5 pensadores ante el totalitarismo

Ana Marta Gonzalez and a contributor have identified 5 thinkers who reflected on totalitarianism to address the uses of power. Gonzalez, a professor at the University of Navarra and a member of the Pontificia Academia de Ciencias Sociales, selected Hannah Arendt, Tocqueville, Popper, and Simone Weil. The contributor added Byung-Chul Han to the group.

The selection follows a plenary session organized by Gonzalez in Rome regarding democracy, legitimacy, and the rewriting of the international order. During that session, Pope Leo XIV sent a message to the Academy. The discussion on these thinkers stems from a reflection on Simone Weil's idea that an authentic spiritual life serves as an obstacle to totalitarian idolatry.

The project also references a recent message from Pope Leo XIV regarding the Gaudium et spes of the Second Vatican Council. In that message, the Pope stated that the Church cannot remain passive or indifferent to what occurs in the world.