Luigi Taparelli

 ( 1793 Births ) 

Luigi Taparelli (born Prospero Taparelli d'Azeglio; 24 November 17932 September 1862) was an Italian scholar of the Society of Jesus and counter-revolutionary who coined the term social justice and elaborated the principles of subsidiarity as part of his natural law theory of just social order.Behr, Thomas. "Luigi Taparelli D'Azeglio, SJ and the Revival of Scholastic Natural Law," The Journal of Markets and Morality, Spring 2003.Behr, Thomas. Social Justice and Subsidiarity: Luigi Taparelli and the Origins of Modern Catholic Social Thought (Washington DC: Catholic University of American Press, December 2019). He was the brother of the Italian Diplomat Massimo d'Azeglio.

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Biography His father, Cesare Taparelli, was at one time ambassador of Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia to the Holy See, and his brother, Massimo, was one of the Italian ministers of State. Cesare was a member of the associations Amicizia cristiana and Amicizia cattolica, and a main contributor to L'Ape, the first Catholic journal in Italy. Luigi was educated under the Piarists at Siena and in the Atheneo of Turin. He attended the military School of St Cyr at Paris for some months, but he was not destined to be a soldier. He entered the Society of Jesus at Rome, 12 Nov. 1814. He was the first rector of the Roman College after its restoration to the Jesuits by Leo XII. He taught philosophy for sixteen years at Palermo.

Taparelli cofounded the journal Civiltà Cattolica in 1850 and wrote for it for twelve years. He was particularly concerned with the problems arising from the Industrial Revolution. He was a proponent of reviving the philosophical school of Thomism, and his social teachings influenced Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical, Rerum novarum (On the Condition of the Working Classes).Behr, Thomas. "Catholic Social Teaching" in The Development of Catholic Social Teaching: A Volume of Scholarly Essays. G. Bradley; E. Brugger (eds.). (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019).

In 1825, he became convinced that the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas needed to be revived, thinking that the subjectivism philosophy of René Descartes leads to dramatic errors in morality and politics. He reasoned that whereas different opinions on the natural sciences have no effect on nature, unclear metaphysics ideas about humanity and society can lead to social chaos.

The Catholic Church had not yet developed a clear philosophical view regarding the great social changes that were appearing in the early nineteenth century in Europe, which led to much confusion among the ecclesiastical hierarchy and laity. In response to this problem, Taparelli applied the methods of Thomism to these social problems in a coherent manner.Behr, Thomas. "Taparelli on Cult, Culture and Authentic Progress," Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly, Summer 2020.

After the social revolutions of 1848, the church decided to enter the conflict raging between the laissez-faire liberal capitalists and the socialism. Up until then, the church relied primarily on evangelical charitable activities. In 1850, Taparelli, until then a liberal and revolutionary, was granted permission by Pope Pius IX to co-found Civiltà Cattolica with Carlo Maria Curci. In particular, he attacked the tendency to separate morality from positive law, and also the "heterodox spirit" of unconstrained freedom of conscience which destroyed the unity of society.Taparelli, Luigi. "Critical Analysis of the First Principles of Political Economy," Thomas Behr, ed., trans. Journal of Markets & Morality, Fall 2011.Behr, Thomas. "Luigi Taparelli's Natural Law Approach to Social Economics," Journal des Économistes et des Études Humaines, Summer 2002.

His major ideas include social justice and subsidiarity. He viewed society as not a monolithic group of individuals, but of various levels of sub-societies, with individuals being members of these. Each level of society has both rights and duties which should be recognized and supported. All levels of society should cooperate rationally and not resort to competition and conflict.

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Works His chief work, "Saggio teoretico di diritto naturale appogiato sul fatto", i. e. "A Theoretical Essay on Natural Right from an Historical Standpoint" (2 vols., 7th ed., Rome, 1883), was in a way the beginning of modern sociology. It was translated into German language (Ratisbon, 1845) and twice into French language (Tournai, 1851; Paris, 1896). Herein was developed the position, at once widely accepted in conservative circles on the Continent, that the normal origin of civil government was by extension of paternal power through the patriarchal head of a group of families. This essay was later abridged into "An Elementary Course in Natural Right" (6th ed., Naples, 1860; also in French, Tournai, 1864; and in Spanish language, Paris, 1875), which was in use as a text-book in the University of Modena. Next in importance is his "Esame critico degli ordini rappresentativi nella società moderna", i. e. "Critical Examination of Representative Government in Modern Society" (2 vols., Rome, 1854; in Spanish, Madrid, 1867). Besides his striking monographs on "Nationality" (Rome, 1847), "Sovereignty of the People" (Palermo, 1848; Florence, 1849), and "The Grounds of War" (Genoa, 1847) he left a long list of articles in the Civiltà Cattolica chiefly on subjects in political economy and social rights, as well as an equally long list of book reviews on kindred topics, which were acute and penetrating essays.

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Bibliography

• Maria Lucia Tarantino (2025). 9788864581286, Tangram edizioni scientifiche. ISBN 9788864581286
• Luciano Malusa (2025). 9788833133492, Viella. ISBN 9788833133492
• Behr, Thomas, Luigi Taparelli and the 19th-Century Neo-Thomistic "Revolution" in Natural Law and Catholic Social Sciences, Doctoral Thesis, State University of New York at Buffalo, 2000.

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