Robert Spaemann


Robert Spaemann was a German Roman Catholic philosopher. He is considered a member of the Ritter School.
Spaemann's focus was on Christian ethics. He was known for his work in bioethics, ecology, and human rights. Although not yet widely translated into languages other than his native German, Spaemann was internationally known and his work is highly regarded by Pope Benedict XVI.

Life

Robert Spaemann was born in Berlin in 1927 to Heinrich Spaemann and Ruth Krämer. His parents were originally radical atheists, but both entered the Catholic Church in 1930, and after his mother's early death his father was ordained a Catholic priest in 1942.
Spaemann studied at the University of Münster, where, in 1962, he was awarded his Habilitation. He was Professor of Philosophy at the Universities of Stuttgart, Heidelberg, and Munich, where he worked until he was made Emeritus Professor in 1992. He is also Honorary Professor at University of Salzburg and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Catholic University of Lublin in 2012.

Work

Spaemann's two most important works are Glück und Wohlwollen and Personen. In Happiness and Benevolence, Spaemann sets forth a thesis that happiness is derived from benevolent acting: that we are created by God as social beings to help one another find truth and meaning in an often confused and disordered world.
He participated in former Pope Benedict's Schülerkreis, a private conference with Joseph Ratzinger convened since the late 1970s.

Books in English