Josef Pieper was a professor of philosophical anthropology. He stands among the most widely read philosophers of the 20th century, focusing his thought on overcoming secular totalitarianism and its philosophical underpinnings. Pieper sought to rehabilitate the Christian concept of humanity, grounding it in experience and action. Drawing inspiration particularly from Plato and Thomas Aquinas, he offered a constructive critique of contemporary culture.
Pieper is acclaimed as one of the most popular modern scholastic philosophers of our age and widely read by scholars and common readers everywhere. This brilliant work synthesizes the meaning of philosophy as it pertains to our modern era, and responds to the spiritual needs and searching of modern man.
The collection features Josef Pieper's renowned treatises exploring the theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Love. Celebrated as a leading Thomist philosopher of the twentieth century, Pieper delves into the significance and interconnections of these virtues, offering profound insights that resonate with both philosophical and spiritual dimensions. This unified edition presents a comprehensive understanding of these essential aspects of human experience, making it a valuable resource for those interested in philosophy and theology.
Foreword by Hans Urs von Balthasar Near the end of a long career as one of the most widely read popular Thomistic philosophers of the twentieth century, Josef Pieper has himself compiled an anthology from all his works. He has selected the best and most representative passages and arranged them in an order that gives sense to the whole and aids in the understanding of each excerpt. Pieper's reputation rests on his remarkable ability to restate traditional wisdom in terms of contemporary problems. He is a philosopher who writes in the language of common sense, presenting involved issues in a clear, lucid and simple manner. Among his many well-known works included in this anthology are selections from The Basis of Culture , The Four Cardinal Virtues , About Love , Belief and Faith , Happiness and Contemplation , and Scholasticism . Below is a list of the selection Human AuthenticityThe Two Sides of the Coin That Is TruthThe Freedom of Philosophy and Its AdversariesFree Space in the World of WorkTruths-Known and BelievedThe Reality of the Holy"Finis" Means Both End and Goal
Delivers a stimulating quartet of essays on the four cardinal virtues. Josef Pieper demonstrates the unsound overvaluation of moderation that has made contemporary morality a hollow convention and points out the true significance of the Christian virtues.
In this stimulating and still-timely study, Josef Pieper takes up a theme of paramount importance to his thinking—that festivals belong by rights among the great topics of philosophical discussion. As he develops his theory of festivity, the modern age comes under close and painful scrutiny. It is obvious that we no longer know what festivity is, namely, the celebration of existence under various symbols.Pieper exposes the pseudo-festivals, in their harmless and their sinister forms: traditional feasts contaminated by commercialism; artificial holidays created in the interest of merchandisers; holidays by coercion, decreed by dictators the world over; festivals as military demonstrations; holidays empty of significance. And lastly we are given the apocalyptic vision of a nihilistic world which would seek its release not in festivities but in destruction.Formulated with Pieper's customary clarity and elegance, enhanced by brilliantly chosen quotations, this is an illuminating contribution to the understanding of traditional and contemporary experience.
"The ultimate of human happiness is to be found in contemplation". In offering this proposition of Thomas Aquinas to our thought, Josef Pieper uses traditional wisdom in order to throw light on present-day reality and present-day psychological problems. What, in fact, does one pursue in pursuing happiness? What, in the consensus of the wisdom of the early Greeks, of Plato and Aristotle, of the New Testament, of Augustine and Aquinas, is that condition of perfect bliss toward which all life and effort tend by nature? In this profound and illuminating inquiry, Pieper considers the nature of contemplation, and the meaning and goal of life.
"Josef Pieper's account of the centrality and meaning of the virtues is a needed primer to teach us exactly the meaning and relationship of the virtues and how they relate to the faith and its own special virtues. Pieper's attention is ever to the particular virtue, its precise meaning, and to its contribution to the wholeness that constituted an ordered, active, and truthful human life. No better brief account of the virtues can be found. Pieper has long instructed us in these realities that need to be made operative in each life as it touches all else 'that is', as Pieper himself often puts it." — James V. Schall, S.J., Georgetown University "A fine and thought provoking examination of the relationship between the mind, heart, and moral life of the human person." — John Cardinal O'Connor, Archbishop of New York "Pieper's sentences are admirably constructed and his ideas are expressed with maximum clarity. He restores to philosophy what common sense obstinately tells us ought to be found there: wisdom and insight." — T. S. Eliot
Rooted in the philosophies of Plato and Aquinas, the work explores the essence of existence and the nature of reality. Pieper emphasizes philosophy as a pursuit of truth, rejecting its use for political or economic manipulation. Central to his thought is the concept of "createdness," which he views as the foundation of being. His writing is characterized by directness and intuition, advocating for a connection to the real and a holistic understanding of existence. Through anecdotes, he communicates complex ideas in an accessible manner, reminiscent of Plato's storytelling approach.
Plato's famous dialogue, the Phaedrus, was variously subtitled in antiquity: "On Beauty", "On Love", "On the Psyche". It is also concerned with the art of rhetoric, of thought and communication.Pieper, noted for the grace and clarity of his style, gives an illuminating and stimulating interpretation of the dialogue. Leaving the more recondite scholarly preoccupations aside, he concentrates on the content, bringing the actual situation in the dialogue -- Athens and its intellectuals engaged in spirited debate -- alive. Equally alive is the discussion of ideas, which are brought to bear on contemporary experience and made to prove the perennial validity of Socratic wisdom, and its power to excite the mind. The main thesis -- that in poetry and in love man is "beside himself", that is, divinely inspired -- is discussed with reference to modern poets, novelists, and modern psychology.
A single theme runs through the three essays on St. Thomas gather in this book. It is the theme of mystery or, more exactly, the response of the searching human intellect to the fact of mystery. Both the fact and the response are suggested in a short biography of St. Thomas that forms the first essay and are then sketched out in detail by a presentation of the “negative element” in his philosophy. The third essay shows that contemporary Existentialism is in basic agreement with the philosophia perennis on this fundamental element of philosophical thinking.