Laws of Thought and Patterns of Love

Glimpsing interconnections between the foundations of logic and the foundations of ethics

Abstract

The concepts of “gift” and “logic of gift” as they appear in the Encyclical Caritas in veritate open the way to a further analysis of the category of relation. The author develops the theme first from the perspective of philosophical logic with particular reference to the book by Pierre-Jean Labarrière, Au fondement de l’éthique. Autostance et relation, and subsequently from the viewpoint of formal ontology, showing that an adequate formal system of dynamic relations, inspired by the Trinity, can provide an appropriate model for the “dynamic of charity received and given”. Since this formal dynamic pattern is also applicable to the Encyclical’s description of truth, the basic underlying logic of truth and of gift of self appears to be the same.