Robert Spaemann (5 May 1927 – 10 December 2018) was a German Catholic philosopher. He is considered a member of the Ritter School.
Spaemann's focus was on Christian ethics. He was known for his work in bioethics, ecology and human rights. Although not yet widely translated into languages other than his native German, Spaemann was internationally known, and his work was highly regarded by Pope Benedict XVI.
Life
Robert Spaemann was born in Berlin in 1927 to Heinrich Spaemann and Ruth Krämer. His parents were originally radical atheists, but both entered the Catholic Church in 1930, and after his mother's early death, his father was ordained a Catholic priest in 1942.
Spaemann studied at the University of Münster, where in 1962, he was awarded his Habilitation. He was Professor of Philosophy at the Universities of Stuttgart (until 1968), Heidelberg (until 1972) and Munich, where he worked until he was made Emeritus Professor in 1992. He also became Honorary Professor at University of Salzburg and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Catholic University of Lublin in 2012.
Work
Spaemann's two most important works were Glück und Wohlwollen (Happiness and Benevolence, 1989) and Personen (Persons, 1996). In Happiness and Benevolence, Spaemann sets forth a thesis that happiness is derived from benevolent acting and that we are created by God as social beings to help one another find truth and meaning in an often confused and disordered world:
He participated in the Ratzinger Circle of Alumni (Schülerkreis, a private conference with Joseph Ratzinger that was convened from the late 1970s.
Books in English
Basic Moral Concepts, trans. T.J. Armstrong. London: Routledge, 1990 (1982). Essays in Anthropology: Variations on a Theme, trans. Guido De Graaff and James Mumford. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2010 (1987). Happiness and Benevolence, trans. J. Alberg. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 2000 (1989). Persons: The Difference between "Someone" and "Something", trans. Oliver O’Donovan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006 (1996). Love and the Dignity of Human Life: On Nature and Natural Law, Foreword by D. L. Schindler. Eerdmans Publishing Co.: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2012. A Robert Spaemann Reader: Philosophical Essays on Nature, God, and the Human Person, ed. & trans. D.C. Schindler & Jeanne Heffernan Schindler. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Articles in English
"Remarks on the Problem of Equality," Ethics 87 (1976–77), 363-69. "Side-effects as a Moral Problem," trans. Frederick S. Gardiner, Contemporary German Philosophy, vol. 2, ed. Darrel E. Christensen, Manfred Riedel, Robert Spaemann, Reiner Wiehl, Wolfgang Wieland (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1983), 138-51. "Remarks on the Ontology of 'Right' and 'Left,'" Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal 10.1 (1984), 89-97. "Is Every Human Being a Person?," trans. Richard Schenk, O.P., The Thomist 60 (1996), 463-74. "Rationality and Faith in God," trans. D.C. Schindler, Communio: International Catholic Review 32.4 (Winter 2005), 618-636. "When Death Becomes Inhuman," trans. Adrian J. Walker, Communio: International Catholic Review 33.2 (Summer 2006), 298-300. "Begotten, Not Made," trans. Michelle K. Borras, Communio: International Catholic Review 33.2 (Summer 2006), 290-297. with Holger Zabrowski, "An Animal That Can Promise and Forgive," trans. Lesley Rice, Communio: International Catholic Review 34.4 (Winter 2007), 511-521. "How Could You Do What You Did?," trans. Lesley M. Rice, Communio: International Catholic Review 36.4 (Winter 2009), 643-651. "Is Brain Death the Death of a Human Person?," Communio: International Catholic Review 38.2 (Summer 2011), 326-340. "The Courage to Educate," Communio: International Catholic Review 40.1 (Spring 2013), 48–63.