[1] āThe ultimate roots of calology are to be found in ontology, because the beautiful is mode of being. That which is desired good by definition, since the good is being itself inasmuch as it is good desirable. Therefore the beautiful is a kind of goodā¦ā, Etienne Gilson, The Arts of the Beautiful, 27 (1965).
[2] The death sentence of the sort of extreme positivism coined by Hans Kelsen, which justified the ideal of man under the āmust beā of Nazi legislative activity, was crafted upon the proposition of confronting an extreme injustice per the words of Gustav Radbruch in Gesetzliches Unrecht und Ć¼bergesetzliches Recht. Therefore, if people are mandated to disobey extremely unjust laws, they need to question themselves: What is an extreme injustice to man? Could this be an entirely subjective appreciation or is there an objective anchor of truth applicable to all? If the latter is the answer, positivism can only be driven by true moral guidelines. If the prior is the answer, whatās extremely unjust for some, might not be so for others. It is worth remembering that Hans Kensel thought of the human environment like the aquatic kingdom, with stronger or bigger fish eating the weaker or smaller ones (Archives de Philosophie du Droit, No 7, 181, Sirey, Paris, 1962). Hans Kelsen, the Jewish-born author of the 1920 Austrian constitution and Reine Rechtslehre (Pure Theory of Law), was compelled to migrate to the United States with the advent of the Nazi regime in 1940.
[3] āIt is not true that man, even seemed to say it at times, cannot organize the world without God. What it is true is that without God he can only, in the end, organize it against man. The exclusionary humanism is an anti-human humanism.ā Henri de Lubac, Prologue, Le Drame De LāHumanisme AtheĢe (1945).
[4] āā¦ among the defects of a being created in the image of God and called to a progressive divinization, there is no greater than this: the negation of his own dignity.ā, E. Mounier, L Ģaffrontement chrĆ©tien, 87 (1945).
[5] In 1953 Messrs. James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the molecular structure of the double helix, which contains our deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA, also known as the genetic code of humanity as a species.
[6] The most acclaimed atheist in the twentieth century, Anthony Flew, surprised the world by declaring that he came to the conclusion that man and universe were not the product of some undecipherable super-powered waste of the unknown. Cf. Anthony Flew and Abraham Varghese, There is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind (2008). According to his sayings, Anthony Flew recognized the existence of God based on the impossibility of an original cause of matter for everything that exists ādeceitfully called ānaturalistā in the atheist jargon against the concept of human natureā as well as the evidence of an intelligent order in the human deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Converted at 81 years old in 2004, he died in 2010 without anybody knowing his concrete and personal belief in certain God, which would have been the logical path to follow by an intelligent being, meaning how to relate to such Creator of all that exists after acknowledging his existence. Cf. Gary R. Habermas, Biola, My Pilgrimage from Atheism to Theism An Exclusive Interview with Former British Atheist Professor Antony Flew, 9-XII-2004, 6.
[7] M. Fazio, J. GarcĆa, RaĆces FilosĆ³ficas de la Cultura de la Vida, 160-2 (2008).
[8] Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Boethius, De Daubus Naturis (VI century); Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I, I, q.75, q.14, a.8, q.44, a.3, q.54., a.6, q.77, a.3, et al (1269-1274; fully published in 1485); Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles, 2, 2 (1259-1256).
[9] Ontology focuses on the nature of existing beings, the study of being, while epistemology focuses on the nature of knowledge, in fact the process of knowledge out of an existing being. It is impossible to address knowledge without the being sustaining it.
[10] Etienne Gilson, The Unity of Philosophical Experience (1938); Frederick Copleston, History of Philosophy (1946).
[11] Thomas Aquinas, idem 8, II-II (a), q.58, a.1.
[12] Thomas Aquinas, idem 8, I-II, q. 93, a.1.
[13] Thomas Aquinas, idem 8, I-II, q. 91 a. 2.
[14] The conscience is a judgment of reason by which we can acknowledge the moral standing of some concrete action or behavior in the process of being performed, to be performed, or already performed.
[15] āI believe in the sun, / even when it is not shining. / And I believe in love, / even when thereās no one there. / And I believe in God, even when he is silent.", A Jewish Prisoner, Cologne concentration camp, World War II.
[16] Jacques Maritain, On the Philosophy of History, 100 (1957).
[17] In Rome, the Law of the XII Tables, Leges Duodecim Tabularum, condensed the art of prior Roman jurists around 450 BC, including normative related to marriage, family relationships among parents and children, inheritance, private goods and real estate property, funeral regulations, civil procedure, debt arrangement and repayments, torts and civil damages in general, crimes and constitutional principles.
[18] āLex est quaedam rationis ordinatio ad bonum commune ab eo, qui curam communit...
