Religious Liberty And The Human Good | Robert P. George

The Thomistic Institute

Christianity, Society & Culture, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Thomism, Catholicism

4.8 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 23 February 2024

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This lecture was given on September 28th, 2023, at Georgetown University. For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events About the speaker: Robert P. George is the sixth McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, a program founded under his leadership in 2000. George has frequently been a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. Born on July 10, 1955, Robert George has served as Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom as well as a presidential appointee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the President’s Council on Bioethics. In addition, Professor George has served as the U.S. member of UNESCO’s World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology. He was also a Judicial Fellow at the Supreme Court of the United States, where he received the Justice Tom C. Clark Award. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Swarthmore, he holds J.D. and M.T.S. degrees from Harvard University as well as D.Phil., B.C.L., D.C.L., D.Litt. degrees from Oxford University. He holds twenty-two honorary doctorates. George is a recipient of the U.S. Presidential Citizens Medal, the Honorific Medal for the Defense of Human Rights of the Republic of Poland, the Irving Kristol Award of the American Enterprise Institute, the Canterbury Medal of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, and one of Princeton University’s highest honors – the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching. George is the author of hundreds of books, essays, and articles. He is a finger-style guitarist and bluegrass banjo player.

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0:00.0	Are you in college or know someone who is? The Thomistic Institute Study Abroad Program is now accepting
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0:22.1	St. Thomas Aquinas. Don't miss this life-changing opportunity. Limited spots are available.
0:29.2	For more information, go to toomisticinstitute.org slash Rome. That's toomisticinstitute.org
0:37.1	slash Rome.
0:43.0	Welcome to the Tomistic Institute podcast.
0:46.1	Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square.
0:52.4	The lectures on this podcast are organized by university
0:55.4	students at Temistic Institute chapters around the world. To learn more and to attend these events,
1:01.1	visit us at Thomisticinstitute.org.
1:07.9	Thank you very much. It's a real honor to be speaking, especially under the auspices of the Temistic Institute.
1:13.6	I've been to Georgetown and had the pleasure of speaking here on a number of occasions,
1:16.6	but this is my first event for the Temistic Institute, whose work I admire very much, so thank you very much for inviting me.
1:25.6	My topic this evening is Rel liberty and the human good.
1:32.7	The starting points of all ethical reflection are those fundamental and irreducible aspects
1:41.0	of human well-being and fulfillment that some philosophers, I and others, refer to as basic human goods.
1:49.0	These goods, friendship, knowledge, aesthetic beauty, justice, and so forth,
1:57.0	as more than merely instrumental ends or purposes, things we intelligibly want, not merely
2:03.3	as means to other ends, but for their own sakes, are the subjects of the very first principles
2:11.2	of practical reasoning that control all rational thinking with a view to action.
2:19.3	By practical reasoning, I'm referring not to pragmatic thinking,
	...

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