Maritain, Jacques (zhäk märētăN`), 1882–1973, French Neo-Thomist philosopher. He was educated at the Sorbonne and the Univ. of Heidelberg and was much influenced by the philosophy of Henri Bergson. He was originally Protestant, but became a Roman Catholic through association with Léon Bloy Bloy, Léon (lāôN` blwä), 1846–1917, French writer.
..... Click the link for more information. and devoted himself to the study of Thomism and its application to all aspects of modern life. Maritain opposed what he regarded as the modern tendency to disown the proper function of reason; he valued philosophy highly and posed the "metaphysics of existence," the study of being, as the highest type of human intellectual activity. He urged Christian involvement in secular affairs, a view that greatly influenced members of the Second Vatican Council. Maritain was French ambassador to the Vatican (1945–48) and taught in France and the United States. His works include The Degrees of Knowledge (1932, tr. 1937); True Humanism (1936, tr. 1938); Art and Scholasticism (1920, tr. 1929); Man and the State (1951); On the Use of Philosophy (1961); and The Peasant of the Garonne (1966, tr. 1968).

Bibliography

See studies by J. W. Evans, ed. (1963) and J. W. Hanke (1973).

Maritain, Jacques

(born Nov. 18, 1882, Paris, France—died April 28, 1973, Toulouse) French philosopher. Reared a Protestant, he converted to Roman Catholicism in 1906. His thought, which is based on Aristotelianism and Thomism, incorporates ideas of other Classical and modern philosophers and draws upon anthropology, sociology, and psychology. Among the dominant themes in his work are: that science, philosophy, poetry, and mysticism are among many legitimate ways of knowing reality; that the individual person transcends the political community; that natural law expresses not only what is natural in the world but also what is known naturally by human beings; that moral philosophy must take into account other branches of human knowledge; and that people holding different beliefs must cooperate in the formation and maintenance of salutary political institutions. Among his major works are Art and Scholasticism (1920), The Degrees of Knowledge (1932), Art and Poetry (1935), Man and the State (1951), and Moral Philosophy (1960).