Foreword by Hans Urs von Balthasar Near the end of a long career as one of the most widely read popular Thomistic philosophers of the twentieth century, Josef Pieper has himself compiled an anthology from all his works. He has selected the best and most representative passages and arranged them in an order that gives sense to the whole and aids in the understanding of each excerpt. Pieper's reputation rests on his remarkable ability to restate traditional wisdom in (...) terms of contemporary problems. He is a philosopher who writes in the language of common sense, presenting involved issues in a clear, lucid and simple manner. Among his many well-known works included in this anthology are selections from Leisure: The Basis of Culture, The Four Cardinal Virtues, About Love, Belief and Faith, Happiness and Contemplation, and Scholasticism. Below is a list of the selection titles: Human Authenticity The Two Sides of the Coin That Is Truth The Freedom of Philosophy and Its Adversaries Free Space in the World of Work Truths-Known and Believed The Reality of the Holy "Finis" Means Both End and Goal. (shrink)

The current study investigates whether self-talk phrases can influence behavior in Ultimatum Games. In our three self-talk treatments, participants were instructed to tell themselves (i) to keep their own interests in mind, (ii) to also think of the other person, or (iii) to take some time to contemplate their decision. We investigate how such so-called experimenter-determined strategic self-talk phrases affect behavior and emotions in comparison to a control treatment without instructed self-talk. The results demonstrate that other-focused self-talk can nudge proposers (...) towards fair behavior, as offers were higher in this group than in the other conditions. For responders, self-talk tended to increase acceptance rates of unfair offers as compared to the condition without self-talk. This effect is significant for both other-focused and contemplation-inducing self-talk but not for self-focused self-talk. In the self-focused condition, responders were most dissatisfied with unfair offers. These findings suggest that use of self-talk can increase acceptance rates in responders, and that focusing on personal interests can undermine this effect as it negatively impacts the responders’ emotional experience. In sum, our study shows that strategic self-talk interventions can be used to affect behavior in bargaining situations. (shrink)

The philosophical classic explores the value and significance of leisure, arguing that it is the foundation of any culture, necessary for the development of religion and the contemplation of the nature of God, and issues a warning about the loss of insight due to our substitution of hectic amusements for nonactivity, silence, and true leisure.

This paper comments on the tension between constant imitatio and refused aemulatio gloriae in Tiberius’ attitude towards Augustus in Velleius Paterculus’ History. I argue that Tiberius is equalling and eventually even surpassing Augustus precisely because he refuses to compete with him, let alone surpass him. In order to do so, I focus on two hitherto neglected Augustan intertexts, which are referenced at very distinct moments of Velleius’ portrayal of Tiberius. The first is the moment when Tiberius appears on the political (...) stage at the age of 19 ; the second is the last mentioned event of his life before he succeeds Augustus, namely his third triumph in ad 12. (shrink)

The conduct of prior ethics review of human research projects helps to protect vulnerable groups or populations from potential negative impacts of research. Contemporary considerations in human research considers the concept of vulnerability in terms of access to research opportunities, impacts on the consenting process, selection bias, and the generalisability of results. Recent work questions the validity of using enumerated lists as a check box approach to protect research participants from exploitation. Through the use of broad categories to treat cohorts (...) of human research participants as homogenous classes and label some participants as vulnerable merely because they are members of a particular class, some ethics reviewers have used the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research to strip individuals of their “ethical equality”. Labelling people as vulnerable does not help researchers or human research ethics committee members develop an understanding of the complexities of applying the principles of respect and of justice in ethical decision-making. Conversely, defining specific cohorts of research participants as needing nuanced ethical consideration, due to their vulnerable nature, may imply that other population groups need not be considered vulnerable. We contend that this assumption is erroneous. This paper explores the way that human research ethics guidance documents treat vulnerability within the Australian context and draws on contemporary discussion to focus an alternative perspective based on the principles in the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research for researchers and human research ethics committee members to consider. (shrink)

In this paper, we will present some results of a study among patients in a forensic psychiatric hospital in The Netherlands. We will focus on the following issues: the patients' general religious beliefs and activities; the patients' religious coping activities; the patients' well-being; the relationship between general religious beliefs and activities, religious coping activities and well-being. We will compare the results among this population with the results of our earlier research in various other psychiatric settings.

