Search Results

Journal: Philosophy and Canon Law

Dignity of the Human Person

Adrian Loretan

Language: EN | Published: 28-12-2022 | Abstract | pp. 1-8

The Vatican II fundamentally changed the ecclesiastical view towards the human person. Especially in Nostra aetate, Gaudium et spes, and Dignitatis humanae it strengthens the dignity of the human person and personal freedom as base for a world with equal rights for all mankind. Therefore, the council qualified discrimination of all kind as against God’s will. These statements have a huge impact on the necessary further development of theology and canon law.

2022-12-28



Journal: Philosophy and Canon Law

Karol Wojtyla’s Conception of Personhood from the Perspective of Cognitive Sciences

Mariusz Wojewoda

Language: EN | Published: 23-07-2021 | Abstract | pp. 1-17

We use the term “person” when we want to point out that human existence is unrepeatable and unique. The assumption that man is a person constitutes a basis for the belief in the dignity, efficacy, and responsibility of the human individual. Karol Wojtyla built his conception of the person in the context of theological and philosophical discussions. Even though Wojtyła’s conception has been given a great deal of scholarly attention, it is worthwhile to juxtapose it with contemporary anthropological theories that derive from cognitive sciences. Cognitivists usually base their theories on biological and sociological premises. Some conclusions arrived at in the area of the cognitive sciences lead to mind-brain reductionism, a theory in which the human being is regarded as a body endowed with the function of the brain and as an entity whose individual traits are shaped by its social and cultural environment. This position undermines the ideas of free will and the substantial singularity of the human person. However, debates with this position have worked out a non-reductionist alternative, a theory known as emergentism. This theory treats the human mind as a distinct faculty, one which emerges as a phase in the brain’s development. Emergentists base their reasoning on the assumptions that the body is a unity and that the mind is not identical with it. It is my belief that emergentism can be fruitfully applied to the dynamic understanding of the person put forward by Wojtyła in the middle of the 20th century.

2021-07-23



Journal: Philosophy and Canon Law

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

Krzysztof Wielecki

Language: EN | Published: 23-07-2021 | Abstract | pp. 1-12

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.

2021-07-23



Journal: Philosophy and Canon Law

Human Person in the Code of Canon Law of John Paul II

Stanislav Přibyl

Language: EN | Published: 31-12-2021 | Abstract | pp. 1-19

The Code of Canon Law, promulgated by John Paul II in 1983, is a synthesis of the earlier 1917 Code and the doctrine of the Second Vatican Council. The Code contains norms which go well beyond a reform of the inner legal relations within the Catholic Church. A lot of them deal with the value and dignity of the human person, which shows a clear impact of the pontificate of John Paul II, who put a lot of emphasis on the given issue. The article discusses the fields of legal regulations in the Code which touch upon the issue of the human person, esp. freedom of religion, protection of unborn life, social rights, legal standing of women and the education of future generations. It points out the main difference between civil law (which also serves the dignity of the human person) and canon law, namely, the latter aims at the salvation of souls.

2021-12-31



Journal: Philosophy and Canon Law

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

Daniel C. Wagner

Language: EN | Published: 23-07-2021 | Abstract | pp. 1-42

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.

2021-07-23



Journal: Philosophy and Canon Law

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

Daniel C. Wagner

Language: EN | Published: 31-12-2021 | Abstract | pp. 1-27

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.

2021-12-31



Journal: Philosophy and Canon Law

“Person” in the Law of Religious [Institutes]

Damián Němec

Language: EN | Published: 31-12-2021 | Abstract | pp. 1-16

The emphasis on the human person and his dignity was significantly applied in the new regulation of the law of consecrated life, which is dealt with in the new Code of Canon Law of 1983 in integrum compared to the previous Code of Canon Law of 1917. This paper describes only some of the changes in the law of religious institutes in the Latin Church.
The first section regards mainly the person who has taken religious vows and focuses on the question of religious vows as the basis of religious life. It also discusses confessors viewed as a necessary tool for the renewal of religious life as well as modifications in the concept of poverty as a very important element of religious life. The second section focuses on the government of religious institutes, discussing the strengthened position of internal superiors over external superiors in religious congregations, the strengthened position of the superior of monasteries of nuns, and the extended powers of superiors on release from a religious institute due to illegitimate absence from a religious house.
As this is in some cases a very recent legal regulation, the author does not hesitate to express his critical observations.

