AI Overview According to scholar Ernest Fortin, the 19th-century Jesuit Luigi Taparelli coined "social justice" in the 1840s as a novel concept not found in classical or medieval philosophy. Fortin notes that no pre-modern thinker—neither Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, nor Thomas Aquinas—ever used or taught social justice, making Taparelli’s formulation a distinct departure rather than a direct continuation of Thomism.Fortin's View on Taparelli's NotionNot a Traditional Virtue: Fortin argues that social justice, unlike legal or distributive justice in Thomistic thought, does not cleanly map onto an individual human soul's moral disposition.Shifting the Subject: Instead of an individual person practicing a virtue, the "subject" becomes an abstract or collective society held responsible for systemic conditions and the plight of the poor.Historical Break: Taparelli introduced the term to address modern socio-economic crises and natural rights debates, blending modern concepts rather than simply repeating St. Thomas.
AI Overview
Fortin's View on Taparelli's Notion
- Not a Traditional Virtue: Fortin argues that social justice, unlike legal or distributive justice in Thomistic thought, does not cleanly map onto an individual human soul's moral disposition. [1]
- Shifting the Subject: Instead of an individual person practicing a virtue, the "subject" becomes an abstract or collective society held responsible for systemic conditions and the plight of the poor. [1]
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