Recent literature on Christian nationalism by sociologists of religion in the United States identifies a perceived novel phenomenon: the fusion of authoritarian governmental forms with Christianity. However, the socio-historical origin of this international trend has been left relatively unexplored. Therefore, the goal of this chapter is to create a single international account that lends itself to future comparative theoretical frameworks and analyses through the term "Christofascism." -/- The chapter can also be accessed on google books at the link included in (...) the description. Finally, order the book on Routledge's website, also linked in the description. (shrink)

Plato's famous dialogue, the Phaedrus, was variously subtitled in antiquity: "On Beauty", "On Love", "On the Psyche". It is also concerned with the art of rhetoric, of thought and communication. Pieper, noted for the grace and clarity of his style, gives an illuminating and stimulating interpretation of the dialogue. Leaving the more recondite scholarly preoccupations aside, he concentrates on the content, bringing the actual situation in the dialogue -- Athens and its intellectuals engaged in spirited debate -- alive. Equally (...) alive is the discussion of ideas, which are brought to bear on contemporary experience and made to prove the perennial validity of Socratic wisdom, and its power to excite the mind. The main thesis -- that in poetry and in love man is "beside himself", that is, divinely inspired -- is discussed with reference to modern poets, novelists, and modern psychology. (shrink)

Discussions on the Anthropocene as the geology of mankind imply the question whether globalized technology such as energy technologies or A.I. ought to be first and foremost conceptualized as a strategy of the human in relation to nature or as a strategy of some humans over others. I argue that both positions are mirrored in the philosophy and sociology of technology through the concepts of technology as an extension and as a fetish. The extension concept understands technology as an extension (...) of the human body and its capabilities, resulting in a local ‘inward’ perspective. The fetish concept offers a contrary ‘outward’ perspective by drawing attention to the global socio-material context of modern technology. Despite their differences, I argue that both concepts share an underlying operation principle of technology as functional simplification. Technology always involves a functional simplification of physical as well as social causality. Sociologists and philosophers of technology would do well not to give primacy to the former as it leads to the belief in technology as a universal tool that neglects how technology is not embedded in but consists of (unequal) social arrangements. (shrink)

This is a work by Josef Pieper, one of this century's most profound and lucid expositors of the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas.

“I'ai entendu parler de la bataille académique de Waterloo. Rien ne pouvoit être plus imprudent que l'attaque de Mr. Encke… On dit cependant que notre grand et illustre géomètre [Jacobi] a usé de sa grosse Artillerie, mais aussi a-t-il été attaqué imprudemment le pretmier.” (From a letter of A.v. Humboldt to Dirichlet in 1850.) The astronomer Encke reported on the quantity of papers of the mathematicians in the “Abhandlungen der Berliner Akademie”, on August 1st, 1850. Encke attacked the mathematician Jacobi, (...) especially. In this paper are published extracts from his report for the first time. (shrink)

