
originally published 12/13/2016
Philosopher D. C. Schindler discusses the thought of contemporary German philosopher Robert Spaemann, and his defense of a purposeful structure in nature. Reality possesses an interiority, a type of intentionality to which it is appropriate, observes Spaemann, that we respond with our poetic and seemingly naive anthropomorphisms. Though Spaemann is best known for his work on the philosophy of personhood, what is in fact more fundamental to his thought than the “ontology of humanness” is “talking about reality humanly.” This underlying distinction has significant implications for how we then think about personhood, education, and freedom. Schindler edited and translated A Robert Spaemann Reader: Philosophical Essays on Nature, God, and the Human Person (Oxford, 2015) with his wife, Jeanne Heffernan Schindler.
28 minutes
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