St. Augustine's Press
While many revere von Hildebrand as a religious author, few realize that he was a
philosopher of great stature and importance. Those who knew von Hildebrand as
philosopher held him in the highest esteem. Louis Bouyer, for example, once said that
“von Hildebrand was the most important Catholic philosopher in Europe between the
two world wars.” Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger expressed even greater esteem when he
said: “I am personally convinced that, when, at some time in the future, the intellectual history of the Catholic Church in the twentieth century is written, the name of Dietrich von Hildebrand will be most prominent among the figures of our time.”
The Heart is an accessible yet important philosophical contribution to the
understanding of the human person. In this work von Hildebrand is concerned with
rehabilitating the affective life of the human person. He thinks that for too long
philosophers have held it in suspicion and thought of it as embedded in the body and hence as being much inferior to intellect and will. In reality, he argues, the heart, the center of affectivity, has many different levels, including an eminently personal level; at this level affectivity is just as important a form of personal life as intellect and will. Von Hildebrand develops the idea that properly personal affectivity, far than tending away from an objective relation to being, is in fact one major way in which we transcend ourselves and give being its due. Von Hildebrand also developed the important idea that the heart “in many respects is more the real self of the person than his intellect or will.”
At the same time, the author shows full realism about the possible deformities of
affective life; he offers rich analyses of what he calls affective atrophy and affective
hypertrophy. The second half of The Heart offers a remarkable analysis of the affectivity of the God-Man.
An Analysis of Human and
Divine Affectivity
Edited by John Henry Crosby; Preface by John Haldane; Introduction by John F. Crosby; Edmund Husserl on
Dietrich von Hildebrand
208 pages, 6” x 9”, jacketed clothbound, $24.00
ISBN: 1-58731-357-X
preface, introduction, notes, biographical timeline, index
world rights
publication date: October 2006