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Secondary Sources

A useful secondary literature exists related to De Koninck’s work and the subjects in philosophy and theology about which he taught and wrote. The bibliography below is The Project’s current list of secondary sources, focusing on those that treat of De Koninck’s work and its themes in a substantive fashion. Other articles, books, or essays that consider De Koninck’s work to a lesser degree or in passing, but still engage with his themes in compelling or worthwhile ways, are included in the “Also of Interest” section, after the more direct sources. This list is also a work in progress. Please contact The Editor about any omissions or additions.

Biographical and General Sources
Biographical

Armour, Leslie. “De Koninck, Charles.” In Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Philosophers, edited by Stuart Brown, Diane Collinson, and Robert Wilkinson, 171–72. New York: Routledge, 2012. [link; Google Books]

Armour, Leslie. “The Philosophy of Charles De Koninck.” In The Writings of Charles De Koninck: Volume One, edited and translated by Ralph McInerny, 1–68. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2008.

Boyancé, Michel, and Bernard Guéry, eds. Le discernement des habitus: Autour de Charles De Koninck. Paris: Les Presses Universitaires de l’IPC, 2023.

 

De Koninck, Godelieve. Souvenirs pour demain. Les Copies de la Capitale: Québec, 2011.


De Koninck, Thomas. “Charles De Koninck: A Biographical Sketch.” In The Writings of Charles De Koninck: Volume One, edited and translated by Ralph McInerny, 69–97. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2008.


Dewan, O.P., Lawrence. “De Koninck, Charles (1906-1965).” In The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature, edited by Eugene Benson and William Toye, 2nd ed., 283–84. Toronto/New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Gagné, Armand, ed. Mélanges à La Mémoire de Charles De Koninck. Québec: Presses de l’Université Laval, 1968.

Lockquell, Clément. “In Memoriam: Charles De Koninck.” Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue Canadienne de Philosophie 4, no. 1 (1965): 96–98. [link]

Madiran, Jean, ed. “Charles De Koninck.” Itinéraires: Chroniques et Documents 66 (Septembre-Octobre 1962). [link]

— This special issue dedicated to De Koninck’s work includes:

Jean Madiran, “Un univers sans personne” (3–18)

André Clement, “Charles De Koninck,” (19–40)

Ralph McInerny, “Un philosophe de l'ordre” (41–74)

Marcel De Corte, “Morale et politique,” (75–89)

Aline Lizotte, “Méthodologie scientifique,” (90–103)

Marcel Clement, “Sciences sociales,” (104–115)

Alphonse Saint-Jacques and Robert Labrie, “Primauté du bien commun” (116–138)

— It also includes an early edition of Gagné’s bibliography of De Koninck, as well as four texts by De Koninck:

“L’être principal de l'homme est de penser” (163–167)

“Le cosmos comme tendance vers la pensée” (168–188)

“Sur la tolérance: la bénignité du chrétien” (189–196)

“Liberté des consciences et droit naturel” (197–215)

McInerny, D. Q. “De Koninck, Charles.” In Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought, Social Science, and Social Policy: Volume 3, Supplement, edited by Michael L. Coulter, Richard S. Myers, and Joseph A. Varacalli, 65–67. Lanham/Toronto/Plymouth: Scarecrow Press, 2012. [link; Google Books]

McInerny, Ralph M. “Charles de Koninck: A Philosopher of Order.” The New Scholasticism 39, no. 4 (1965): 491–516. [link]

Michel, Florian. La pensée catholique en Amérique du nord: réseaux intellectuels et échanges culturels entre l’Europe, le Canada et les Etats-Unis (années 1920-1960). Pages d’histoire-essai. Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 2010. — See Ch. 3 in particular, pp. 191–274. [link; Google Books]

Oesterle, John. “Charles De Koninck and Wit.” Laval théologique et philosophique 21, no. 1 (1965): 13–15. https://doi.org/10.7202/1020067ar.

Trépanier, Emmanuel. “In Memoriam: Charles De Koninck.” Laval théologique et philosophique 21, no. 1 (1965): 7–12. https://doi.org/10.7202/1020066ar.

