Hildebrand Project

The Philosophy of Value

Dietrich von Hildebrand & the Philosophy of Value

4th Annual Summer Seminar
June 30 – July 3, 2014

Dietrich von Hildebrand in 1932, sitting at his writing desk, contemplating the philosophy of value
Dietrich von Hildebrand in 1932.

Value embodies the true, the valid, the objectively important.

Dietrich von Hildebrand
Ethics

Dietrich von Hildebrand’s seminal Ethics is at the core of his philosophical work. In it develops and expands on Max Scheler’s philosophy of value. While Scheler saw all importances as values, Hildebrand made three distinctions in these types of things that can motivate a person to act: the objectively good for the person, the subjectively satisfying, and value. Value is not simply something that is good for me, or something that I enjoy (whether it causes me good or ill), but something that is important in itself, a thing to which I ought to respond in terms of its character. Truth, beauty, and the dignity of the person are all important in themselves; they all carry the notion of value.

In this seminar, our faculty bring Hildebrand into dialogue with the great philosophers of the past, most notably Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas. They draw distinctions and unifying themes between the different perspectives. And in doing so, we see how Hildebrand fits into the perennial philosophical tradition, opening up the world of objective realism to the modern person.

The Philosophy of Value – Videos

Dietrich von Hildebrand and the Philosophy of Value.
Hildebrand Summer Seminar 2014 : Day 1, Session 1: Dietrich von Hildebrand as...

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YouTube Video UExMbXltUk5ubTZIa3NDWldGaEROSUlEdHVDTG5leGktTi4yODlGNEE0NkRGMEEzMEQy

Dietrich von Hildebrand as Phenomenologist

Dietrich von Hildebrand and the Philosophy of Value.
Hildebrand Summer Seminar 2014 : Day 1, Session 1: Dietrich von Hildebrand as ...

Dietrich von Hildebrand and the Philosophy of Value.
Hildebrand Summer Seminar 2014: Day 1, Session 2: Historical Parallels with Dietrich von...

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YouTube Video UExMbXltUk5ubTZIa3NDWldGaEROSUlEdHVDTG5leGktTi41NkI0NEY2RDEwNTU3Q0M2

Historical Parallels with Dietrich von Hildebrand

Dietrich von Hildebrand and the Philosophy of Value.
Hildebrand Summer Seminar 2014: Day 1, Session 2: Historical Parallels with Dietrich von ...

Dietrich von Hildebrand and the Philosophy of Value.
Hildebrand Summer Seminar 2014: Day 1, Session 3: Further Dimensions of Dietrich von...

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YouTube Video UExMbXltUk5ubTZIa3NDWldGaEROSUlEdHVDTG5leGktTi4wMTcyMDhGQUE4NTIzM0Y5

Categories of Importance

Dietrich von Hildebrand and the Philosophy of Value.
Hildebrand Summer Seminar 2014: Day 1, Session 3: Further Dimensions of Dietrich von ...

Dietrich von Hildebrand and the Philosophy of Value.
Hildebrand Summer Seminar 2014: Day 2, Session 2: The Hildebrandian Perspective on Value

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YouTube Video UExMbXltUk5ubTZIa3NDWldGaEROSUlEdHVDTG5leGktTi4wOTA3OTZBNzVEMTUzOTMy

The Hildebrandian Perspective on Value

Dietrich von Hildebrand and the Philosophy of Value.
Hildebrand Summer Seminar 2014: Day 2, Session 2: The Hildebrandian Perspective on Value

Dietrich von Hildebrand and the Philosophy of Value.
Hildebrand Summer Seminar 2014: Day 2, Session 1: The Aristotelian Understanding of Nature,...

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YouTube Video UExMbXltUk5ubTZIa3NDWldGaEROSUlEdHVDTG5leGktTi4xMkVGQjNCMUM1N0RFNEUx

The Aristotelian Understanding of Nature, Good, and Value

Dietrich von Hildebrand and the Philosophy of Value.
Hildebrand Summer Seminar 2014: Day 2, Session 1: The Aristotelian Understanding of Nature, ...

