Episode Details

Modernity has attempted to do away with authority. It does this not most commonly by advocating anarchy. Rather, it justifies its own established powers in terms of a fictive self-rule, and purports to replace the arbitrary dictates of power--and much of what makes us human--with scientific rationality.

But authority is necessary to human life, and not just as a medicine for weakness and evil. It arises from and serves what is noblest in us. The French Catholic philosopher Yves R. Simon made this case in A General Theory of Authority. With the help of Dominican friar Fr. Aquinas Guilbeau, Thomas dives into this most enlightening book.

Links

https://twitter.com/FrAquinasOP

Yves R. Simon, A General Theory of Authority https://www.amazon.com/General-Theory-Authority-Yves-Simon/dp/0268010048

Charles De Koninck, On the Primacy of the Common Good: Against the Personalists https://emmilco.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/de-koninck-common-good.pdf

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