The Jacques Maritain Center and the History of Philosophy Forum are proud to announce a new partnership in support of the research and study of the great historical traditions of human reasoning at the University of Notre Dame.
As part of this arrangement, the Maritain Center will underwrite the History of Philosophy Forum as a major sponsored initiative, supporting signature activities that include programs bringing researchers from around the world to Notre Dame each year, and a wide range of activities drawing on the expertise of over sixty faculty who work in this area in many different departments across the university. The Center and the Forum will also share a director and staff.
“This relationship will enable the Forum to build on its successes of the past three years and develop new ways of making Notre Dame a center of excellence in the history of philosophy,” said Therese Cory, the director of the Maritain Center and the History of Philosophy Forum. “We have some exciting initiatives in the works for undergraduates and collaborative research – stay tuned.”
As Notre Dame’s oldest center, founded in 1958 in honor of the influential Catholic thinker Jacques Maritain, the Maritain Center has a longstanding interest in the great traditions of human reasoning, and particularly in the thought of Thomas Aquinas, whose ideas Maritain sought to develop and place in conversation with modern problems. In The Person and the Common Good, Maritain famously wrote that although he valued the thought of Thomas Aquinas above all, thinkers from across the whole of human history indispensably manifest, in their multiplicity, “the diverse aspects of the search for truth” that characterizes the human person. By joining forces with the History of Philosophy Forum, the Center carries on this commitment to the enduring value of the philosophers of the past, who continue to motivate, inspire, and guide us in our search for truth today.
The History of Philosophy Forum originated in 2020 as a collaboration between faculty from the Philosophy Department and the Program of Liberal Studies. Since then, it has grown to become Notre Dame’s hub for activity in the history of philosophy, broadly construed as the human quest for understanding through reason. It is especially committed to stimulating “cross-boundary” conversation and collaboration in studying historical philosophers, encouraging scholars and students to engage across the artificial boundaries of time-periods, intellectual traditions, academic disciplines, methodologies, and geographical location.
Originally published by at maritain.nd.edu on November 15, 2023.