Joshua Hochschild, a Professor of Philosophy at Mount St. Mary's University, delves into marriage as a natural community and the philosophical foundations of human interactions. He contrasts Aristotle's views on natural versus artificial communities with modern social contract theory. Hochschild discusses how technology impacts relationships, highlighting the risk of detachment in communication. He draws parallels between Aristotle's insights on community, politics, and the essential virtues for meaningful relationships, emphasizing a moral order in our social fabric.
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insights INSIGHT
Natural Communities
Some communities are natural, fulfilling our nature.
Modern philosophy and technology obscure this idea.
insights INSIGHT
Social Contract Theory
Social contract theory views community as artificial, made by individuals.
It prioritizes individual will and consent, neglecting natural justice.
insights INSIGHT
Technology's Impact
Technology, especially recent advancements, reshapes our experience of community.
Act-replacing devices, like contraception, change our actions and interactions, not just saving labor.
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In 'The Abolition of Man', C.S. Lewis delivers a defense of objective value and natural law, originating from his Riddell Memorial Lectures at the University of Durham in 1943. Lewis argues that education should be conducted within the context of moral law and objective values, which he terms the 'Tao'. He criticizes modern attempts to debunk these values, warning that such actions could lead to a dehumanization of society, resulting in what he calls 'Men without Chests' – individuals whose emotions have not been trained to conform to reason. The book emphasizes the universal nature of traditional moralities across different cultures and warns against the dangers of moral relativism and the reduction of human beings to mere objects of scientific analysis[2][4][5].
The semantics of analogy
The semantics of analogy
Rereading Cajetan’s De Nominum Analogia
Joshua Hochschild
Mental Language
Mental Language
From Plato to William of Ockham
Claude Panaccio
Joshua Hochschild
Meredith K. Ziebart
A Mind at Peace
A Mind at Peace
Reclaiming an Ordered Soul in the Age of Distraction
Joshua Hochschild
Christopher Blum
The abolition of man
C.S. Lewis
In 'The Abolition of Man', C.S. Lewis delivers a defense of objective value and natural law, originating from his Riddell Memorial Lectures at the University of Durham in 1943. Lewis argues that education should be conducted within the context of moral law and objective values, which he terms the 'Tao'. He criticizes modern attempts to debunk these values, warning that such actions could lead to a dehumanization of society, resulting in what he calls 'Men without Chests' – individuals whose emotions have not been trained to conform to reason. The book emphasizes the universal nature of traditional moralities across different cultures and warns against the dangers of moral relativism and the reduction of human beings to mere objects of scientific analysis[2][4][5].
Professor Joshua Hochschild connects Theology of the Body with Aristotelian philosophy, arguing that it supports the concept of marriage as a natural community amidst modern challenges from social contract theory and technology.
This lecture was given on March 23rd, 2024, at Dominican House of Studies.
Joshua Hochschild is Professor of Philosophy at Mount St. Mary’s University, where he also served six years as the inaugural Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. His primary research is in medieval logic, metaphysics, and ethics, with broad interest in liberal education and the continuing relevance of the Catholic intellectual tradition. He is the author of The Semantics of Analogy: Rereading Cajetan’s De Nominum Analogia (2010), translator of Claude Panaccio’s Mental Language: From Plato to William of Ockham (2017), and co-author of A Mind at Peace: Reclaiming an Ordered Soul in the Age of Distraction (2017). His writing has appeared in First Things, Commonweal, Modern Age and the Wall Street Journal. For 2020-21 he served as President of the American Catholic Philosophical Association.
Keywords: Aristotle, Catholic Social Teaching, Humanae Vitae, John Paul II, Marriage, Natural Community, Social Contract Theory, Technology, Theology of the Body, Thomas Aquinas
The Thomistic Institute 