The Good is the Measure of All Things: Giovanni Reale as an Interpreter of the Western Thought From Plato to Karol Wojtyła

Fr. Alfred M. WIERZBICKI

Chair of Ethics, Institute of Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Al. Racławickie 14, 20-950 Lublin, Poland , Poland

Abstract

The author reaches back to the experience of his encounters with Professor Giovanni Reale, who was his teacher and collaborator. However, the focus of the paper is the metaphysics of person discovered by the Italian scholar in the philosophical, theological and literary output of Karol Wojtyła–John Paul II. Reale proposed this approach to metaphysics as the key to the understanding and overcoming the contemporary crisis of civilization rooted, among others, in the reduction of the person to her social context. The author also describes Reale’s cooperation with the John Paul II Institute at the Catholic University of Lublin, in particular with the quarterly “Ethos,” and his friendship with Fr. Prof. Tadeusz Styczeń.

Summarized by Patrycja Mikulska

Keywords:

John Paul II, metaphysics of the person, crisis of civilization, Tadeusz Styczeń