Trott, Elizabeth. “Charles De Koninck (1906-1965): Laval’s Eminent Philosopher of Nature.” Ultimate Reality and Meaning 31, no. 4 (2008): 241–259. [link; open access]


Roy, Christian. “Charles De Koninck at the Crossroads of Catholic Moral Thought: The ‘Common Good’ Controversy and Its Echoes in the Americas.” Historical Papers: Canadian Society of Church History, 2006. [link; open access]

Speculative Philosophy
Speculative

Andres, Anthony. “Charles De Koninck on Contingency in the Natural World.” The Aquinas Review 24 (2021): 1–20. [link; open access]

Armour, Leslie. “Science & Religion in the Work of Charles De Koninck.” Laval théologique et philosophique 47, no. 3 (1991): 387–400. https://doi.org/10.7202/400631ar.

Beltrán, Oscar Horacio. “Charles de Koninck y La Epistemología de Santo Tomás de Aquino.” In Semana Tomista. Intérpretes Del Pensamiento de Santo Tomás, XXXVI. Sociedad Tomista Argentina; Universidad Católica Argentina. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Buenos Aires., 2011. https://repositorio.uca.edu.ar/handle/123456789/4124.

Brungardt, John G. “Charles De Koninck and the Sapiential Character of Natural Philosophy.” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 90, no. 1 (2016): 1–24. https://doi.org/10.5840/acpq20161570.

———. “St. Thomas and Modern Natural Science: Reconsidering Abstraction from Matter.” In Cognoscens in Actu Est Ipsum Cognitum in Actu: Sobre Los Tipos y Grados de Conocimiento, edited by Carlos Augusto Casanova G. and Ignacio Serrano del Pozo. Santiago: RIL Editores, 2018.

Coughlin, R. Glen. “De Koninck on the Existence of a Science of Metaphysics.” Thomistica, September 16, 2021. https://thomistica.net/essays/coughlincdk.

———. “The Role of Natural Philosophy in the Beginning of Metaphysics.” The Thomist: A Speculative Quarterly Review 84, no. 3 (2020): 395–434. https://doi.org/10.1353/tho.2020.0022.

Fradet, Pierre-Alexandre. “Charles De Koninck et la pensée spéculative contemporaine (Meillassoux, Grant, Garcia, Bergson) : Une étude comparative autour de la question du réel.” Laval théologique et philosophique 72, no. 2 (2016): 227–59. https://doi.org/10.7202/1039309ar (open access).

———. Le désir du réel dans la philosophie. Montréal (Québec): Nota Bene, 2022.

Hall, O.P., Columban. “Finding Wisdom: Why Metaphysics Depends on a Proof for Immaterial Being.” M.A. Thesis, Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology (Berkeley, CA), 2024.

Hubbard, J. M. “De Koninck on the Philosophy of Nature.” Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 17, no. 1 (January 6, 2014): 140–45. https://doi.org/10.1353/log.2014.0006.

Ide, Pascal. “La philosophie de la nature de Charles De Koninck.” Laval théologique et philosophique 66, no. 3 (2010): 459–501. http://dx.doi.org/10.7202/045335ar (open access).

Lamonde, Claude. “La philosophie et les sciences expérimentales dans les premiers écrits de Charles De Koninck, 1934-1940.” M.A. Thesis, University of Laval, 1972.

Lince de Faria, Marta. “De Koninck and Aquinas on Matter and Evolution.” Forum. Supplement to Acta Philosophica 3 (2017): 375–394. https://doi.org/10.17421/2498-9746-03-22 (open access).

Waldstein, Susan. “Mercy and Self-Gift: Exploring the Implicit Connections between Charles DeKoninck’s Evolutionary Biology and Theological Principles.” Ph.D. Diss., Université de Fribourg, 2013. [link; open access]

Practical Philosophy
Practical

Alexander, Irene. “Human Dignity and the Primacy of the Common Good According to the Wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas.” Ph.D., Ave Maria University, 2013. [link]

Armour, Leslie. “Charles De Koninck, the Common Good, and the Human Environment.” Laval théologique et philosophique 43, no. 1 (1987): 67–80. https://doi.org/10.7202/400278ar.

Eschmann, O.P., I. Thomas. “In Defense of Maritain.” The Aquinas Review 4 (1997): 133–69. [link]

De Koninck, Thomas. “Dignité de la personne et primauté du bien commun.” Laval théologique et philosophique 70, no. 1 (2014): 13–25. https://doi.org/10.7202/1028162ar.

