Freedom in the Modern World

By Jacques Maritain Reason, freedom, and law: upon these three principles, asserts Jacques Maritain, civilization rests. For the modern world, these principles have regularly proved disposable, and the protean will to power has arisen to take their place. A return to the proper order requires a deep understanding of freedom and acceptance of its attendant risks as well as its rewards. In Freedom in the Modern World, Jacques Maritain devotes himself to that task. First, he articulates a philosophy of freedom to show that freedom presupposes nature. Second, he applies this philosophy to historical facts and political conditions, developing his earlier work on “Religion and Culture,” to discuss the opposition between a humanism centered on God and a humanism fixated on man. Last, he assesses the problem of freedom in practical terms, and considers the means by which modern man might achieve the radical reforms needed to produce a temporal order consonant with man’s spiritual nature and ca