Tonight's session (17 April) will focus primarily on those units lower than the State: this is roughly the sphere of the individual, the family and civil society. (The individual will be left mostly until the final session.)
Perhaps the key to this session is the view that human beings naturally form relationships for a variety of purposes. In Aristotle's analysis, which is broadly taken over by Aquinas, the key levels of this community building are the family, the village and the polis (the city state). (It's notworthy that Aristotle, like Plato, does not pay much attention to an international order.) In modernity, there is a tendency for the State to take all authority for itself and to diminish the status of these communities. The disruption of this natural pattern of community forming (whether by the State or businesses) is harmful to the natural pattern of human life and thus to our flourishing.
Recommended sources:
Although I wouldn't claim that Edmund Burke's political philosophy is entirely compatible with Catholic social teaching, it does provide an interesting Anglophone comparison with obvious echoes. An article on his thought may be found here. A previous blogcourse (!) on the thought of Russell Kirk -an American Catholic conservative thinker much influenced by Burke- can be found here.
Aristotle's (Nicomachean) Ethics can be found online here. (The most relevant discussion for this session is found in Book VIII on philia (friendship/relationships). Aquinas' commentary on it can be found here.
[Picture credit: The Blind Fiddler (after Sir David Wilkie). From Wikigallery here]
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