Card. CAMILLO RUINI's Lecture
"Humanism and Science:
an Indispensable Synthesis for
the Third Millennium"
Summary
By intervening at this Workshop with his authority of Vicar of
the Pope John Paul II, President of the Italian Bishop Conference
and of Great Chancellor of the Pontifical Lateran University, Cardinal
Camillo Ruini desired to emphasize the relevance of the STOQ Project
for the whole Church and for our University, in its educational
service to the Catholic Community.
According to Card. Ruini, the relevance of the STOQ Project concerns
three major points, constituting as many main themes of his lecture:
- The Cultural and Ecumenical Value of the Project
- The Relationship between Science and Ethics
- The Relevance of Formal Ontology for a Systematic
Dialogue among Different Cultures
1. The Cultural and Ecumenical Value of the Project
"The dialogue between humanistic and scientific disciplines,
to construct a synthesis for the service of men and the glory of
God, is one the main challenges impeding on the world culture at
the beginning of the third millennium".
The STOQ Project constitutes a milestone in the process of a renewed
dialogue between the Catholic Church and modern science, whose
start point was in 1992 the publication of the results of the Pontifical "Galilei
Commission", chaired by Cardinal Paul Poupard.
On this regard, Pope John Paul II in his discourse after the solemn
presentation of the results of this Commission - in front of the
Pope himself, the members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences,
of the Vatican Curia and of the Diplomatic Corps accredited by
the Holy See - stated that "in future the conclusions of this
Commission must be universally cherished", so to conclude
definitively the secular "Galilei affaire".
By the STOQ Project, such "new deal" in the relationships
between the Catholic Church and the Modern Science arrives officially
at the level of the highest Pontifical Educational Institutions,
in order to change progressively the mind of the Catholic people
as to the faith-science relationship all over the world.
This results has been made possible by the generous financial
support of the Templeton Foundation. Cardinal Ruini desired to
offer publicly his thanks to Sir John Marks Templeton, founder,
inspirer and chairman of the Foundation. "This is a further
proof - he stated - that the desired unity among Christians can
be achieved only in pursuing common, deep values. And a valuable
synthesis between faith and science contents is one of these values".
2. The Relationship between science and ethics
The so called ideology of the "Two Cultures", i.e.,
the opposition between Humanistic - specifically, Religious - and
Scientific
disciplines followed to the "Galilei
affaire", is indeed one of the more dangerous disasters in
the modern culture. To pursue a synthesis between Humanism and
Science, in the necessary methodological autonomy of each discipline,
is thus a valuable hope of the present post-modern age.
On this regard, a science following its proper human finalities
- the research for truth on the theoretical side, and the service
of men on the applicative side - is a science secured as to the
rigor of its method, the freedom of its research, the goodness
of its applications. A science not obeying to its proper moral
duties is indeed a science subject to unfair interests. Ethicality
in science is thus a guarantee of scientificity.
In this sense Cardinal Ruini hoped for a sort of reciprocity between
Humanistic and Scientific Faculties in their educational task of
the new generations. Just as Humanistic Faculties are opening themselves
to the teaching of sciences, it is necessary that a similar openness
to the contents of the Humanistic disciplines inform the curricula
of the future scientists.
In front of the tremendous responsibilities that the progress
of science commits to its scholars and practitioners, it would
really immoral if the human and ethical education of the future
scientists continued to be committed exclusively to the personal
good will of the individuals.
3. The Relevance of Formal Ontology for a Systematic
Dialogue among Different Cultures
Just because the welfare and even the life or death of millions
of people is ever more entrusted to the morality of the work of
scientists, it is necessary that the Humanistic disciplines, and
particularly ontology, ethics and law, develop a formal language
able to make "transparent" to everybody the results of
their researches and the methodology by which these results are
obtained.
In this sense, the newborn discipline of "formal ontology" seems
to be highly promising as a means for granting a proper formal
and even symbolic language to humanistic disciplines which, for
their content-related nature, cannot use the formal (mathematical)
symbolism of the "Galilean", modern science.
Formal ontology allows philosophers and theologians to formalize
consistently the results of their enquiry using only a defined,
finite set of axioms and of appropriate inference rules they choose.
It can help people belonging to different cultures
to compare and even to share common statements on well-defined
problems, without the necessity of sharing the totality of their
respective cultural background, - i.e., the so-called "tacit
dimension" of our personal knowledge, as expressed in our
ordinary languages.
Formal ontology could become thus the "dialogue instrument" for
our globalization age, where people belonging to different cultural
and religious contexts are constrained to dialogue among themselves
for surviving in a pacific and profitable way, without renouncing
to their personal convictions and hence to their same dignity of
human beings.
Cardinal Ruini was particularly pleased that the study
of formal ontology and its application to the research for "an
anthropology for the third millennium" were the specific topics
of study and research within the STOQ Project, at "his" University,
the Pontifical Lateran University...
[The relevance of Card. Ruini lecture is emphasized by the resonance
it had on the Italian Press. Particularly, "Il Sole 24 Ore", the
more diffused economical newspaper in Europe (it is a sort of European
counterpart of the US "Financial Times") published on the cultural
supplement of its sunday edition a long excerpt of Ruini's lecture,
on Sunday May 18th 2003. The lecture part published concerns essentially
the relevance of the "formal ontology", as effective bridge between
science and faith. The page of "il Sole 24 Ore" with Card. Ruini's
article and other information on the STOQ Project is downloadable in this site.] |
