THIS ESSAY will examine the connection between the subjectivity of man as a person and the structure of the human community. That relationship was tentatively explored in The Acting Person, especially in the chapter entitled "Participation." The present study is an attempt to develop insights initially introduced there.

This book's thirty essays explore philosophically the nature and morality of sexual perversion, cybersex, masturbation, homosexuality, contraception, same-sex marriage, promiscuity, pedophilia, date rape, sexual objectification, teacher-student relationships, pornography, and prostitution. Authors include Martha Nussbaum, Thomas Nagel, Alan Goldman, John Finnis, Sallie Tisdale, Robin West, Alan Wertheimer, John Corvino, Cheshire Calhoun, Jerome Neu, and Alan Soble, among others. A valuable resource for sex researchers as well as undergraduate courses in the philosophy of sex.

Sex reassignment surgery raises a number of ethical questions. This article examines a few of these questions through the lens of Karol Wojtyla’s philosophical anthropology. The author maintains that the operation is based on a dualistic view of the person and a distorted understanding of the human capacity for self-determination. In his work, Wojtyla emphasizes the inseparable connection between freedom and truth, and he argues that the person is a unity of body and spirit, so that the (...) body cannot be reduced to mere matter. Therefore, the author concludes that sex reassignment surgery must be seen as morally illicitin light of Wojtyla’s anthropology. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 9.4 (Winter 2009): 711–723. (shrink)

Despite Karol Wojtyła later to become Pope John Paul II was firstly a moral and anthropological philosopher, his reflection also concerns in historiosophical and civilizational issues. This part of his intellectual activity is rather less known. But Wojtyła was an author of original conception of history and civilization. Among different ways of historiosophical and civilizational interpretations we can find him as a representative of moderate universalism. He joined the belief in existence of universal history as well as the common (...) values with a need of clear definition of human “ego” that could be realized thanks to concrete communities. He saw history in theological and philosophical aspects. Firstly, for him it was a universal history of salvation that is a participation of all nations and cultures as well as every real man. In a philosophical sense he emphasized the universal desire of getting to know the ultimate truth and gaining absolute good. His ethical model of universal civilization is based on the acceptation of cultural diversities. That is why it could be named as “ecumenical civilization”. Its main method is a dialogue that leads to truth and peace. We can find the source of Wojtyła’s universalism in a personalistic philosophy, which sees a proper subject of history and culture aswell as civilization in a person. (shrink)

This brief text assists students in understanding Karol Wojtyla's philosophy and thinking so they can more fully engage in useful, intelligent class dialogue and improve their understanding of course content. Part of the Wadsworth Notes Series, (which will eventually consist of approximately 100 titles, each focusing on a single "thinker" from ancient times to the present), ON KAROL WOJTYLA is written by a philosopher deeply versed in the philosophy of this key thinker. Like other books in (...) the series, this concise book offers sufficient insight into the thinking of a notable philosopher, better enabling students to engage in reading and to discuss the material in class and on paper. (shrink)

Evidencia a dignidade pessoal do corpo humano, integrado nos atos pessoais, através do pensamento antropológico de Karol Wojtyla. Expõe a dignidade pessoal na integração da reatividade somática na vontade humana, quando orientada pela norma personalista, que dá base à família e à comunidade humana, conforme os conceitos de participação e alienação nas relações “eu-tu” e "nós”.

O artigo visa apresentar a estrutura da crítica de Karol Wojtyla ao Utilitarismo na sua obra “Amor e responsabilidade”. Identificando no Utilitarismo não apenas uma corrente ética formulada filosoficamente na modernidade, mas também um modo de pensar que caracteriza aos homens e mulheres do nosso tempo, Wojtyla contrasta a chamada norma utilitarista com uma ética centrada no valor da pessoa humana. Além de não fazer justiça à estrutura do próprio prazer, o Utilitarismo também falsifica a própria natureza (...) do agir moral. Tal falsificação tem as suas raízes numa antropologia simplista, que reduz o homem a um indivíduo dotado de razão e sensibilidade, estando a primeira totalmente subordinada à segunda. O artigo busca evidenciar, por meio de exemplos e citações de outros personalistas e utilitaristas, a suficiência da argumentação de Wojtyla, que o leva a desqualificar o Utilitarismo como sistema ético capaz de fundamentar a comunhão entre as pessoas. (shrink)

As the notion of artificial moral agency gains popularity among ethicists, it threatens the unique status of the human person as a responsible moral agent. The philosophy of ontocentrism, popularized by Luciano Floridi, argues that biocentrism is too restrictive and must yield to a new philosophical vision that endows all beings with some intrinsic value. Floridi’s macroethics also regards more sophisticated digital entities such as robots as accountable moral agents. To refute these principles, this paper turns to the thought of (...) Karol Wojtyla, who argued cogently for an intimate correlation between personal action (actus personae) and moral agency. By examining the distinguishing characteristics of personal action, we can ascertain the necessary conditions of moral agency and demonstrate why artificial entities do not meet those condi­tions. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 11.3 (Autumn 2011): 479–501. (shrink)

