Paul Ryan: "Give me Thomas Aquinas"
Monday, August 13, 2012 Joseph G. Trabbic I know I probably get the award for the most silly posts on Thomistica.net. But sometimes I can’t help myself. If you despise these silly posts of mine, then, please, read no further, for this one is sure to bother you too.
We all (at least we Americans) know by now that the big news in the US presidential race is that GOP contender Mitt Romney has just named Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his vice presidential running mate. Ryan, who is Catholic, has often been connected in the past with the economic views of Russian-American author Ayn Rand (not known for her embrace of Catholic social doctrine), for whom he does appear to have some appreciation.
But not long ago Ryan publicly distanced himself from Rand and let people know that, philosophically speaking, he’s more of a Thomist than a Randian. This is what emerges in an April interview with the National Review’s Robert Costa:
“I, like millions of young people in America, read Rand’s novels when I was young. I enjoyed them,” Ryan says. “They spurred an interest in economics, in the Chicago School and Milton Friedman,” a subject he eventually studied as an undergraduate at Miami University in Ohio. “But it’s a big stretch to suggest that a person is therefore an Objectivist.”
“I reject her philosophy,” Ryan says firmly. “It’s an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview. If somebody is going to try to paste a person’s view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas,” who believed that man needs divine help in the pursuit of knowledge. “Don’t give me Ayn Rand,” he says.
I couldn’t agree more.
By the way, in the same interview Ryan also talks about reading Benedict XVI’s Light of the World and mentions how the Catholic principle of subsidiarity has been an influence on his thinking.
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UPDATE: I’ve discovered that others have beat me to the punch on this “headline,” some by a few months. I guess the Thomistica.net news cycle is a little longer than the mainstream media’s, which makes sense, right? At any rate, there are pieces that applaud Ryan’s “Thomism,” others that claim his commitment to Randianism is deeper than he lets on, and still others that wonder about the incompatibility of Randianism and Thomism.
I don’t know whether Thomistica.net will involve itself in this debate but it is certainly a worthy one to engage.
Reader Comments (4)
He may not be a Randian, but the USCCB certainly doesn't think that his policies live up to Catholic social doctrine in all of its aspects. What do you make of this?
"who believed that man needs divine help in the pursuit of knowledge"
That makes it seem like grace is necessary to know any truth, which St. Thomas shows is false in his "Whether without grace man can know any truth?" Summa article.
What's also interesting is that Ryan gave a commencement speech at the Lutheran Carthage University in 2006, 9 minutes of which were about St. Thomas.
I just saw these comments today but I see that they were made two days ago and nine days ago.
In response to Evan: I don't know what the USCCB thinks about Ryan. But in the past several days individual bishops -- I'm thinking of Morlino and Aquila -- have publicly stated that they do not see anything in Ryan's economic ideas or policy suggestions that, in principle, goes against Catholic teaching. Aquila writes: "I am not a policy expert. I do not know whether Paul Ryan’s fiscal plans are the right plans for America’s present- or her future. I cannot, nor would I, endorse him or any other candidate. But claims that Paul Ryan’s plan run deeply counter to Catholic social teaching are unfounded and unreasonable. Some criticisms are so insidious that one wonders whether the critics have actually read Ryan’s plans."
In response to Alan Aversa: Ryan does not mention grace in the quote. Since Aquinas holds that all that we are or do naturally requires the bestowal of being from God, there is a perfectly Thomistic sense in which what Ryan says is true. But more to the point, remember that Aquinas says that our natural intellectual light is a participation in the divine light and that we are therefore dependent on the latter to know all things. Yet even in talking specifically about supernatural aid, Aquinas notes that in the concrete pursuit of knowledge such aid can also be crucial (if not absolutely necessary) to attaining truths that are themselves naturally knowable.
Thanks for the tip about Ryan's speech at Carthage University, Alan.