Catholic natural law thinkers on nation versus race

As I’ve noted many times (e.g. here and here), natural law theory and Catholic moral theology both affirm the indispensable role in human life of the nation, which is a natural social formation.  The nation is an extension of the family, and like family members, citizens of a nation are typically related by common ancestry.  However, in neither case is this strictly necessary.  Just as someone might become part of a family by marriage or adoption, so too might someone become part of a nation through immigration and assimilation.  Moreover, nations are much looser social formations than families, and common descent is much less essential to them than it is to the family.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all my readers. I love you all (including the grinches out there). May God bless you and yours!

Return of the missing links

My Christmas gift to you, dear readers – a revival of the blog’s “links of interest” posts, by popular demand.  Let’s get to it:

J.P. Andrew interviews Rob Koons and Daniel Bonevac about their two forthcoming books on Aquinas’s Five Ways.

At The New Yorker, Rachel Aviv reveals that neurologist Oliver Sacks made up many of the details of his famous case studies.

Sohrab Ahmari on the late Norman Podhoretz, at UnHerd.

At Fusion, Oliver Traldi on John Searle’s forgotten book The Campus War.

Jacob Savage on the lost generation that DEI created, at Compact.

Lawful authority in just war doctrine

In an earlier article, I set out the conditions that traditional just war doctrine says a war must meet in order to be morally legitimate, and argued that a war with Venezuela would not meet them.  Here I want to look more closely at one of those conditions, namely that a war can be just only if carried out by lawful authority.  It seems to me that many of those defending a prospective war with Venezuela too glibly assume that this condition has been met, and focus almost exclusively on what they take to be the justice of the cause.  I don’t think the justice of the cause has in fact been established, and indeed it has only become more doubtful in the week since my first article appeared.  But even if it had been established, that is by no means the only crucial consideration.

Kant’s claustrophobic metaphysics (Updated)

My review of Marcus Willaschek’s Kant: A Revolution in Thinking appears in the latest issue of the Claremont Review of Books.

UPDATE 12/20: The review is no longer behind a paywall.

Would a U.S. war against Venezuela be just?

To all appearances, the United States is preparing for war with Venezuela.  For months now, American military forces have been blowing up Venezuelan boats said to be carrying drugs.  The U.S. has deployed a fleet of warships off the country’s coast.  President Trump has said that “this is war” and that “very soon we’re going to start doing it on land too,” and he has ordered the closure of airspace over Venezuela.  He has also declared that Nicolas Maduro’s “days are numbered” as president of Venezuela and ordered him to resign and leave the country.  And it has been reported that the administration is planning for a post-Maduro Venezuela.

It's an open thread!

We’re due for an open thread.  Now is your chance to bring up matters that would otherwise be off-topic.  For example, sometimes readers want to respond to something I said on Twitter/X (and write up such a comment under a post here – where it doesn’t get past moderation if it’s not on topic).  But feel free to bring up whatever you like.  From Cantor’s continuum problem to Canter’s Deli, from Gertrude Stein to grapefruit wine, from Jack Kirby to Kier Kirby, everything is fair game for discussion.  Just keep it civil and classy, as always.  Previous open threads archived here.