Abstract

Josef Pieper is probably well-known for his book onThe Four Cardi-nal Virtues, and is probably well-read by those in search of contempo-rary illustrations of the relevance of St. Thomas Aquinas in the teach-ing of personal and social ethics. There is much more to J. Pieper than this and I would like to show in what follows how this German phi-losopher rediscovers the real nature of philosophical reflection, as also philosophy’s essential relation to theology, an authentic and inde-pendent interpretation of Aquinas, and the philosophical style of this very literate philosopher, Josef Pieper.