Freedom and Principles of Catholic Social Thought
This talk first sketches a “Catholic constitution of liberty” drawing on the paradoxical assertion in Centesimus Annus §41 that liberty is predicated on a dependent, obedient posture that is proper to rational creatures. I argue that the principles of a free society, antecedently cherished by classical liberals, with some variation, can be derived from this liberty of dependence. This lecture secondly develops a thesis about the possibility of a natural alliance between Catholic thought and classical liberalism, especially in regard to contemporary threats to the common good rooted in both collectivist and individualist attacks on the family and constituting a new formulation of the social question.
About the Speaker

Catherine Pakaluk (Ph.D, 2010) joined the faculty at the Busch School in the summer of 2016, and is the founder of the Social Research academic area, where she is an Assistant Professor of Social Research and Economic Thought.
Posted on January 29, 2020