INTRODUCTION - “KNOW YOURSELF”
1. In both East and
West, we may trace a journey which has led humanity down the centuries to meet
and engage truth more and more deeply. It is a journey which has unfolded—as it
must—within the horizon of personal self-consciousness: the more human beings
know reality and the world, the more they know themselves in their uniqueness,
with the question of the meaning of things and of their very existence becoming
ever more pressing. This is why all that is the object of our knowledge becomes
a part of our life. The admonition Know yourself was carved on the
temple portal at Delphi, as testimony to a basic truth to be adopted as a
minimal norm by those who seek to set themselves apart from the rest of
creation as “human beings”, that is as those who “know themselves”.
Moreover,
a cursory glance at ancient history shows clearly how in different parts of the
world, with their different cultures, there arise at the same time the
fundamental questions which pervade human life: Who am I? Where have I come
from and where am I going? Why is there evil? What is there after this life? These
are the questions which we find in the sacred writings of Israel, as also in
the Veda and the Avesta; we find them in the writings
of Confucius and Lao-Tze, and in the preaching of Tirthankara and Buddha; they appear in the poetry of Homer
and in the tragedies of Euripides and Sophocles, as they do in the
philosophical writings of Plato and Aristotle. They are questions which have
their common source in the quest for meaning which has always compelled the
human heart. In fact, the answer given to these questions decides the direction
which people seek to give to their lives.
2. The Church is no
stranger to this journey of discovery, nor could she ever be. From the moment
when, through the Paschal Mystery, she received the gift of the ultimate truth
about human life, the Church has made her pilgrim way along the paths of the
world to proclaim that Jesus Christ is “the way, and the truth, and the life”
(Jn 14:6). It is her duty to
serve humanity in different ways, but one way in particular imposes a
responsibility of a quite special kind: the diakonia
of the truth.1 This mission on the one hand makes the believing
community a partner in humanity's shared struggle to arrive at truth; 2
and on the other hand it obliges the believing community to proclaim the
certitudes arrived at, albeit with a sense that every truth attained is but a
step towards that fullness of truth which will appear with the final Revelation
of God: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in
part; then I shall understand fully” (
1 Cor 13:12).
3. Men and women have
at their disposal an array of resources for generating greater knowledge of
truth so that their lives may be ever more human. Among these is philosophy,
which is directly concerned with asking the question of life's meaning and
sketching an answer to it. Philosophy emerges, then, as one of noblest of human
tasks. According to its Greek etymology, the term philosophy means “love of
wisdom”. Born and nurtured when the human being first asked questions about the
reason for things and their purpose, philosophy shows in different modes and
forms that the desire for truth is part of human nature itself. It is an innate
property of human reason to ask why things are as they are, even though the
answers which gradually emerge are set within a horizon which reveals how the
different human cultures are complementary.
Philosophy's
powerful influence on the formation and development of the cultures of the West
should not obscure the influence it has also had upon the ways of understanding
existence found in the East. Every people has its own native and seminal wisdom
which, as a true cultural treasure, tends to find voice and develop in forms
which are genuinely philosophical. One example of this is the basic form of
philosophical knowledge which is evident to this day in the postulates which
inspire national and international legal systems in regulating the life of
society.
4. Nonetheless, it is true that a single term
conceals a variety of meanings. Hence the need for a preliminary clarification.
Driven by the desire to discover the ultimate truth of existence, human beings
seek to acquire those universal elements of knowledge which enable them to
understand themselves better and to advance in their own self-realization.
These fundamental elements of knowledge spring from the wonder awakened
in them by the contemplation of creation: human beings are astonished to
discover themselves as part of the world, in a relationship with others like
them, all sharing a common destiny. Here begins, then, the journey which will
lead them to discover ever new frontiers of knowledge. Without wonder, men and
women would lapse into deadening routine and little by little would become
incapable of a life which is genuinely personal.
Through
philosophy's work, the ability to speculate which is proper to the human
intellect produces a rigorous mode of thought; and then in turn, through the
logical coherence of the affirmations made and the organic unity of their
content, it produces a systematic body of knowledge. In different cultural
contexts and at different times, this process has yielded results which have
produced genuine systems of thought. Yet often enough in history this has
brought with it the temptation to identify one single stream with the whole of
philosophy. In such cases, we are clearly dealing with a “philosophical pride”
which seeks to present its own partial and imperfect view as the complete
reading of all reality. In effect, every philosophical system, while it
should always be respected in its wholeness, without any instrumentalization,
must still recognize the primacy of philosophical enquiry, from which it
stems and which it ought loyally to serve.
Although
times change and knowledge increases, it is possible to discern a core of
philosophical insight within the history of thought as a whole. Consider, for
example, the principles of non-contradiction, finality and causality, as well
as the concept of the person as a free and intelligent subject, with the
capacity to know God, truth and goodness. Consider as well certain fundamental
moral norms which are shared by all. These are among the indications that,
beyond different schools of thought, there exists a body of knowledge which may
be judged a kind of spiritual heritage of humanity. It is as if we had come
upon an implicit philosophy, as a result of which all feel that they possess
these principles, albeit in a general and unreflective way. Precisely because
it is shared in some measure by all, this knowledge should serve as a kind of
reference-point for the different philosophical schools. Once reason
successfully intuits and formulates the first universal principles of being and
correctly draws from them conclusions which are coherent both logically and
ethically, then it may be called right reason or, as the ancients called it, orthós logos, recta ratio.
