scholarly journals The Foundations of the Human Person’s Dynamism in Karol Wojtyła’s Anthropology. A Study in Light of “The Acting Person”

Verbum Vitae ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomasz Duma
Keyword(s):  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Complementary Approach ◽  
Personal Action ◽  
Basic Intuition ◽  
Acting Person

In traditional anthropology, the problem of the dynamism of the human being was explained by means of human faculties that were seen as distinct from one another on the basis of the activities of man. Having accepted that the traditional approach is well-known and thoroughly elaborated, Karol Wojtyła proposed a complementary approach,  enhancing the classical explanation of human dynamism by following the basic intuition of the person who reveals himself in action. In this article, through several steps, the author presents the framework of the basic thesis of Karol Wojtyła's anthropology, which claims that the action performed by man includes the truth about not only his personal dynamism, but also the very subject of that dynamism itself, that is, the human person. The author shows Wojtyła's stance beginning with the distinction of personal action made against the background of other forms of human dynamism. Then, he describes Wojtyła’s methods of explanation in reference to the Aristotelian theory of act and potency. Continuing, he analyzes the problem of causativeness of action, which will turn out to be crucial for understanding man as a person. Finally, he sketches Wojtyla's conception of the fulfillment of man through his action.

The Human Person in Contemporary Philosophy

Philosophy ◽  
1950 ◽  
Vol 25 (92) ◽  
pp. 3-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick C. Copleston
Keyword(s):  
Human Person ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
Individual Substance ◽  
Rational Nature

I. In the early part of the sixth century a.d. Boethius defined the person as “an individual substance of rational nature” (rationalis naturae individua substantia). This definition, which became classical and was adopted by, for example, St. Thomas Aquinas, obviously implies that every human being is a person, since every human being is (to employ the philosophical terms of Boethius) an individual substance of rational nature. If one cannot be more or less of a human being, so far as “substance” is concerned, one cannot be more or less of a person. One may act as a human person ought not to act or in a way unbefitting a human person; one may even lose the normal use of one's reason; but one does not in this way become depersonalized, in the sense of ceasing to be a person. According to St. Thomas, a disembodied soul is not, strictly speaking, a person, since a disembodied soul is no longer a complete human substance; but every complete human substance is always and necessarily a person.

scholarly journals Educating to Forgive as an Expression of Concern for Order in a Person's Natural Environment. Part. 1: Evil and Harm in the Life of a Human Person and the Source of the Need to Forgive

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-139
Author(s):  
Michał Wyrostkiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Natural Environment ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Human Being ◽  
The World ◽  
Natural Climate ◽  
Good And Evil

The paper defines philosophical categories of good and evil in the process of upbringing and development of the personality. People are good by nature. That is why they tend towards the good, they desire what is good, they feel bad and do not function well when they are touched by evil. Goodness is part of the natural environment of the human being; goodness is the natural climate of the human person. At the same time, however, people perform bad deeds. They create evil. They often harm others. This is the cause of disorder in a person's environment. It turns out that the only effective and reasonable means of restoring such order is forgiveness. It is the only thing that has a chance to realistically stop the potential avalanche of evil that appears to be the obvious result of wrongdoing and “nurturing” harm or planning revenge. The evil that “insidiously” enters the world creates the need for forgiveness as the only way to respond to harm; as a way that leads to real order in a person's environment

Body and Soul

2019 ◽  
pp. 15-34
Author(s):  
Frances Young
Keyword(s):  
Human Person ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
The Body ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Body And Soul

This chapter demonstrates how arguments about creation and resurrection in the second century ensured that by the fourth century even those Christian thinkers with the most leanings toward Neoplatonism would espouse the view that the union of soul with body was constitutive of human being as a creature among creatures, and so a necessary aspect of the reconstitution of the human person at the resurrection. Soul-body dualism is often treated as the default anthropological position in antiquity, but the fourth-century anthropological treatise of Nemesius of Emesa shows that, despite huge debts to the legacies of philosophy, creation and resurrection, though barely mentioned, in fact shape his conclusion that the body-soul union is fundamental to what a human being is; the same is true, for example, of the Cappadocian Gregories and Augustine.

