Australian academic philosophers have made their mark significantly over recent decades, amongst them, Catholic philosophers and defenders.
Do we share a common humanity, and if so, what does it consist in? How ought we to live: according to objective measures of right and wrong, virtue and vice, or alternatively, according to the dictates of personal impulse and egoistic self-interest? Are the answers to these questions ultimately subjective, or is the quest for objective truth a fruitful pursuit capable of uniting otherwise disparate individuals and communities?
While most reflective people have asked these questions at some point in their lives, academic philosophers have turned the investigation of these and similar questions into a profession. Academic philosophers may thus appear to inhabit a rarefied ivory tower. However, reality in this case not be further from appearances. Both in Australia and internationally, philosophers have been quoted in Supreme Court judgments, drawn audiences by the thousands, influenced the direction of religious movements, contributed to high-profile discussions of public interest, and perhaps most importantly, directly shaped the minds and hearts of young Australians by the thousands. (According to reports funded by the Australian Teaching and Learning Council, over 20,000 students enrol in a bachelor-level philosophy course in Australia every year; philosophers have also spearheaded the introduction of philosophical curriculum at the primary and secondary school level in almost all Australian states).
Philosophy in Australia, however, has not had much of a reputation for being friendly to religious values. Some of the most well-known Australian philosophers were strongly atheistic and hostile to religion. In 1943, the New South Wales Parliament condemned the statements on religion and education of then-Professor of Philosophy at Sydney University, John Anderson, as "calculated to undermine the principles which constitute a Christian State." Australian ethicist Peter Singer has also made his atheism clear. In his book Ethics he remarks: "We have no need to postulate gods who hand down commandments to us because we understand ethics as a natural phenomenon."
Nevertheless, there is also a distinctive tradition of Catholic philosophy in Australia. It is far from an organised movement, and thus is best characterised by way of particular examples rather than in general terms.
It will be helpful to begin with one of the most vivid encounters of Catholic philosophy with public Australian life: the High Court's judgment on the 1992 Mabo case, which overturned the existing principle of terra nullius to recognise indigenous land rights in Australia for the first time. As the philosopher and historian James Franklin has shown, this event was marked by the shape of Catholic philosophy, since the judges' decision involved not only a change in law, but an appeal to principles of justice more fundamental than the law itself. In their decision, the judges appealed to the fact that international law "declares the existence of universal human rights", especially the right of "equality before the law." One of the judges, William Deane, explicitly noted that such rights stem from the Catholic natural law tradition of ethics. Natural law, as he put it, "provides a philosophical basis for seeing such things as human rights as going deeper than any particular act of Parliament or what have you."
A number of Australian Catholic philosophers have done much to defend and promote the Catholic conception of natural law, notably the Dominican friar and philosopher Patrick Farrell (d. 1981), and the Adelaide-born legal philosopher and jurist, John Finnis. Finnis has a strong claim to being one of the most influential Catholic philosophers alive: his original defence and articulation of the Catholic natural law tradition (especially his book, Natural Law and Natural Rights) played a key role in introducing Catholic natural law theory into the curricula of contemporary secular jurisprudence and ethics university courses around the world. Another well-known defender of natural law is David Oderberg, who has defended natural law ethics in the wake of the utilitarianism championed by Peter Singer and other secular ethicists.
Wielding philosophical influence at a more grassroots level was the Marist priest Austin Woodbury (1899-1979), perhaps best known as the founder of the Aquinas Academy (which persists, despite splintering, to the present day). The academy, which taught a great number of courses in Thomistic philosophy, would at its peak rival the offerings of secular university philosophy departments in the breadth of its classes and its enrolments (with some classes enrolling over 200 students). While Woodbury's students were primarily Catholics, his influence on Australian intellectual life continues to be felt through his students and disciples.
Philosophers continue to debate the question of whether reason tells for or against the existence of God. In this realm of ideas - the philosophy of religion - one Australian philosopher whose significance has only recently come into greater recognition is the Marist priest, Barry Miller (1923-2006). Miller's work included the defence of new arguments for the existence of God, articulated in a philosophical trilogy published over the course of the 1990s and 2000s which promises to be of lasting influence. In 2014, the first monograph appeared analyzing Miller's thought was published; no doubt, more will come.
The foregoing is by no means intended as a representative, let alone exhaustive, sample, but it at least provides us with concrete cases with which to reflect on the nature of the Catholic philosophical tradition in Australia. What can it tell us about this tradition? Strictly speaking, very little. One can identify a loose common thread of a broadly Aristotelian-Thomistic perspective on reality in most of the aforementioned Catholic philosophers: a commitment to the objectivity and possibility of the pursuit of truth; the harmony of faith and reason; the knowability of God's existence; and the inalienable dignity of the human person. However, none of these commitments distinguish Australian Catholic philosophers from (e.g.) their British or American counterparts, nor even necessarily from Australian philosophers of other religious denominations.
Nevertheless, it does point to the way in which Australian Catholics have been consistently engaged in high-profile academic philosophy (to the point of becoming a significant minority in the profession), and that does seem to set Australian Catholic philosophers apart from members of other religious affiliations. As Anglican theologian Michael Jensen recently put it: "It is certainly interesting how seriously Australian Catholics have taken philosophy over the years: Sydney Anglicans cannot point to a sustained development of a philosophical position in the same way."
This is not surprising, of course, given the Catholic Church's long-standing emphasis of the importance of philosophy (for a recent example, see John Paul II's Encyclical letter Fides et ratio) and its mandated philosophical formation for its seminarians. Indeed, two of Australia's Catholic bishops are trained academic philosophers: Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher has contributed extensively to philosophical and public discourse on bioethical issues such as IVF and euthanasia; furthermore, the newly ordained Bishop of Sandhurst, Shane Mackinlay, is an expert on the philosophy of French Catholic intellectual Jean-Luc Marion.
The diverse character of Australian Catholic philosophy is surely a good thing. The breadth of their pursuits enable Australian Catholic philosophers to speak to and on behalf of a range of religious traditions beyond their own, which is an important service in the contemporary academic climate. Nobel-Prize winning novelist Patrick White once wrote: "I believe most people have a religious faith, but are afraid that by admitting it they will forfeit their right to be considered intellectuals. That is particularly common in Australia where the intellectual is a comparatively recent phenomenon." If White's assessment can be aptly applied to contemporary academe (as I think it can), then the voices of Australian Catholic philosophers will continue to be much needed as a balance to the trajectory of academic and public discourse.