In his book The Acting Person Karol Wojtyła makes frequent references to the concept of truth. He analyzes truth expressions in various realms, including the epistemological, the metaphysical, the moral, and the axiological. He does not, however, say exactly what he means by truth. This essay analyzes select passages from this book and tries to formulate a coherent understanding of truth as Wojtyła conceived it. This essay puts special emphasis on the question of axiological truth, for this concept is (...) novel within the Thomistic framework of philosophizing and seems to be a consequence of the philosopher’s encounter with phenomenology. In the centre of attention is the first edition of this book published in 1969 in Poland. The main intention of the article is to grasp the very first Wojtylian approach to the problem of truth. (shrink)

Our whole discussion has focused on man’s self-fulfillment in and through the marital union. The mutual self-donation of man and woman is a participative act in that whenever acting is performed ‘together with the other,’ the husband and wife transcend themselves in action and thereby realize the authentically personalistic value of the action and man’s self-fulfillment in it. This mutual self-giving of husband and wife finds its expression in and through the body. This self-fulfillment, however, is attained only when the (...) husband and wife become responsible for each other and meet the demands of the personalistic norm. The marital union must adapt itself to the objective demands of the personalistic norm, without which the act of mutual love between husband and wife is degraded to the ‘utilitarian’ level. The structure of responsibility which demands reference to the object in accordance with its true value must be satisfied. (shrink)

The ‘other’ has taken on an increased theological significance for the Church in the advent of post‐modern reflection, resulting in a myriad of possibilities for those who would reflect on the significance of the other in relation to the ‘self’, largely in connection with various theories of embodiment. Following Karol Wojtyla's emphasis on the given‐ness of the body I wish to illustrate a way in which the other might be understood theologically, informed by the insights of the continental (...) philosophical tradition, specifically Emmanuel Levinas' phenomenological outline of the other as a key locus of ethical reflection. Bringing Levinas' continental philosophy into dialogue with Wojtyla's philosophical theology, it will be argued that the other must be re‐approached in terms of their subjective self‐disclosure, centring upon the en‐fleshed and bodily form of the human person, who confronts us as a reflection of both that which is most other to ourselves and paradoxically that which most resembles ourselves. The other is always an en‐fleshed subject and in their action, their subjective identity is disclosed on the relational level. (shrink)

Dialogue about the moral permissibility of sex reassignment surgery (SRS) in Catholic health care has recently received considerable attention. In an effort to further this discussion and bring clarity to the debate, the author uses Pope St. John Paul II’s robust theological and philosophical anthropology to evaluate the morality of SRS and enter dialogue with current arguments that suggest SRS is morally licit. The author argues that John Paul II’s anthropology renders SRS morally illicit. Moreover, current arguments supporting SRS rely (...) on an anthropology of body–soul dualism. This conclusion suggests that future arguments for the permissibility of SRS in Catholic health care will always be invalid if they fail to uphold the body–soul unity of the person. (shrink)

Purpose. The article is aimed to introduce Karol Wojtyła’s anthropological teaching into the philosophical discourse through the systematization of anthropological issues in his philosophical and theological works. Provision of insight into the peculiar features of his adequate anthropology implies the fulfillment of the following tasks: first, identification of the methodology and the meaning of the principal concepts; secondly, study of the thinker’s key ideas; thirdly, presentation of the periodization of his anthropological doctrine development. Theoretical basis comprises of Karol (...) Wojtyła’s works written before and during the pontificate, excluding his poetic writing. The fulfillment of tasks involves processing the substantial database of academic research devoted to Karol Wojtyła’s views. It will help identify less-explored issues in Karol Wojtyła’s legacy, as well as contradictory aspects in the interpretation of the thinker’s ideas. In view of the growing interest of philosophical anthropology to everyday life, this aspect of Karol Wojtyła’s teaching is an important point in the analysis of his philosophical and anthropological considerations. Therefore, general research methods and approaches will help study Karol Wojtyła’s views on the nature of a human being, as well as individual and social dimensions of a person’s life. Originality lies in systematizing Karol Wojtyła’s anthropological ideas. The disclosure of the methodology, the key concepts and their interpretations, and the periodization of the development of Karol Wojtyła’s anthropological views can reveal his connection with the philosophical trends and define his place in modern philosophy. Conclusions. Wojtyła justifies the need for a new anthropological doctrine with an inappropriate place of a human being in the value system of the modern world, as he or she has evolved from the aim of everything ever created to the means. The basis of the new doctrine of a human being, namely adequate anthropology, is, according to him, human identity, dignity and "moral greatness". Karol Wojtyła’s "new human being" is the result of an integrated approach to studying the anthropological issues of the present and the response to "cultural impoverishment" and "the decline of mankind". (shrink)