The German philosopher Robert Spaemann provides an important contribution to a number of contemporary debates in philosophy and theology, opening up possibilities for conversation between these disciplines. He engages in a dialogue with classical and contemporary positions and often formulates important and original insights which lie beyond common alternatives. In this study Holger Zaborowski provides an analysis of the most important features of Spaemann's philosophy and shows the unity of his thought. The question 'Who is a person?' is of increasing significance: Are all human beings persons? Are there animals that can be considered persons? What does it mean to speak of personal identity and of the dignity of the person? Spaemann provides an answer to these questions: Every human being, he argues, is a person and, therefore, 'has' his nature in freedom. In order to understand the person, Spaemann explains, we have to think about the relation between nature and freedom and avoid the reductive accounts of this relation prevalent in important strands of modern thought. Spaemann develops a challenging critique of modernity, incorporating analysis of modern anti-modernisms and showing that these are also subject to a dialectical development, perpetuating the problematic shortcomings of many features of modern reasoning. If we do not want to abolish ourselves as persons, Spaemann reasons, we need to find a way of understanding ourselves that evades the dialectic of modernity. Thus, he reminds his readers of 'self-evident' knowledge: insights that we have once already known, but tend to forget.
Author(s): Holger Zaborowski
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 304
Contents......Page 8
Abbreviations......Page 10
1.1 The crisis of modernity......Page 12
1.2 Robert Spaemann’s Christianly informed criticism of modernity......Page 20
1.3 Robert Spaemann—a biographical sketch......Page 29
1.4 An outline of the argument......Page 31
2.1 The form of philosophy......Page 35
2.2 The nature of philosophy......Page 46
2.3 Recollection, preservation, and the challenge of the future......Page 92
3.1 Philosophy as a theory and critique of modernity and its dialetic......Page 97
3.2 The grandeur and the misère of modernity......Page 105
3.3 The main features of modernity as an ambiguous phenomenon......Page 107
3.4 Jean-Jacques Rousseau as a paradigmatic figure of modernity......Page 130
3.5 The transformation of the doctrine of Original Sin......Page 140
4.1 The dialectic of anti-modernism......Page 147
4.2 The paradigmatic character of Bonald’s philosophy......Page 151
4.3 The historical context of The Origin of Sociology in the Spirit of Restoration......Page 156
4.4 The ambiguity of Bonald’s thought......Page 159
4.5 The functionalistic interpretation of Christianity......Page 166
4.6 The functionalistic interpretation of philosophy......Page 171
4.7 The totalitarian claim of sociology in Niklas Luhmann’s philosophy......Page 177
4.8 The fusion of morality and philosophy of history......Page 181
4.9 Philosophy as theoria and religion as substantial belief......Page 185
5.1 The person in contemporary philosophy......Page 189
5.2 Modernity and the crisis of the ‘person’......Page 194
5.3 Historicism and science fiction as philosophical methods......Page 201
5.4 Life, motion, possibility, and the paradigm of the person......Page 209
5.5 The ontology of identity and the logical indispensability of the person......Page 213
5.6 Who is a person?......Page 217
5.7 Robert Spaemann’s philosophy of Selbstsein......Page 224
5.8 Person as a nomen dignitatis......Page 233
5.9 The ‘ontology’ of promising and forgiving......Page 235
5.10 The human person and the transcendence of Being......Page 237
5.11 Selbstsein and the end of the dialectic of modernity......Page 240
6.1 The apologetic character of Spaemann’s philosophy......Page 244
6.2 Spaemann’s view of Christianity......Page 246
6.3 The relation between philosophy and Christianity from antiquity to modernity......Page 254
6.4 Christianity and evolutionary metaphysics......Page 256
6.5 Conclusion: Christianity, post-modern philosophies, and the glory of God......Page 260
Select bibliography......Page 270
C......Page 298
G......Page 299
K......Page 300
O......Page 301
R......Page 302
T......Page 303
Z......Page 304
