INDIVIDUALISM AND COMMUNISM RESULT IN EGOISM

INDIVIDUALISM AND COMMUNISM RESULT IN EGOISM

1. INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIALISM DON’T NURTURE SPIRITUALITY

Antonio Caso, philosopher, LA PERSONA HUMANA Y EL ESTADO TOTALITARIO, (translated by Rene Cantu and John H. Haddox), 1941, p. 189.

The error of individualism and the error of socialism are singularly similar, because in their extreme forms, both social theories, both philosophical creeds, do not take cognizance of the superior nature of the human being, the level of his spiritual being.

Antonio Caso, philosopher, LA PERSONA HUMANA Y EL ESTADO TOTALITARIO, (translated by Rene Cantu and John H. Haddox), 1941, p. 189.

Individualism and communism reduce the dignity of the person. The person and the culture are concomitant. The person implies society in his development. Society needs, in turn, the person in order to be. The spirit blossoms above life, as does life above physical nature.
3. INDIVIDUALISM AND COMMUNISM RESULT IN THE WORST FORM OF EGOISM

Antonio Caso, philosopher, LA PERSONA HUMANA Y EL ESTADO TOTALITARIO, (translated by Rene Cantu and John H. Haddox), 1941, p. 191.

Individualism and communism are identified as two forms of egoism. The community is egoistic, it claims its own continuity and priority over the individual. Prior to individuals is the community. In it they were born and exist. It is the whole, and the individuals the parts. The individual, part of a whole, has to be subordinate to the community. This is the egoistic essence of communism. This is also the egoistic essence of individualism: the individual declares, in turn, that his being is the only real one. He says: I conceive the state as a means for my happiness; society was established for my felicity. I am myself. That which is of God is divine – but I am not God; what is human belongs to humanity. I am what is real. My good is what I want to possess, not what others want to give me, and if they don’t want to give it to me, I shall get it somehow.
4. COMMUNISM AND ANARCHY RESULT IN EGOISM

Antonio Caso, philosopher, LA PERSONA HUMANA Y EL ESTADO TOTALITARIO, (translated by Rene Cantu and John H. Haddox), 1941, p. 192.

The only solution to conflict is axiological, ethical, and juridical. Communism and individualism oppose rights, the law. The issue is that of two individuals, two “biological units,”” which tear at each other. Above tyrannical communities and individuals who believe themselves absolute within an anarchy there is something else: spiritual human society composed of persons. Just persons and just societies must prevail. Communism and anarchism are two errors that have the same baneful root: an overvaluation of intrinsic and vital egoism.
5. INDIVIDUALISM AND RATIONALISM AREN’T MORAL. ONLY PERSONALISM IS MORAL BECAUSE IT AFFIRMS SPIRITUALITY

Antonio Caso, philosopher, EL PELIGRO DEL HOMBRE, (translated by Dario Prieto and John H. Haddox), 1942, p. 50-51.

Individualism and rationalism are false because they represent the improper use of reason in metaphysics and ethics. Reason, yes; rationalism, no. Personalism, yes, because it stands for spirituality and affirmation; individualism, no, because individualism fails to recognize the moral law, the necessity for each person to realize his place in the midst of a society that is, inescapably, the spiritual heir of all the centuries, the work of generations that precede us, and in the present, a spiritual union, a solidarity, of efforts to form our own personality by relations with other persons. Tradition is love for what used to be; solidarity is love for the present. The human person is realized, in terms of tradition and solidarity, both through self-respect and through love for others.

PERSONALISM IS A BAD MORAL OBJECTIVE

1. POLITICS CONTROLLED BY PERSONALISM EMPIRICALLY HURTS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Jesse Souza, Professor, University of Heildelberg. BEYOND HYBRIDISM AND PERSONALISM: A NEW INTERPRETATION OF THE BRAZILIAN DILEMMA. http://www.iuperj.br/professores/texto1jesse.htm. Accessed April 20, 2003. p-np.

Personalism, in the works of Buarque, is understood both as a cultural and social heritage from the pre-modern Portugal which colonized Brazil, as well as a consequence of the rural inheritance which was implanted here. Personalism is pre-modern because it implies a dominance of primary sentiments and emotions over the modern calculation of interests. For Sérgio Buarque, this cultural trace would take on peculiar institutional forms such as patrimonialism in politics, based on the emotional choices typical of a kinship based society leading to the constitution of a universe of political and economic privileges that impede the development of universal standards in politics and of a horizontal solidarity based on rational class interests. The theme of patrimonialism, the most important guiding force of Brazilian social and political criticism since that time, would be developed by various authors including Raimundo Faoro, Simon Schwartsman and Fernado Henrique Cardoso, and would become the dominant vision, whether in the reflexive realm or in the practical-political realm, among the explanations about the causes for the Brazil's relative backwardness.

2. PERSONALISM WRONG LOCATES THE ESSENCE OF BEING IN A PERSON’S MENTAL CAPACITIES, INSTEAD OF LOOKING TO THE INHERENT MORAL WORTH OF HUMANS

James W. Walters, Ethics professor at Loma Linda University, “Is Koko a person?” DIALOGUE, 1997. p. 34.

In physicalism, the essence of a person is found in his or her biological make-up. All humans are persons, ipso facto. Accordingly, Baby P (see sidebar) is surely a person, and so is Baby K, only she is severely handicapped. The physicalist tries to save every human life possible: the 400 gram newborn with the remotest chance of survival and the Alzheimer’s patient who might be kept alive an extra year. Although William E. May, the Roman Catholic theologian, distinguishes "moral beings" from "beings of moral worth," both categories are in the physicalist camp. He argues that moral beings are those creatures who are "capable of performing acts of understanding, of choice, and of love." These humans are moral beings because they are "minded" entities. However, not all humans are "minded" moral beings (i.e. anencephalic newborns). But regardless, all humans are "beings of moral worth" because all share "something rooted in their being human beings to begin with." This "something is the principle immanent in human beings, a constituent and defining element...that makes them to be what they and who they are...; it is a principle of immateriality or of transcendence from the limitations of materially individuated existence." Personalism. Contrasted with physicalism, personalism sees the essence of a person as being located in one's mental capacities and ability to use these in satisfying ways.