Thursday, July 28, 2005
Bradley Lewis on the Common Good
Time and again on this blog, we've returned to the notion of the Common Good, and to the importance of defining properly that notion. (Here, for example, is an earlier post about Paolo Carozza's very helpful take on the matter). So, I'm happy to pass on the news that Catholic U.'s philosopher Bradley Lewis -- who has been visiting this summer at Notre Dame -- has a very helpful paper, "The Common Good in Classical Political Philosophy," which is forthcoming in a symposium on "The Professions and the Common Good," to be published in Current Issues in Catholic Higher Education. (Unfortunately, I don't have a link to the essay, but I'm sure Professor Lewis would be happy to send copies). Like Carozza, Lewis emphasizes that "[t]he good of individual persons and other groups is in an important way constitutive of the common good." I was also struck by the claim that "[t]he common good is served . . . by particular goods being maintained by particular persons and by the common good as a whole being a separate and distinct material concern."
Maybe Vince, who also writes on this subject, has some thoughts?
Rick
https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2005/07/bradley_lewis_o.html