5. On her part, the Church cannot but set great
value upon reason's drive to attain goals which render people's lives ever more
worthy. She sees in philosophy the way to come to know fundamental truths about
human life. At the same time, the Church considers philosophy an indispensable
help for a deeper understanding of faith and for communicating the truth of the
Gospel to those who do not yet know it.
Therefore,
following upon similar initiatives by my Predecessors, I wish to reflect upon
this special activity of human reason. I judge it necessary to do so because,
at the present time in particular, the search for ultimate truth seems often to
be neglected. Modern philosophy clearly has the great merit of focusing
attention upon man. From this starting-point, human reason with its many
questions has developed further its yearning to know more and to know it ever
more deeply. Complex systems of thought have thus been built, yielding results
in the different fields of knowledge and fostering the development of culture
and history. Anthropology, logic, the natural sciences, history, linguistics
and so forth—the whole universe of knowledge has been involved in one way or
another. Yet the positive results achieved must not obscure the fact that
reason, in its one-sided concern to investigate human subjectivity, seems to
have forgotten that men and women are always called to direct their steps
towards a truth which transcends them. Sundered from that truth, individuals
are at the mercy of caprice, and their state as person ends up being judged by
pragmatic criteria based essentially upon experimental data, in the mistaken
belief that technology must dominate all. It has happened therefore that
reason, rather than voicing the human orientation towards truth, has wilted under
the weight of so much knowledge and little by little has lost the capacity to
lift its gaze to the heights, not daring to rise to the truth of being.
Abandoning the investigation of being, modern philosophical research has
concentrated instead upon human knowing. Rather than make use of the human
capacity to know the truth, modern philosophy has preferred to accentuate the
ways in which this capacity is limited and conditioned.
This has
given rise to different forms of agnosticism and relativism which have led
philosophical research to lose its way in the shifting sands of widespread
scepticism. Recent times have seen the rise to prominence of various doctrines
which tend to devalue even the truths which had been judged certain. A
legitimate plurality of positions has yielded to an undifferentiated pluralism,
based upon the assumption that all positions are equally valid, which is one of
today's most widespread symptoms of the lack of confidence in truth. Even
certain conceptions of life coming from the East betray this lack of
confidence, denying truth its exclusive character and assuming that truth
reveals itself equally in different doctrines, even if they contradict one
another. On this understanding, everything is reduced to opinion; and there is
a sense of being adrift. While, on the one hand, philosophical thinking has
succeeded in coming closer to the reality of human life and its forms of
expression, it has also tended to pursue issues—existential, hermeneutical or
linguistic—which ignore the radical question of the truth about personal
existence, about being and about God. Hence we see among the men and women of
our time, and not just in some philosophers, attitudes of widespread distrust
of the human being's great capacity for knowledge. With a false modesty, people
rest content with partial and provisional truths, no longer seeking to ask
radical questions about the meaning and ultimate foundation of human, personal
and social existence. In short, the hope that philosophy might be able to provide
definitive answers to these questions has dwindled.
6. Sure of her competence as the bearer of the
Revelation of Jesus Christ, the Church reaffirms the need to reflect upon
truth. This is why I have decided to address you, my venerable Brother Bishops,
with whom I share the mission of “proclaiming the truth openly”
(2 Cor 4:2),
as also theologians and philosophers whose duty it is to explore the different
aspects of truth, and all those who are searching; and I do so in order to
offer some reflections on the path which leads to true wisdom, so that those
who love truth may take the sure path leading to it and so find rest from their
labours and joy for their spirit.
I feel
impelled to undertake this task above all because of the Second Vatican
Council's insistence that the Bishops are “witnesses of divine and catholic
truth”.3 To bear witness to the truth is therefore a task entrusted to
us Bishops; we cannot renounce this task without failing in the ministry which
we have received. In reaffirming the truth of faith, we can both restore to our
contemporaries a genuine trust in their capacity to know and challenge
philosophy to recover and develop its own full dignity.
There is
a further reason why I write these reflections. In my Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor,
I drew attention to “certain fundamental truths of Catholic doctrine which, in
the present circumstances, risk being distorted or denied”.4 In the
present Letter, I wish to pursue that reflection by concentrating on the theme
of truth itself and on its foundation in relation to faith.
For it is undeniable that this time of rapid and complex change can leave
especially the younger generation, to whom the future belongs and on whom it
depends, with a sense that they have no valid points of reference. The need for
a foundation for personal and communal life becomes all the more pressing at a
time when we are faced with the patent inadequacy of perspectives in which the
ephemeral is affirmed as a value and the possibility of discovering the real
meaning of life is cast into doubt. This is why many people stumble through
life to the very edge of the abyss without knowing where they are going. At
times, this happens because those whose vocation it is to give cultural
expression to their thinking no longer look to truth, preferring quick success
to the toil of patient enquiry into what makes life worth living. With its
enduring appeal to the search for truth, philosophy has the great responsibility
of forming thought and culture; and now it must strive resolutely to recover
its original vocation. This is why I have felt both the need and the duty to
address this theme so that, on the threshold of the third millennium of the
Christian era, humanity may come to a clearer sense of the great resources with
which it has been endowed and may commit itself with renewed courage to
implement the plan of salvation of which its history is part.
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