The Human Paradox

The Human Paradox shows how the nature of the human is structured by the conflicting human values and virtues that have shaped Western culture, and are visible across the world today.

Ralph Heintzman is a senior fellow at Massey College at the University of Toronto and an honorary senior fellow in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa.

"For those uneasy with the Faustian direction of our civilization, this book provides a bracing exploration of how we might re-place ourselves in the world, at once in touch with current evolutionary history and aware that our insights, always partial and subject to correction, depend upon our actual engagement with the world and those with whom we share it."

John Fraser, Master Emeritus, Massey College, author of The Chinese and Eminent Canadians:

"Ralph Heintzman has managed to produce something close to a literary miracle. He has taken the often abstract concepts of difficult but crucial thinkers and transformed them into compellingly approachable prose that is both dramatically eloquent and intellectually reaffirming."

David R. Cameron, University of Toronto, author of The Social Thought of Burke and Rousseau:

"An imposing work of thought and scholarship … breathtaking in its ambition. It attempts nothing less than to rediscover what it means to be fully human. I believe its impact on those it touches will in some cases be decisive."

Merlin Donald, Professor Emeritus, Queen’s University, author of Origins of the Modern Mind:

"This is an incredibly brave and original contribution, and a first-class example of sophisticated cross-disciplinary synthesis, written in clear, accessible language. The Human Paradox is a modern Guide for the Perplexed, something that is badly needed in a globalized world that has lost its bearings."

Jack Mitchell, Dalhousie University, author of The Odyssey of Star Wars: An Epic Poem:

"A magnum opus. One of the most original and hopeful contributions to metaphysics in the past few decades and arguably the most sustained argument for humanism ever to come out of Canada. This grand thesis is both up-to-date and enormously inclusive. It aims to improve our world by deepening our confidence in human nature."