Philosopher · Contemporary
Charles De Koninck
1906–1965 · Laval Thomism; primacy of the common good
Belgian-born Canadian; dean of philosophy at Université Laval; adviser to Cardinal Léger at Vatican II.
A Thomist of Quebec whose “On the Primacy of the Common Good against the Personalists” (1943) argued that the common good is not a mere instrument of individual persons but a greater good in which they share, so that personalism risked a subtle individualism; “The Hollow Universe” attacked the reductionism of modern science and “Ego Sapientia” expounded Mary as Seat of Wisdom. He insisted that philosophy of nature must precede metaphysics.
Why he matters: The leading critic of Maritain's personalism within Thomism and the founder of the Laval school (Ralph McInerny, the River Forest connection); his defense of the common good is now central to Catholic integralist and anti-liberal debates.
School of Thomism · Strict-observance and manualist Thomism
The Thomism of the twentieth-century seminaries, Garrigou-Lagrange its monument: the Twenty-Four Theses, deductive certainty, the manual's thesis-objection-reply. Pieper's complaint was that this “Thomism” lost Thomas's negative theology and sense of mystery; its defenders reply that without it Thomas dissolves into history. Both the sedevacantist and the SSPX worlds live here, usually without Garrigou's own obedience to the living Magisterium.
Others in this strand: Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
Reading
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On the Primacy of the Common Good against the PersonalistsCharles De Koninck · The famous essay, with the exchange with Eschmann.
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The Hollow UniverseCharles De Koninck · Against scientific reductionism.
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The Writings of Charles De Koninck, vol. 1–2ed. Ralph McInerny · The collected works in English.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.