Truth.

It is no grave matter that Maritain's wisdom had strongly inspired King's argument in his historic essay, "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." Rather, it is a fitting and enduring tribute to Maritain's penetrating insight into the human person and the vital relationship between the person and society.

On pages 72 and 73, Maritain explains that the "human person is engaged in its entirety as part of political society, but not by reason of everything that is in it and everything that belongs to it. By reason of other things which are in the person, it is also in its entirety above political society. For in the person there are some things- and they are the most important and sacred ones- which transcend political society and draw man in his entirety above political society- the very same whole man who, by reason of another category of things, is part of political society."

Certainly, our knowing of King's excellent borrowings from Maritain facilitates our own understanding of King. For example, how else would we know deeply his feelings that there could be no waiting in the struggle for African- American liberation? Indeed, such reference is helpful when we attempt to grasp the urgency of the Birmingham situation.

In King's opinion, the personality of the black American in Birmingham was so disabled and "perverted" by the discriminatory laws, that their spiritual pilgrimage had been seriously endangered. Therefore, he could not wait for Kennedy or anyone else to make good on long-delayed promises.

Again, "The Person and the Common Good," well illuminates (1) the primacy of the transcendental destiny shared by all persons and (2) the necessity of civilization to guarantee the opportunity of every person to find their complete fulfillment in God . With intensely philosophical precision and a rare passion for Truth, Maritain made an exciting and energetic argument that forcefully affirms the uniquely transcendental character of the human personality.

On pages 15 and 16, Maritain writes: "The most essential and the dearest aim... is to make sure that the personal contact of all intellectual creatures with God, as well as their personal subordination to God, be in no way interrupted. Everything else- the whole universe and every social institution- must ultimately minister to this purpose; everything must foster, strengthen, and protect the conversation of the soul, every soul, with God."

This is the same powerful insight that compelled King to protest the discriminatory laws of then-Birmingham.

-Stan Faryna, Black and Right (Praeger Trade, 1997)