Fradet, Pierre-Alexandre. “Propos sur l’image de Charles De Koninck.” Nouvelles Vues 17, no. Winter-Spring (2016). [link]

———. “Célébrons l’ignorance! L’héritage bergsonien de Charles De Koninck.” In La pensée éducative et les intellectuels au Québec: La génération 1900-1915, edited by Jean-François Cardin, 75–93. Québec: Presses de l’Université Laval, 2020.

Guilbeau, O.P., Aquinas. “Charles De Koninck’s Defense of the Primacy of the Common Good.” Ph.D. Diss., University of Fribourg (Switzerland), 2016.

———. “Was the Polish Pope a French Personalist? An Indication from Evangelium Vitae.” Nova et Vetera 13, no. 4 (2015): 1229–44. [link]

———. “What Makes the Common Good Common? Key Points from Charles De Koninck.” Nova et Vetera 20, no. 3 (2022): 739–52. [link]

Keys, Mary M. “The Problem of the Common Good and the Contemporary Relevance of Thomas Aquinas.” Ph.D., University of Toronto (Canada), 1998. [link]

———. “Personal Dignity and the Common Good: A Twentieth-Century Thomistic Dialogue,” in Catholicism, Liberalism, and Communitarianism, ed. Kenneth Grasso, Gerald Bradley, and R. Hunt (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1995), 173–96. [link; Google Books]

Larochelle, Yves. “Finalité et affectivité : Vie humaine et projet divin chez Charles De Koninck et Michel Henry.” Laval théologique et philosophique 70, no. 1 (2014): 61–84. https://doi.org/10.7202/1028165ar (open access).

Luquet, Sylvain. “Charles De Koninck et le bien commun.” Laval théologique et philosophique 70, no. 1 (2014): 45–60. https://doi.org/10.7202/1028164ar (open access).

Nicholas, Jeffery. “The Common Good, Rights, and Catholic Social Thought: Prolegomena to Any Future Account of Common Goods.” Solidarity: The Journal of Catholic Social Thought and Secular Ethics 5, no. 1 (December 23, 2015). [link; open access]

O’Neill, Taylor Patrick. “Was Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange a Personalist? A Rapprochement Between the Individual-Person Distinction and the Primacy of the Common Good Contra Maritain’s Personalism” Reality: A Journal for Philosophical Discourse, March 20, 2020. https://realityjournal.org/2020/03/20/article-was-reginald-garrigou-lagrange-a-personalist/.

Santos Rodríguez, Patricia. El humanismo político y jurídico de Louis Lachance. Madrid: Fundación Universitaria Española, 2008. (see Anexo I, pp. 317–329, “Análisis de la discusión sostenida entre Charles De Koninck y Father Eschmann en relación a la polémica del personalismo y el bien común.”)

Smith, Benjamin L. “The Meaning and Importance of Common Goods.” The Thomist: A Speculative Quarterly Review 80, no. 4 (2016): 583–600. https://doi.org/10.1353/tho.2016.0040.

Smith, Michael A. Human Dignity and the Common Good in the Aristotelian-Thomistic Tradition. Lewiston, N.Y: Mellen University Press, 1995. [link; Google Books]

Walshe, O.Praem. Sebastian. “Fidelissimus Discipulus Eius: Charles De Koninck’s Exposition of Aquinas’ Doctrine of the Common Good.” The Aquinas Review 19 (2014 2013): 1–21. [link; open access]

———. “The Primacy of the Common Good as the Root of Personal Dignity in the Doctrine of St Thomas Aquinas.” Ph.D., Pontificia Studiorum Universitas a S. Thoma Aq. in Urbe, 2006. [link; ScribD]

Theology
Theology

Cessario, O.P., Romanus. “Ego Sapientia: The Mariology of Laval Thomism.” In Theology Needs Philosophy: Acting against Reason Is Contrary to the Nature of God, edited by Matthew L. Lamb, 227–39. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2016. [link; Google Books]

Gardner, Katherine M. “The Lord Possessed Me in the Beginning of His Ways: Mary and the Trinitarian Order of the Universe (A Commentary on Charles De Koninck’s Ego Sapientia: The Wisdom That Is Mary).” Ave Maria University, 2013. [link; open access]

Olver, Jordan. “Love of God above Self.” The Thomist: A Speculative Quarterly Review 80, no. 1 (2016): 97–131. https://doi.org/10.1353/tho.2016.0005.

