“What It Means To Be Human”: A Review, by Michael Pakaluk

By Michael Pakaluk, The Catholic Thing, Oct. 27, 2020

Michael Pakaluk, an Aristotle scholar and Ordinarius of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, is a professor in the Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America. He lives in Hyattsville, MD with his wife Catherine, also a professor at the Busch School, and their eight children. …

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“The purpose of law is to protect and promote the flourishing of persons.  Accordingly, the richest understanding of the law is an anthropological one, obtained by inquiry into its underwriting premises about human identity and thriving.  In order to be fully wise, just, and humane, the means and ends of the law must correspond to the reality of human life, humanly lived.”

This is how O. Carter Snead states the basic premise of his recent book, What It Means to Be Human. He thus recasts attractively what can appear to be a frumpy traditional view, that “the goal of the lawgiver is the virtue of his citizens” (Aristotle), while putting a classical spin on Jefferson’s notion of the “pursuit of happiness.”  …