The Beginning of Life

2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (27) ◽  
pp. 396-407
Author(s):  
Richard Harries
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Genetic Manipulation ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Fertility Treatment ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Neutral Term ◽  
Full Protection

There are a number of ethical issues connecting with the beginning of life, most obviously abortion and most recently research on embryos. These issues have a number of aspects, particularly in relation to fertility treatment and genetic manipulation but they all assume answers to prior questions about what it is to be a human being and when it is that an entity, to use a neutral term, is accorded the full protection due to a human person. So it is that in this first lecture I will be concentrating on souls, persons and embryos.

Is Personal Dignity Possible Only If We Live in a Cosmos?

2018 ◽  
Vol 92 ◽  
pp. 223-240
Author(s):  
John G. Brungardt ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Dignity ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Catholic Theology ◽  
Personal Dignity ◽  
The Universe ◽  
The Catholic Church

The Catholic Church has increasingly invoked the principle of human dignity as a way to spread the message of the Gospel in the modern world. Catholic philosophers must therefore defend this principle in service to Catholic theology. One aspect of this defense is how the human person relates to the universe. Is human dignity of a piece with the material universe in which we find ourselves? Or is our dignity alien in kind to such a whole? Or does the truth lie somewhere in between? The metaphysics of creation properly locates the human being in the universe as a part, ordered to the universe’s common good of order and ultimately to God. Human dignity is possible only in a cosmos; that this is concordant with modern scientific cosmology is briefly defended in the conclusion.

Schumpeter and economic man

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-150
Author(s):  
Edward John O’Boyle
Keyword(s):  
Critical Role ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Homo Economicus ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Economic Man ◽  
Efficient Cause ◽  
Personalist Economics ◽  
Economic Agency ◽  
Acting Person

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the writings of Joseph Schumpeter on economic man to demonstrate that Schumpeter is a precursor of personalist economics. Design/methodology/approach This paper addresses two intertwined questions. What evidence supports the claim that Schumpeter rejected homo economicus? What evidence indicates that Schumpeter actually embraced the human person – the acting person – as a replacement for homo economicus? The evidence is presented in four sections: Schumpeter’s rejection of homo economicus; Schumpeter on economic agency; Schumpeter, a precursor of personalist economics; and final remarks. Findings As to the first question, there is no doubt that Schumpeter rejected homo economicus. Regarding the second, the evidence does not indicate that Schumpeter proposed replacing homo economicus with what today we refer to as the acting person. This paper concludes that by insisting on the critical role of the active, spontaneous, and eager-to-initiate change entrepreneur in economic affairs and our understanding of those affairs Schumpeter was a precursor of personalist economics. Originality/value To a large extent Schumpeter’s insights regarding economic agency and William Waters role in interpreting those insights have been buried in the economics literature. It was Waters in 1952 who stated that Schumpeter identified the inadequacy of economic man as the efficient cause of economic activity and re-established the human person as the true efficient cause, principally in terms of entrepreneurship.

scholarly journals Subjectivity vs. Agency: The Meaning of Karol Wojtyla’s The Acting Person

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Wielecki
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Economic Theory ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Human Person ◽  
One Dimension ◽  
Human Sciences ◽  
Philosophical Concept ◽  
Individual Agency ◽  
Critical Revision ◽  
Acting Person

Karol Wojtyła’s Osoba i czyn (in English translation known as The Acting Person) is certainly an extraordinary book having considerable significance for contemporary human philosophy. And because the philosophical or quasi-philosophical concept of the human person, consciously or not, explicitly or implicitly, is always at the root of any sociological, psychological, pedagogical or even economic theory, the importance of this work is even greater. It involves both the humanities and social sciences. The purpose of this article is to point out the benefits of this groundbreaking book. In particular, it allows us to rethink the paradigmatic foundations of these sciences. At the same time, it attempts to show how necessary is a critical revision of their own paradigmatic basis. I would also like to consider the essence of the human concept, especially from the perspective of critical realism. Especially, I deal with the issue of subjectivity and justification for the choice of this concept as the key to understanding individual agency. I am convinced that agency is only one dimension of subjectivity and does not allow us to understand the whole problem of autonomy, human freedom, and the meaning of humanity. Wojtyła’s The Acting Person seems to provide extremely important arguments in favor of my thesis. It also helps, I think, to understand the essence of individual subjectivity, issues of fundamental importance in our time, peculiarly, in the broadly understood human sciences.

scholarly journals Zagadnienie personalizmu w "Protreptyku" Klemensa Aleksandryjskiego