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2014 Seminar Faculty

Senior Scholar

John F. Crosby
Chairman of the Board

Jonathan J. Sanford

Mark Roberts
Senior Scholar

John F. Crosby

Franciscan University of Steubenville

Professor Emeritus of Philosophy

Research Areas:

Personalism, John Henry Newman, John Paul II, Dietrich von Hildebrand

Prof. Crosby was himself a student of Dietrich Hildebrand. Besides writing major studies on the thought of John Henry Newman, Max Scheler, and Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II, and making his own contributions to personalist philosophy, Prof. Crosby has devoted his long and distinguished academic career—first at the University of Dallas, then at the International Academy of Philosophy, and currently at Franciscan University of Steubenville—to introducing his students to the intellectual legacy of Hildebrand, and also to making Hildebrand better known in scholarly circles. Prof. Crosby was the translator of the English edition of  Hildebrand’s philosophical masterpiece, The Nature of Love, and he also serves as the General Editor of all our present and future translations of Hildebrand’s works.

Chairman of the Board

Jonathan J. Sanford

Jonathan J. Sanford, Ph.D., is the 10th president of the University of Dallas. President Sanford, who previously served as provost and dean of UD’s undergraduate college, holds a doctorate in philosophy and is an accomplished scholar. Sanford has published widely on philosophical figures and topics, especially in foundational questions in moral philosophy, as evidenced in Before Virtue: Assessing Contemporary Virtue Ethics (The Catholic University of America Press, 2015 (paperback, 2019)). As president, he is focused on leading the implementation of the university’s strategic plan by building on the university’s reputation for academic rigor, its commitment to classical Western tradition, and its faithful Catholic identity. 

Sanford is a trustee of the Hildebrand Project, a member of the Dallas chapter of Legatus, a fellow of the Dallas Institute for Humanities and Culture, and  and is active in several other professional and academic organizations. 

University of Dallas

President & Professor of Philosophy

Research Areas:

Ethics, Catholic Higher Education, Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Metaphysics, Virtue Theory

More about Jonathan Sanford
Select Bibliography

Before Virtue: Assessing Contemporary Virtue Ethics (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2015 (paperback, 2019).

The Philosophical Legacy of Jorge J. E. Gracia, co-edited with Robert Delfino and William Irwin (Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield, 2022) 

Categories: Historical and Systematic Essays, co-edited with Michael Gorman, (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2004).

Neo-Platonism and Its Legacy, co-edited with Sarah Wear, Volume 2, Issues 1 & 2 of Quaestiones Disputatae, Spring-Fall 2011.

“Justice is Beautiful: Aristotle, Aquinas, and Justice as a Virtue,” in Beauty and the Good: Past Interpretations and Their Contemporary Relevance, edited by Alice Ramos (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press), forthcoming 2020.

“Nature and the Common Good: Aristotle and Maritain on the Environment,” in On Earth as it is in Heaven: Cultivating a Contemporary Theology of Creation, edited by David Meconi, S.J., and Christopher Thompson (Grand Rapids,MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2016): 212-233.

“Newman and the Virtue of Philosophy,” Expositions 9 (2015): 41-55.

“Aristotle, Aquinas, and the Christian Elevation of Pagan Friendship,” in Love and Friendship, edited by Montague Brown (Washington, DC: The American Maritain Association Press, 2013).

“On Vice and Free Choice,” in The Problem of Evil: Enduring Themes and Pressing Questions, edited by James G. Hanink (Washington, DC: The American Maritain Association Press, 2013).

“Scheler vs. Scheler: The Case for a Better Ontology of the Person,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 79: 1 (2005): 145-161.

“Affective Insight: Scheler on Feeling and Values,” Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 76, (2002).

“Personalism in Relation to Aristotle and Aquinas,” The Hildebrand Project’s Sixth Annual Summer Seminar: The Past and the Promise of Christian Personalism, Franciscan University of Steubenville, June 15, 2016.

Mark Roberts

Dr. Mark Roberts studied at the University of Rhode Island where he received a B.A. and M.A., and the University of Dallas where he received an M.A. and a Ph.D. He was a professor and Honors Faculty Fellow at the University of Rhode Island, and a member of the Faculty Senate from 1990 to 1992.

Professor Roberts came to Franciscan University of Steubenville in 1993.

He is a member of the American Philosophical Association, American Catholic Philosophical Association, North American Society of Early Phenomenology, Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, Southwestern Philosophical Society, and Society of Christian Philosophers. He has served on the Program Committee of the American Catholic Philosophical Association and was Vice-President of the Rhode Island Philosophical Society. In 2005 Prof. Roberts received the Alumni Teaching Award from Franciscan University, and has received a Fides et Ratio grant and several Faculty Enrichment grants. He is the former editor of the philosophy journal Quaestiones Disputatae. His work has been mainly in the areas of logic and philosophical logic, natural theology, Aquinas, von Hildebrand, and metaphysics.

Dr. Roberts retired in 2020.