To Be a Person: On the Anthropomorphic Dimension of the World

Jaromir BREJDAK

Zakład Filozofii Współczesnej, Instytut Filozofii, Wydział Humanistyczny, Uniwersytet Szczeciński, ul. Krakowska 71, 71-017 Szczecin, Poland , Poland

Abstract

Nature, happiness, and ‘person’ are the three vertices defining the field of Robert Spaemann’s philosophical interests. Spaemann has extensively discussed these realities in his three major works: Natürliche Ziele. Geschichte und Wiederentdeckung des teleologischen Denkens, Happiness and Benevolence, and Persons: The Difference Between “Someone” and “Something.” Spaemann holds that a teleological approach to life following its natural and autonomous goal, opens up the normative aspect of being in which the human person becomes co-responsible for the finality of other beings. The processual ontology developed by Spaemann concludes with the ethics that seeks to combine antiquity with Christianity: not only does it refrain from abandoning the concept of human happiness as the goal of life, but it expands this ancient idea by introducing the Christian concepts of love and benevolence as the sources of genuine happiness. Benevolence and responsibility are possible beyond the natural egocentric self-centeredness. Owing to the transgression of her ego the human being in a ‘natural’ way transcends her own nature, thus becoming a ‘person.’

Keywords:

nature, teleology, happiness, responsibility, benevolence, person