Vox Patrum ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 299-315
Author(s):  
Aleksy Kowalski
Keyword(s):  
Human Person ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Clement Of Alexandria ◽  
Origen Of Alexandria ◽  
Cappadocian Fathers ◽  
The Universe ◽  
The Church ◽  
Aristotle's Metaphysics

The article presents the outline of the pagan and Christian ancient anthropo­logy that is interested in its relations to the cosmology. The antique philosophers describe a man as the microcosmos which belongs to the macrocosmos. Accor­ding to Aristotle’s metaphysics and the henological metaphysics, the human being occupies the lower place in the hierarchy of the universe. The Christian thinkers, based on the Bible and the Tradition, show the human being as God’s creature made according to the image and similitude of his Creator. The Church Fathers know the Jewish and gnostic anthropologies and they make a polemic on their doctrinal issues. Investigating the patristic anthropology is possible to apply the prosopography exegesis that underlines the interpersonal dialogue. That method indicates three levels of mutual relationships: the analogical and iconic one, the dyadic and dialogical level and the triadic one. The Church Fathers creating the metaphysics of person change their research from the cosmology to the theology and the anthropology. Justin investigates the personalist logos-anthropology. Ire­naeus of Lyon and Tertullian of Carthage show the personalist soma-anthropology. Clement of Alexandria elaborates the very interesting concept of the personalist eikon-anthropology that describes the human person as the divine Logos’ image, the living statue, in which dwells the divine Logos and the beautiful instrument fulfilled by God with the spirit. Origen of Alexandria, the Cappadocian Fathers and other Christian thinkers who examine that issue, will use Clément’s personal­ist eikon-anthropology in their future investigations. That concept helps to define the solemn Christological doctrine of Council of Chalcedon.

scholarly journals Simone Weil’s Radical Ontology of Rootedness: Natural and Supernatural Justices

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-35
Author(s):  
Alexandre A. Martins ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Person ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Spirit ◽  
The Real ◽  
The World ◽  
Transcendent Reality ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Human Condition

This paper argues that Simone Weil developed an anthropology of the human condition that is a radical ontology of the human spirit rooted in reality. Weil begins her account from the real, but this real is not only the historical or social reality. It is also what is true about the human person as a created being in connection with the transcendent reality. She believes that affliction reveals the human condition and provides an openness to transcendence in which the individual finds the meaning of the human operation of spirit. Therefore, Weil’s radical ontology is based on a philosophy of the human being as an agent rooted in the world. In order to be rooted, a human being needs decreation (the creation of a new human) and incarnation (cross and love in the world). In her radical ontology derived from attention to the real, Weil argues for an active incarnation in social reality that recognizes others, especially the unfortunates, for the purpose of empowering them and promoting their dignity. Her radical ontology incarnates the human in the world between necessity and good, that is, between the natural and the supernatural.

Pensar e construir: Experiência e vivências

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damião Conceição de Souza Borges ◽  
Sandra Célia Coelho Gomes Silva
Keyword(s):  
Human Person ◽  
Meaning Of Life ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Lay People ◽  
The Face ◽  
Curricular Structure ◽  
The University

In the face of a society that liquefies the dimensions of human existence, this project of strengthening institutional links is quite significant, as there is a concern with the formation of the human person as a whole. At the present time, self-donation seems to go against the prevailing “cultural” current. However, this work is proof that the collaborative dimension must be enhanced. Taking advantage of the institutional purpose in the various Campuses of the University of the State of Bahia (UNEB) and the interest of the Diocese of Ilhéus to build partnerships, an intertwining of interests arose, made positive by the conclusion of an agreement, the result of a pilgrimage of knowledge, juxtaposed in a common interest. The current “culture”, marked by immanence, which imprisons the human being in the immediate and does not respond to his deepest aspirations regarding the meaning of life, lacks a humanism that is capable of showing the existence of the Divine. The Ilheus School of Theology (ETEL), which aims to train its lay people, was based on the curricular structure of the Institute of Theology of the Diocese of Ilhéus, which became one of the most renowned institutes of Philosophy and Theology in Brazil. Through this agreement with UNEB, it was possible to academically institutionalize a relevant action already developed by the diocese. This partnership experience between UNEB and ETEL was and has been enriching, with gains for both institutions.

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