Sullivan, O.P., Ezra. A Thomistic Account of Self-Transcending Love: Capreolous, Cajetan, and De Koninck Reply to Scotus. STL Thesis, Dominican House of Studies. Washington, D.C., 2011.

———. “Natural Self-Transcending Love According to Thomas Aquinas.” Nova et Vetera 12, no. 3 (2014): 913–46. [link; open access]
 

Waldstein, Susan. “Did the Blessed Virgin Mary Die?” Church Life Journal, August 13, 2021. [link].

Online Essays
Online-Essays

Capizzi, Joseph E., and V. Bradley Lewis. “Bullish on the Common Good?” Public Discourse. May 11, 2020. [link]

Hannon, Michael W. “Man the Political Animal: On the Intrinsic Goodness of Political Community.” Public Discourse. May 16, 2013. [link]

Hibbs, Thomas S. “A Place in the Cosmos.” First Things, February 2009. [link]

Lewis, V. Bradley. “The Sapiential Witness of Charles De Koninck.” Public Discourse. August 15, 2022. [link]

Pecknold, Chad C. “False Notions of the Common Good.” First Things, May 23, 2020. [link]


Schmitz, Matthew. “Is China a Model of the Common Good?” First Things. November 26, 2019. [link]

Online Videos
Online-Vides

Guilbeau, O.P. Aquinas. “Friendship and the Common Good.” The Thomistic Institute. April 30, 2020. [link to YouTube]

Also of Interest
Interest

Speculative Philosophy

Blum, Christopher O. “The Prospect of an Aristotelian Biology.” Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 87 (2013): 89–101. https://doi.org/10.5840/acpaproc20143315.

Dewan, Lawrence. “The Importance of Substance.” In Form and Being: Studies in Thomistic Metaphysics, 96–130. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2006. [link; Google Books]

Simard, Émile. La nature et la portée de la méthode scientifique: exposé et textes choisis de philosophie des sciences. Québec: Presses Universitaires Laval, 1956.

Practical Philosophy

Blanchette, Oliva. For a Fundamental Social Ethic: A Philosophy of Social Change. New York: Philosophical Library, 1973. — The second chapter incorporates De Koninck’s work on the common good. [link; open access

Dupré, Louis. “The Common Good and the Open Society.” The Review of Politics 55, no. 4 (1993): 687–712. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1407612.

Foisy-Geoffroy, Dominique. “Le Rapport de la Commission Tremblay (1953-1956), testament politique de la pensée traditionaliste canadienne-française.” Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française 60, no. 3 (2007): 257–94. https://doi.org/10.7202/015960ar.

Hren, Joshua. Middle-Earth and the Return of the Common Good: J. R. R. Tolkien and Political Philosophy. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2018. [Google Books link]

Lewis, V. Bradley. “‘Wine with Plato and Hemlock with Socrates’: Charles McCoy’s Dialogue with Leo Strauss and the Character of Thomistic Political Philosophy.” In Leo Strauss and His Catholic Readers, edited by Geoffrey M. Vaughan, 47–76. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2018.

———. “The Neo-Thomist Theory of the Common Good and Catholic Social Teaching.” SSRN Scholarly Paper. Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network, 2014. [link; open access]

Nicholas, Jeffery. “Local Communities and Globalization in Caritas in Veritate.” Solidarity: The Journal of Catholic Social Thought and Secular Ethics 1, no. 1 (March 21, 2011). [link; open access]

Waldstein, Edmund. “Book Reviews: Marcia Pally, Commonwealth and Covenant: Economics, Politics, and Theologies of Relationality.” Studies in Christian Ethics, July 19, 2018. [link]

Vermersch, Dominique. “Science économique et bien commun: un mariage impossible ?” Laval théologique et philosophique 70, no. 1 (2014): 27–44. https://doi.org/10.7202/1028163ar.

Online Essays

Novak, Michael. “Three Precisions: Common Good.” First Things. December 2, 2009. [link]

Pecknold, Chad C. “Defend Us From Ideology.” First Things. May 8, 2020. [link]

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