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The Limits of the Common Good
05 March 2025
Introduction
This essay explores the difficulties of discerning the common good. In so doing, I argue that we exist in a political climate – both within the Church and in wider political life – that is sceptical about others’ desires and motivations. However, underlying this scepticism is a confidence in the rightness of our own motive and perspective, which I argue can be understood as an attempt to deny our own finitude and fallibility. To truly address this scepticism about the capacity of political agents to pursue the common good, what we actually require is a deeper scepticism directed towards ourselves. This self-directed scepticism is not a negative final judgement on our capacity for common life, but a positive attempt both to avoid self-deception, and to properly learn about who we are (and who we might come to be) through being confronted by the other. It is only in this way that we can hope to discern forms of life that enable the flourishing of all.
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