Inhalt: Philosophie in Selbstdarstellungen (1975) · Autobiographische Aufzeichnungen in drei Teilen (1976, 1979, 1988) · Noch wußte es niemand (1904-1945) · Noch nicht aller Tage Abend (1945-1964) · Eine Geschichte wie ein Strahl (1964-1986) · F wie Fortuna. Eine Erzählung (1945) · Editorische Hinweise · Veröffentlichungsnachweise · Personenregister. Ein "kosmopolitischer Eremit" wurde Josef Pieper von seinem Kollegen Fernando Inciarte an seinem 90. Geburtstag genannt. Kein Wort könnte besser die Signatur eines Lebens benennen, das in seiner Zeit- und Weltverbundenheit die (...) eigene Mitte erkundet und vertieft hat. Von hoher erzählerischer Qualität eröffnen die autobiographischen Aufzeichnungen Piepers eine Fülle von Perspektiven für unterschiedliche Leseinteressen. Pieper berichtet von seinen Begegnungen mit zeitgeschichtlich bedeutenden Persönlichkeiten, von seinen zahlreichen Gastprofessuren in Nordamerika und Kanada und den Forschungsreisen in die asiatische Welt zum Studium der östlichen Festkultur. Vor allem philosophisch interessierte Leser werden in den autobiographischen Schriften weiteren Aufschluß finden zur Genese und Deutung des philosophischen Werks. Dies ist jedoch nur ein Ausschnitt eines vielfarbigen Ganzen, das im Spiegel des eigenen Lebens beinahe über ein ganzes Jahrhundert hinweg die Veränderung sozialer, kultureller und kirchlicher Milieus dokumentiert. (shrink)

One of the great Catholic philosophers of our day reflects on the way language has been abused so that, instead of being a means of communicating the truth and entering more deeply into it, and of the acquisition of wisdom, it is being used to control people and manipulate them to achieve practical ends. Reality becomes intelligible through words. Man speaks so that through naming things, what is real may become intelligible. This mediating character of language, however, is being increasingly (...) corrupted. Tyranny, propaganda, mass-media destroy and distort words. They offer us apparent realities whose fictive character threatens to become opaque. Josef Pieper shows with energetic zeal, but also with ascetical restraint, the path out of this dangerous situation. We are constrained to see things again as they are and from the truth thus grasped, to live and to work. (shrink)

Was halt eine Gesellschaft im Innersten zusammen? Was macht das Wesen von Freundschaften aus? Wie kann man der Liebe Dauer verleihen? In drei Essays fasst Hans-Joachim Pieper aktuelle und traditionelle Antworten der Philosophie zusammen und zeigt, wie eng die Formen und Motive des Sozialen miteinander verstrickt sind. LIebe kann sich in Institutionen manifestieren. MItgefuhl und Nachstenliebe spielen bei allem Miteinander eine Rolle. FReundschaften werden in Gesprachen und Unternehmungen, in Netzwerken, Parteien und Freizeitvergnugungen gepflegt. IN lebenslangen Verbindungen gewinnt die Freundschaft (...) eine herausragende Gestalt. ZUgleich bildet sie auch einen wesentlichen Bestandteil der Liebe. Die Gemeinsamkeiten der hier besprochenen Formen des Miteinanders und ihre Vielfalt geben Grund zur Hoffnung, dass die Menschen letztlich mehr zum Frieden neigen als zum Krieg und dass die Rede von der Menschheit nicht nur Schonrederei ist. (shrink)

"The book closes with Pieper's thoughts on the permanent philosophical and theological significance of scholasticism and the Middle Ages. Once again, wearing his learning lightly, writing with a clarity that delights, Josef Pieper has taken the field from stuffier and more extended accounts."--BOOK JACKET.

Josef Pieper's Tradition: Concept and Claim analyzes tradition as an idea and as a living reality in the lives and languages of ordinary people. In the modern world of constant, unrelenting change, tradition, says Pieper, is that which must be preserved unchanged. Drawing on thinkers from Plato to Pascal, Pieper describes the key elements and figures in the act of tradition and what is distinctive about it. Pieper argues that the handing down of tradition is not (...) the same as discussing or teaching, despite its similarities to those activities. It means accepting something as true and valid with the intent of handing it down again, unmixed with alien intrusions and yet kept alive for each new generation via imaginative reformulations. In the beginning, there is sacred tradition, founded on a revelation of God to man, yet secular tradition is important too. Tradition offers liberation from the prison of the present." Understanding what tradition really means makes one free and independent in the face of conservatisms," notes Pieper. At the same time, it links us to the past and is essential for a meaningful future. Book jacket. (shrink)

