Towards a Recapitulation of Thinking about the Human Person: With Karol Wojtyła towards the Future
Abstract
This article is a reflection on the recapitulation of thinking about the human person, which was Karol Wojtyła’s intention in the context of the intensifying dispute about man. It shows methodological strategies that Wojtyła used and about which he hoped for a new research approach to the person. Thus, such pairs of concepts as phenomenology—metaphysics, nature —person, rationality—consciousness, person—community are indicated. By skillfully combining them and complementing their function, Wojtyła not only obtained a new type of insight into the person but also developed new arguments to explain this multifaceted reality. The article follows his ideas and hints at how useful they can be today, in the context of contemporary disputes about the human person. A skillful and creative use of Wojtyła’s methodological strategies can be helpful both in further discovery of the person and in finding explanations for what appears to us. The human person remains insufficiently known, while the changed conditions in which he lives provide opportunities to discover and rethink new aspects of his existence.
Keywords:
Karol Wojtyła, human person, recapitulation of thinking about man, anthropological disputes, methodology of anthropologyReferences
Foucault, Michel. Słowa i rzecz: Archeologia nauk humanistycznych. Translated by Tadeusz Komendant and Anna Tatarkiewicz. Gdańsk: słowo/obraz terytoria, 2006.
Hołub, Grzegorz. “Philosophical Anthropology and Ethics in the Thought of Karol Wojtyła.” Studia Gilsoniana 11, no. 1 (2022): 145–61.
de Lubac, Henri. At the Service of the Church: Henri de Lubac Reflects on the Circumstances that Occasioned His Writings. Translated by Anne Elizabeth Englud. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1993.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Byt i nicość: Zarys ontologii fenomenologicznej. Translated by Jan Kiełbasa, Piotr Mróz, Rafał Abramciów, Remigiusz Ryziński, and Paulina Małochleb. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Zielona Sowa, 2007.
Seager, William. Theories of Consciousness: An Introduction and Assessment. New York: Routledge, 2016.
Snead, Carter O. What It Means to Be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2020.
Szostek, Andrzej. Wokół godności, prawdy i miłości: Rozważania etyczne. Lublin: Redakcja Wydawnictw KUL, 1998.
Wojtyła, Karol. Miłość i odpowiedzialność. Lublin: Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL, 1986.
Wojtyła, Karol. Osoba i czyn. Kraków: Polskie Towarzystwo Teologiczne, 1969.
Wojtyła, Karol. “Osoba i czyn.” In Wojtyła, “Osoba i czyn” oraz inne studia antropologiczne. Lublin: Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL, 1994.
Wojtyła, Karol. Osoba: podmiot i wspólnota. In Wojtyła, “Osoba i czyn” oraz inne studia antropologiczne. Lublin: Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL, 1994.
Wojtyła, Karol. Podmiotowość i „to, co nieredukowalne” w człowieku. In Wojtyła, “Osoba i czyn” oraz inne studia antropologiczne. Lublin: Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL, 1994.
