Jacques Maritain Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Jacques Maritain (1882–1973) of France was one of the most influential Catholic thinkers of the twentieth century, and he dominates Catholic social thought as a defender of human rights and freedom. Born in Par is, he was brought up as a liberal Protestant but converted to Catholicism in 1906 at the age of twenty-four. He was a professor of the Institut Catholique from 1914 to 1940, and thereafter he taught at Columbia, Princeton, and the universities of Toronto and Chicago. The author of more than fifty books, he was a preeminent interpreter of philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas and a creative thinker in his own right on such topics as metaphysics, moral philosophy, social and political philosophy, the philosophy of art, and the theory of knowledge. The main focuses of his writings were the defense of Catholic humanism, Thomism, and human rights.

Maritain’s primary work in epistemology was Distinguish to Unite: Or, The Degrees of Knowledge (1932). Maritain insisted on the priority of epistemology over metaphysics and maintained that the structures and methods of the various sciences were determined by the nature of the object to be known. He called this view “critical realism,” and it holds that what the mind knows is identical with what exists. When it comes to a knowledge of sensible objects, the mind has both a passive role (receiving sense impressions) and an active one (constructing knowledge from these impressions). Maritain’s epistemology also sought to explain the nature of knowledge found in religious faith and mysticism. He believed there are degrees of supranational knowledge that are beyond natural knowledge, such as revealed mysteries, theological wisdom, and mystical theology. Theological wisdom is built on faith and mystical knowledge or unmediated knowledge communicated by the deity.

Maritain’s moral and political philosophy lies within the Aristotelian-Thomistic natural law tradition, which holds that there is an unwritten law remaining within nature derived from eternal law. Such a law is coextensive with morality and has a teleological character in which the end determines the function. Maritain held that a single natural law governs all beings, and it is known connaturally through a process called synderesis. Knowledge of this natural law varies according to a person’s capacities and abilities and is progressively and incrementally appropriated by an individual.

Maritain’s moral philosophy cannot be considered independently of his analysis of human nature. A key notion in his moral philosophy is freedom. He perceived the idea of freedom not as the license of pure autonomy but as harmony with the essential nature of each human being. He distinguished between a human being as a part of the human race and as a person who is an object of dignity. By virtue of their individuality, human beings have obligations to the social order, but by virtue of their personality, they cannot be subordinated to that order.

Maritain defined his political philosophy as “integral Christian humanism.” The object of it was to outline the conditions necessary to make the individual more fully human and to bring all the dimensions of human personality together without diminishing the value of any. For Maritain, the best political order is one that recognizes the sovereignty of God. He proposed a theocentric humanism based on the recognition of all human beings as material and spiritual beings at the same time.

Maritain envisaged a political society under the rule of law. He distinguishes four types of law: (1) the eternal, (2) the natural, (3) the common law of civilization (jus gentium), and (4) the positive (droit positif). The natural law is universal and invariable and deals with rights and duties, but it is not founded on human nature. Instead it is rooted in divine reason and in a transcendent order written into human nature by God. Natural law becomes obligatory only because it is part of divine law. The jus gentium is an extension of natural law applicable to human beings as social beings. Positive law is the system of rules and regulations that assure general social order. It varies according to the stage of economic and social development. Neither jus gentium nor positive law can act against natural law, although they are not deducible from natural law alone.

Maritain’s vision was that of Christian commonwealth, a new Christendom where Christian faith, by the integral character of its theocentric humanism, could unify, without denying the distinctiveness of, the temporal and the spiritual and could provide a positive framework for a personalist, communal, and pluralistic democracy. He called for a new integral humanism that would recognize all that is irrational in humans, in order to tame it to reason, and all that is suprarational, in order to have reason vivified by it and to open humans to the descent of the divine in them. Its main work would be to cause the Gospel leaven to penetrate the secular structures of life and sanctify the temporal order.

Maritain held that the natural law theory entailed the establishment of human rights. He believed since the natural end of each person is to achieve moral and spiritual perfection, it is necessary to have the means to do so and no one should be deprived of the rights necessary to achieve a good life. However, since such rights are not universally recognized, they can be acquired only gradually and incrementally. Because rights are fundamental and inalienable, they are superior to civil law. Rights are grounded in natural law in relation to the common good. It is this common good, not rights, that is the basis of the state. Maritain favored a democratic and legal theory of the state that was personalist, pluralist, and Christian. Thus a true democracy represents not merely the will of the people, but the will of God. True and positive freedom comes from the equality of all, the rulers and the ruled, under a sovereign God and the use of the common goods for the common good. An ideal polity will consist of a number of civic fraternities founded on freedom, inspired by virtue, and exercising discipline and democratic values. In a global society, such a polity would consist of a network of a federation of such fraternities.

Maritain’s works have been translated into twenty languages, and he continues to be influential in the early twenty-first century. The University of Notre Dame is home to the Jacques Maritain Center, which fosters the study of his work. Three journals are devoted to his work, Etudes Maritainiennes/ Maritain Studies, Notes et Documents, and the Cahiers Jacques et Raissa Maritain. There are also national associations in his name, including the International Jacques Maritain Institute in Italy.

Bibliography:

Allard, Jean-Louis. Education for Freedom: The Philosophy of Education of Jacques Maritain. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982.
Daly, Mary F. Natural Knowledge of God in the Philosophy of Jacques Maritain. Rome: Catholic Book Agency, 1966.
DiJoseph, John. Jacques Maritain and the Moral Foundation of Democracy. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1996.
Doering, Bernard. Jacques Maritain and the French Catholic Intellectuals. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1983.
Dougherty, Jude P. Jacques Maritain: An Intellectual Profile. Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2003.
Dunaway, John M. Jacques Maritain. Boston, Mass.:Twayne, 1978.
Ollivant, Douglas A., ed. Jacques Maritain and the Many Ways of Knowing. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2002.

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