‘Suffering’ pope at Lourdes shrine – cnn
In a welcoming speech, Chirac called the pope “a universal pastor and a man of peace” and said “France and the Holy See are joined in the fight for a world which places Man at the centre of every enterprise.”
Not the ultimate dignity of man, mind you, which would be a step in the right direction. He’s talking about plain old Man, master of his destiny, his own lord and savior. master of all he surveys. Didn’t Galileo prove the heavens revolve around each individual person? No, I think that was Kant.
I’m sure someone is going to take exception to me throwing around Kant’s name like that. I’m speaking proverbially.
What’s so bad about it? Every (worldly) enterprise should have man at its center.
What you said was categorically imperative….
I think you’re looking for a reason to disagree with Chirac where none exists. If he did err, I seriously doubt that it was intentional.
C’mon, Sal, you’re letting your (justified) dyspepsias keep you from getting the scorecards straight.
Galileo was **denying** that the universe revolves around the earth. And while some of Kant’s more interesting non-philosophical obsessions (with South Sea islanders, e.g.) are about decentering the subject, he put the structure of the universe inside the human mind, but the whole point of the noumenal was to place it beyond then phenomenal without denying the noumena’s truth.
Still, the notion that Chirac’s “Man” has anything to do with anything other than Jacobin slaughter … c’est incredible.
In Sal’s defense, I think he was trying to say that ideally, God should be at the center of every enterprise, whether secular or religious. Joining France and the Holy See in the “common struggle for Man” is to do a disservice to the Holy See, as if we were merely a humanitarian aid group. Although I agree with Sal’s point, it’s a bit much to expect Chirac to come forth with such a lofty sentiment.
Whether or not Chirac means peace as “tranquillitas ordinis” or merely the absence of war is a topic for another day.