Participation in the “Synodal Way”: A Few Comments in the Light of Karol Wojtyła’s Theory of Participation

Announcing in the German Church the so called synodal way provoked discussions concerning the participation and joint responsibility of all the faithful in the implementation of the Church mission, especially with regard to exercising power and making binding decisions. The aim of the presented reflections (comments) is to look at the discussion in the light of the theory of participation, analysed by Karol Wojtyła in his work The Acting Person. The co-existence of the community of action and the personal value of the act and experiencing as one`s own jointly made decisions may set the direction for new paradigms of exploring sensus fidei.

On Karol Wojtyła’s Aristotelian Method Part II Induction and Reduction as Aristotelian Induction (ἐπαγωγή) and Division (διαίρεσις)

This is the second of a two-part study treating Karol Wojtyła’s Aristotelian methodology. Having presented Aristotle’s method of induction (ἐπαγωγή/epagoge) and analysis (ἀνάλῠσις/analusis) or division (διαίρεσις/diairesis) in Part I, Part II discloses the logical form and force of Wojtyła’s method of induction and reduction as Aristotelian induction and division. Looking primarily to the introduction to The Acting Person, it is shown that Wojtyła utilizes the logical forms of reductio ad impossibile and reasoning on the hypothesis of the end, or effect-cause reasoning, which is special to the life sciences and the power-object model of definition as set down by Aristotle. By use of this Aristotelian methodology, Wojtyła obtains definitive knowledge of the human person that is necessary and undeniable: he discloses the εἶδος (eidos) or species of the person in the Aristotelian, Thomistic, and Phenomenological sense of the term.

Regionalism in the Light of the Personalistic Category of Participation

Regionalism is not only a sociological phenomenon, but also an important culture-forming process influencing the development of the human person. The social thought of the Church refers to it straightforwardly as an anthropological phenomenon and interprets it as an axiological category. Referring to these assumptions, the article analyzes regionalism through the prism of the personalistic category of participation described by Karol Wojtyła in the book The Acting Person, the structure of which is based on two principles: solidarity and objection. These principles can serve as a criterion for assessing individual forms of regionalism in terms of answering the question of to what extent they recognize and acknowledge the subjectivity of each member of the regional community, and to what extent they refer to the key values of regional solidarity and the region’s common good.

Subjectivity vs. Agency: The Meaning of Karol Wojtyla’s The 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.

On the Sources of Karol Wojtyła's The Acting Person

The paper shows that the critical analysis of Max Scheler’s and Immanuel Kant’s concepts of moral philosophy was a starting point of Karol Wojtyła’s own positive project of anthropology presented in the book The Acting Person. Its core lies in the recognition of the significance of human efficacy: human persons express and realize their full subjectivity through their actions. Wojtyła shows that genuine human actions are not motivated only by the emotional power with which particular values are given, but rather by the perception of their being true values. In the last analysis, Wojtyła’s theory might be described as transphenomenology, that is, a synthesis of phenomenology and metaphysics. According to him, what is immediately given to the subject can be fully explained by categories that transcend direct experience. In this way Wojtyła incorporates his vision of anthropology into a broader metaphysics, at the same time showing that in philosophy one should move from phenomenon to foundation.

The Acting Person and “Inactivity”: Sociological Attractiveness of Realism in Constructivist Times

The article presents the analysis of some chosen arguments from Karol Wojtyła’s The Acting Person in consideration of the opposition between the realist and constructivist theoretical standpoints. It ponders the attractiveness of the realist position both for the social and personal dimension of human existence by considering such issues as freedom, autonomy, alienation, truth, receptivity, and community. Finally, it points to the ecological problem of the rightly understood “inactivity,” which is contrasted with the late modern hyperactivity of social constructivism.

On Karol Wojtyła’s Aristotelian Method in The Acting Person: Induction and Reduction as Aristotelian Induction (ἐπαγωγή) and Division (διαίρεσις) (Part I)

This is the first of a two-part study treating Karol Wojtyła’s Aristotelian methodology. The study shows that Wojtyła’s inductive and reductive methodology is identical with the Aristotelian method of proceeding from what is better-known to us in experience (ἐμπειρία/empeiria) to what is better-known to nature by way of induction (ἐπαγωγή/epagoge) and analysis (ἀνάλῠσις/analusis) or division (διαίρεσις/diairesis). By a rigorous presentation of this Aristotelian methodology here in Part I, the logical form and force of Wojtyła’s method is properly disclosed and appreciated in Part II. Wojtyła’s method utilizes the logical forms of reductio ad impossibile and reasoning on the hypothesis of the end, or effect-cause reasoning, which is special to the life sciences and the power-object model of definition. By this methodology, Wojtyła obtains definitive knowledge of the human person that is necessary and undeniable: he discloses the εἶδος (eidos) or species of the person in the Aristotelian, Thomistic, and Phenomenological sense of the term.

Notes on Contributors

Philosophy and Canon Law. 2021, Vol. 7/1: Semicentennial of Karol Wojtyła’s “The Acting Person”: Ideas—Contexts—Inspirations (I)

Contemporary Reflection on Participation as an Essential Dimension of Philosophy of Education in the Context of The Acting Person

This article considers the problem of the idea of participation as an essential dimension of philosophy of education in the context of Karol Wojtyła’s teachings. It proceeds through the concepts of the person and participation. The paper reflects the need for discussion on philosophy of education due to the treatment of individual freedom in an extremely individualistic way. Wojtyła draws on the philosophies of consciousness and the philosophies of being in order to consider the constitution of our ideas in a manner relevant to the education for being together with all people and creatures, with the universe, with the whole world which gives us our own place.

The Concept of “A Literary Hero” in English and Uzbek Historical Novels

The article is devoted to the study of comparative analysis of the concept of “literary hero” in English and Uzbek historical novels based on Walter Scott’s novel “Ivanhoe”and AbdullaKadiriy’s novel “Bygone Days”. Literary hero is often used the concepts “character”, ”personage”, ”image”, “type” and “acting person”. Sometimes they are differentiated: literary heroes are called characters, drawn more multifaceted and more significant for the work’s idea. The concept of “literary hero” refers only to actors close to the author’s ideal of a person (the so-called hero) or embodying a heroic principle (for example, heroes of epics, epics, and tragedies). However, it should be noted that literary criticism of these concepts, along with the concepts of "character", "type" and "image" are interchangeable. The novelty of the research is to clarify the history expressed in the first English historical novel “Ivanhoe” and first Uzbek historical novel “Bygone days” with the expressiveness of “a literary hero’ in them. There are some varieties in describing the literary heroes of different country writers. In our article, we gave some features of English and Uzbek writers in describing “literary hero”.