[Mrs. Don-o]

I value all you comments on subsidiarity. My husband asked me if I could explain the origin and development of that idea in philosophy, and I had to admit that I could not. I had actually read a good article on it fairly recently, and (my poor brain) I couldn't remember either the name of the author, nor the name of the website (it was on a web page.)

I repeat, my poor brain!

Could you help me out here? Who were he principal guys in authentic (!!!) Catholic social thought who zeroed in on the difference between "civil society" and the STATE, and who undelined the moral requirement of subsidiarity?

[savagesusie]

Oh my!!!! I could write a book (and am)......

All philosophy of Western Civilization started with the Greek Masters. Sophocles (in play Antigone) came up with the idea that there is a “higher power” than a King’s. (Rule of Law idea). “Justice” was defined by Socrates...and he created the methodology for “getting to the truth” as close as humanly possible. (Socratic Method). Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics pretty much solidified “Good and Evil” and ideas about Natural Virtue—and how they are learned and habituated, which created the Stoic philosophy and great people like Cicero. Stoicism was the “bridge” to Christianity. It wasn’t much of a stretch.

Natural Law Theory going back to at least Sophocles was solidified by the Aristotelian, St. Thomas Aquinas around 1245. St. Augustine was a Platonist so the idea of immortal soul and eternal life and Socratic Method to understand the Reality was very much a “Catholic” thing. A lot of people rejected the “paganism” of the Catholic Church-—but Reason and Faith could never contradict itself because Reason and Faith are both God’s gift to man. (St. Thomas Aquinas).

St. Thomas had a great understanding of both Platonic and Aristotelian thought and understood (and agreed with) that notion that God’s Design in Nature is obvious and God could be recognized without Scripture if people were perceptive. But St. Thomas stated that the Common Sense which could be gathered by Nature takes so much time/study and most people have to work to just exist and have no time for seeking truth—so Revelation was necessary (kind of like the Bible is the ‘short cut’ to Happiness and Truth for people—God’s gift again to man).

Subsidiarity is just that idea of Natural Law (and Christianity) which states that man was designed with Free Will and Agency and is UNIQUE, with that teleological end to be Responsible for their own life and actions. Local control—at the lowest possible level—is always the wisest because they will care/private property idea extends to owning one’s own mind and thoughts.

Without freedom, man can not reach that teleological end that God designed them for—they can not reach their unique potential.

Laws of Nature was really codified by Aristotle and the teleological ends was studied intensely by him and written about extensively. He is the father of Logic-—which comes from his syllogisms to analyze nature.

But Freedom only works with people of Virtue so, as all Western Civ scholars knew since Socrates-—”The only purpose of education is to teach “Virtue””.
Without Virtue, people become slaves to their vices/flesh and destroy their offspring.

That is why the Cultural Marxists knew to target Virtue (Christian Ethics) which will collapse culture-—by destroying the greatest ideas in the history of the World in the minds of children—to inculcate “instant gratification” and “white noise” so that children will not be inclined to do the “searching” and work needed to understand Virtue/Reality and Freedom and true happiness.