Robert Spaemann (5 May 1927 – 10 December 2018) was a German Catholic philosopher.[1][2] He is considered a member of the Ritter School.
Spaemann's focus was on Christian ethics. He was known for his work in bioethics, ecology and human rights. Although not yet widely translated into languages other than his native German, Spaemann was internationally known, and his work was highly regarded by Pope Benedict XVI[3][citation needed] He was also a personal advisor of Pope John Paul II and a friend of Joseph Ratzinger.[4]
Life
Robert Spaemann was born in Berlin on 5 May 1927 to Heinrich Spaemann and Ruth Krämer. His parents originally had been radical atheists, but both entered the Catholic Church in 1930, and after his mother's early death, his father was ordained a Catholic priest in 1942.[5]
Spaemann studied at the University of Münster, where in 1962, he was awarded his Habilitation. He was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Stuttgart (until 1968), at Heidelberg University (until 1972), and at LMU Munich, where he was made Emeritus Professor in 1992. He also became Honorary Professor at the University of Salzburg, and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Catholic University of Lublin in 2012.
Work
Spaemann's three most important works are Reflexion und Spontaneität – Studien über Fénelon (1963 / 1990), Glück und Wohlwollen (transl. Happiness and Benevolence, 2000), and Personen (transl. Persons – The Difference between "Someone" and "Something", 2006).
In Happiness and Benevolence, Spaemann sets forth a thesis that happiness is derived from benevolent acting and that we are created by God as social beings to help one another find truth and meaning in an often confused and disordered world:[2]
References
- ↑ "Josef Seifert's Introduction of Spaemann at the Dietrich von Hildebrand Legacy Project Conference, "Christian Personalism and Hildebrand's Philosophy of Love," May 28, 2010 (Video link)". Archived from the original on October 18, 2012. Retrieved May 19, 2011.
- 1 2 "Robert Spaemann". www.information-philosophie.de. Retrieved 2026-01-27.
- ↑ "Katholische Philosophen" (PDF). Die Neue Ordnung (in German) (5): 71. October 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-09-02.
- ↑ "Interview with Robert Spaemann on Amoris Laetitia". Munich, DE: Catholic News Agency. April 29, 2016. Retrieved January 14, 2024.
- ↑ "Beiträge von Prof. Dr. Robert Spaemann". www.kath-info.de.
- ↑ Spaemann, Robert Happiness and Benevolence, Notre Dame: Univ of Notre Dame Press, 2000, pp 104-105.
- ↑ Hooper, John (August 28, 2006). "Pope prepares to embrace theory of intelligent design" – via The Guardian.
- ↑ "Der Gottesbeweis - WELT". DIE WELT (in German). Retrieved 2024-09-25.
Further reading
- Holger Zaborowski: Robert Spaemann's Philosophy of the Human Person: Nature, Freedom, and the Critique of Modernity. Oxford University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-19-957677-7
