Of Things Moral and Political: An Adaptation of Eric Weil’s Political Philosophy

I have been assigned to speak this morning on the topic of "Humanism in a Changing Society." In dealing with such a topic, it is quite easy to fall into cliches and generalities about man, spiritual values, population growth, pollution, alienation, and other effects of present-day technology. Not that such topics are of no importance to the philosopher. On the contrary. Nonetheless, philosophy would be neglectful of its task and roleif it were to content itself simply by repeating such topics ofthe day, taking issue with them perhaps, without previously going through a critical reflection regarding their origin, their fundamental ground, their ultimate principles. I have therefore taken the liberty of transposing the topic into something perhaps a bit more restricted and hopefully a little more rigorously philosophical. Since to talk of humanism is ultimately to talk of man, and therefore of ethics, and since to talk of changing society ultimately implies that mode of human action which circumscribes all social change, namely, politics, I have decided to talkon the topic - "Of Things Moral and Political."