MARITAIN, Jacques (1882-1973):
French CHRISTIAN philosopher and leading exponent of
NEO-THOMISM. After World War II he became the French ambassador to the VATICAN but moved
to Princeton University in 1948. He developed his political PHILOSOPHY based on the
distinction between the PERSON and an INDIVIDUAL. As an individual the human being exists
as part of a greater whole. As a person the human has inherent spiritual VALUE and
FREEDOM. Marxism and Fascism, he argued, value the individual while CHRISTIANITY respects
the person. His many works include True Humanism (1936).