Jacques Maritain 1882 – 1973
Jacques Maritain was a French Catholic philosopher and one of the architects of the twentieth-century revival of Thomism. After studies at the Sorbonne and a conversion to Catholicism with his wife Raissa, he reread Aquinas as a contemporary interlocutor and produced a long series of books on metaphysics, epistemology, aesthetics, and political philosophy. His Integral Humanism articulated a Christian alternative to both liberalism and totalitarian ideologies, and he played a decisive role in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He served as French ambassador to the Vatican after the Second World War.
Key facts
- Nationality
- French
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Scholasticism, Christian
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Jacques Maritain:
“Distinguish in order to unite.”
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Attributed to Jacques Maritain:
“The thirst for poetry is one of the most spiritual thirsts in the human being.”
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Attributed to Jacques Maritain:
“The philosopher is the friend of being.”
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Attributed to Jacques Maritain:
“The whole man must enter into philosophy, but only the intellect must do philosophy.”
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Attributed to Jacques Maritain:
“Human rights are the rights of human beings as moral persons.”