Pieper collects his contributions to radio programs and to a number of journals and periodicals. The book also includes a selection of notes and comments. The contributions fall into two main groups: the period which encompasses the immediate pre-war period as well as the war period itself, and the post-war period up to 1953.The reader becomes witness, first, to Pieper's problems with the National Socialist regime and, second, to his problems with the ensuing challenges to religious life as (...) it is exposed to increasing secularization. As with his later works, Pieper draws on traditional wisdom which, for him, dates back to Plato and Aristotle, and in these contributions we also see his early preoccupation with the wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas. The normal boundaries between philosophy and theology are here not clearly drawn. Pieper is preoccupied with the mystery of our world and its importance as a source of symbols signifying deeper levels of reality. He sees the sacraments as achieving their fundamental effect from divine intervention, but he also highlights the need for careful observance of the rituals, so that their meaning is not obscured. Proper execution of the sacrament should enable the faithful to enjoy the existential fruits of their participation in the ritual. This work manifests the organic cohesion of Pieper's thinking, and it reflects his profound awareness of the role to be played not so much by the professional (academic) philosopher as by the existential Philosophizer. (shrink)

Underlying the recent focus on embodied and interactive aspects of social understanding are several intuitions about what roles the body, interaction processes, and interpersonal experience play. In this paper, we introduce a systematic, hands-on method for investigating the experience of interacting and its role in intersubjectivity. Special about this method is that it starts from the idea that researchers of social understanding are themselves one of the best tools for their own investigations. The method provides ways for researchers to calibrate (...) and to trust themselves as sophisticated instruments to help generate novel insights into human interactive experience. We present the basics of the method, and two empirical studies. The first is a video-study on autism, which shows greater refinement in the way people with autism embody their social interactions than previously thought. The second is a study of thinking in live interactions, which provides insight into the common feeling that too much thinking can hamper interaction, and into how this kind of interactional awkwardness might be unblocked. (shrink)

The four essays in this little volume are the essence of a lifetime of thought, lecturing and writing by a leading twentieth century philosopher. Josef Pieper's theory of festivity was forged in dismal wartime Germany. Agreeing with Nietzsche that "the trick is not to arrange a festival but to find people who can enjoy it," he discovers a rage for anti-festival sweeping the earth: "C'est la guerre qui correspond a la fete!" Yet Pieper conveys 'certain tidings' of the (...) divine guarantee of the world and of human salvation. In each of these essays Dr. Pieper surveys twentieth century world views. In "Hope and History" he contrasts Baudelaire's and Dostoevsky's dire warnings of an extreme concentration of evil with the promise of the Apocalypse: victory over death; resurrection; a new heaven and a new earth. "The Unavoidable Dilemma of a Non-Christian Philosophy", he says, "is that while Plato, Pythagoras and Aristotle, the founders of Occidental philosophy, require an unprejudiced openness to theology, the secularized modern European or North American does not even know what 'wisdom in divine affairs' means." Finally, in "Leisure" he points out that in contemporary life utility demands to be the measure of all things, including 'spare time' and even the intellectual life of the university. However, Plato, like the Christians, says that only in celebrating divine worship does man lose the shape of a slave. (shrink)

Kümmert euch nicht um Sokrates. Drei Fernsehspiele - Die Figur des Sophisten in den platonischen Dialogen (unveröffentlicht) - Kallikles: Der Mensch ohne Wahrheitsverhältnis - Der gerechtfertigte Praktiker - Die Lernenden - Die dialogische Form der platonischen Philosophie (unveröffentlicht) - Zwei Bemerkungen über die Bauform des platonischen Symposion - "Billigkeit" in der Interpretation - Begeisterung und göttlicher Wahnsinn. Über den platonischen Dialog Phaidros - Über die platonischen Mythen.