Thomas De Koninck

The philosopher Thomas De Koninck has died in Quebec City, to which his philosopher father had brought the family just before the Second World War.

In the first decade of this century I was lucky enough to spend a lot of time with Thomas in Quebec City and Ottawa.

He carried a natural charm. And in an eerie way, he was still the beautiful little boy with tousled blond hair, that boy Antoine de Saint-Exupéry had met in 1942 when he stayed with the family. The little boy who became the model for Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince.

[Le Journal de Montréal]

But Thomas was a prince in so many ways. Generations of philosophers saw – see – him as their spiritual leader. Spiritual also in many ways. The one I could clearly see was his moral and ethical core, which he expressed and applied in his own life.

Being with him, I felt enriched.

Thomas De Koninck, Louise Arbour, Michaëlle Jean and myself on stage at the 2005 LaFontaine-Baldwin Symposium in Quebec City

I regularly pull out his books to remind myself of his inner strength and to be inspired by his sense of goodness.

Here are a few of his words from De la dignité humain:

“Les biens matériels divisent… Les biens culturels, spirituel, d’ordre moral, unissent à mesure qu’on les distribue”

“Material goods divide… Cultural goods, spiritual, of moral force, unite in so far as we distribute them.”

“Il s’agit d’honorer l’humain partout où il se trouve, surtout quand it est diminué.”

“We must honour the human, where ever he is to be found, above all when he is diminished.”

From La nouvelle ignorance:

“La manque de culture, qui se traduit toujours par un manque de jugement.”

“The lack of culture, which leads inevitably to a lack of judgement.”

Thomas was always in his time and ahead of his time. His words are with us today.