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The Person and the Common Good, originally published in 1947, presents Jacques Maritain's clearest and most sustained treatment of the person. He asks whether the person is simply the self and nothing more. After more than half a century, Maritain's question still has great validity, given the current inordinate preoccupation with individualism.
Presenting with moving insight the relations between man, as a person and as an individual, and the society of which he is a part, Maritain's treatment of a lasting topic speaks to this generation as well as those to come.
He makes clear the personalism rooted in the doctrine of St. Thomas and separates the social philosophy centered in the dignity of the human person from every social philosophy centered in the primacy of the individual and the private good.
"Maritain insists clearly and forcefully that the common good of all and the personal good of each are strickly correlative, implying and serving each other. Neither is intelligible without the other. Therefore no community has a right to regard its members as mere parts or 'individuals'." —Journal of Philosophy
"Among the truths of which contemporary thought stands in particular need and from which it could draw substantial profiit, is the doctrine of the distinction between individuality and personality. The essential importance of this distinction is revealed in the principles of St. Thomas." —Review of Politics
Jacques Maritain (1882–1973) was one of the twentieth century's greatest Christian philosophers. He is the author of, among other books, The Degrees of Knowledge (Notre Dame Press, 1995), Untrammeled Approaches (Notre Dame Press, 1996), and Integral Humanism, Freedom in the Modern World, and A Letter on Independence (Notre Dame Press, 1996).