Germain Gabriel Grisez (September 30, 1929 – February 1, 2018) was a French-American philosopher.[1] Grisez's development of ideas from Thomas Aquinas has redirected Catholic thought and changed the way it has engaged with secular moral philosophy. In 'The First Principle of Practical Reason: A Commentary on the Summa Theologiae, I-II, Q. 94, A. 2' (1965), Grisez attacked the neo-scholastic interpretation of Aquinas as holding that moral norms are derived from methodologically antecedent knowledge of human nature. Grisez defended the idea of metaphysical free choice and proposed a natural law theory of practical reasoning and moral judgment which, although broadly Thomistic, departs from Aquinas on significant points.[2]
Grisez was Professor of Christian Ethics at Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg, MD[3] from 1979 to his retirement in 2009.
- ^ "The Making of a Moral Theologian | EWTN". EWTN Global Catholic Television Network. Retrieved 2021-10-10.
- ^ George, Robert P. (1995). Honderich, Ted (ed.). The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 328. ISBN 0-19-866132-0.
- ^ New documents reveal inner workings of papal birth control commission