2021-12-31



Journal: Philosophy and Canon Law

Man “Extended” by Media and Technology: Ethical Considerations

Mariusz Wojewoda

Language: EN | Published: 29-06-2023 | Abstract | pp. 1-16

Modern man uses a wide range of technical and media tools. The term “techne,” while referring to things and skills, also denotes man’s connections with these objects. The influence of techne on the functioning of the human person is mutual; as we adapt the tools to our needs, we also change ourselves by using modern technologies. James J. Gibson’s concept of affordance and Andy Clark’s concept of the extended mind allow us accurately to describe the relationship between the human mind, man’s cognitive abilities and actions, and the external environment. In this article, the Author addresses the technical, media- and communication-related aspects of this environment. The article’s concluding section is devoted to the ethical consequences of technical and media extension of man and the frame of reference for these considerations is supplied by Karol Wojtyła’s concept of the human person.

2023-06-29



Journal: Philosophy and Canon Law

The Problem of Responsible Parenthood in the Axiological Perspective. Analysis Inspired by the Encyclical Paul VI Humane Vitae

Mariusz Wojewoda

Language: EN | Published: 28-10-2020 | Abstract | pp. 83-96

The article is devoted to the issue of responsible parenthood, which was formulated in the encyclical Humane Vitae by Paul VI in 1968. The content of the encyclical referred primarily to the issue of responsibility arising from fertilization. The author of the article relates the issue of parental responsibility to the care of a child with mild mental disability. Parental childcare is a consequence of calling the child to live. The author of the article analyses the issue of responsible parenting from the philosophical perspective and thus focuses on the recognition of the world of values by the parent-guardian of a person with intellectual disability. Close relationships with such a person require special spiritual, moral, and axiological sensitivity. The author of the article, in addition to the encyclical Humane Vitae, has been inspired by the reflections of Jean Vanier and Julia Kristeva on disability, resulting from two religious and secular perspectives.

2020-10-28



Journal: Philosophy and Canon Law

Wojtyła’s Category of Participation and the Question of Common Good

Karol Jasiński

Language: EN | Published: 23-07-2021 | Abstract | pp. 1-16

The author presents Wojtyła’s views on participation and its connections to the common good. The analysis consists of two parts. The first part outlines the concept of participation (coexistence and action together with other people in relation to the common good) and its various forms (solidarity and opposition, conformism and evasion). The second part presents views of the nature of common good found not only in liberal thought (common good as the expression of deliberation and the rights of the individual), and personalist thought (common good as the development of the person and its natural potentialities), but primarily in the work of Wojtyła himself (common good as personal self-fulfilment through coexistence and cooperation with others in relation to the conscience-discerned truth, elected in a free act). His reference point was also personalism, which stresses the inalienable dignity of the person in both the private and the social spheres of life.

2021-07-23



Journal: Philosophy and Canon Law

John Paul II on Humanae Vitae and the Priority of Ethics over Technology

John P. Hittinger

Language: EN | Published: 28-10-2020 | Abstract | pp. 35-67

We examine how John Paul II’s lifelong work on the issues surrounding family and human life as expressed in Pope Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae (1968) are an exemplification of his principles for cultural renewal as stated in Redemptor Hominis (1979). The triad of principles, the primacy of persons over things, the priority of ethics over technology, and the superiority of spirit over matter provide a set of interlocking principles for discerning the true progress of modern culture. Contrary to the dominant view that artificial contraception represents an opportunity for great progress for women and for society, we argue that the ambivalent character of modern technology as established by Yves René Simon and Clive Staples Lewis points to a large downside of artificial contraception, namely, a real opportunity for the degradation of the marriage bond and the full flourishing of the human person. The substitution of technology as a way to regulate birth for personal choice and habit or virtue inverts the principle of ethics over technology and opens the door for the manipulation of women as predicted by Pope Paul VI which is a clear failure to place the primacy of the person over things. The fundamental error lies in the materialistic philosophy of life which refuses to acknowledge the superiority of spirit over matter. The battle over the issues at the heart of Humane Vitae constitutes a battle over the ultimate meaning of human existence as theistic or anti-theistic, Gospel or anti-Gospel, and thus it will always stand as a “sign of contradiction.”

2020-10-28



Journal: Philosophy and Canon Law

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

Aneta Gawkowska

Language: EN | Published: 23-07-2021 | Abstract | pp. 1-15

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.

2021-07-23



Journal: Philosophy and Canon Law

Józef Tischner on Upbringing and Hope

John P. Hittinger

Language: EN | Published: 19-04-2022 | Abstract | pp. 1-36

The present article examines Józef Tischner’s idea of upbringing (wychowanie) in establishing the new awareness of solidarity among the Polish workers and people through an awakening to conscience. The present moment served as a revolutionary alternative to socialism. I look at Tischner’s critique of Marxism and the central issue surrounding base and superstructure. Then I turn to his recovery of the Polish tradition of ethical ideals, especially in the person of Maximilian Kolbe and John Paul II. The text provides a detailed analysis of the chapter on upbringing in The Spirit of Solidarity. Tischner’s notion that upbringing is a personal bond established in trust to live in hope for improvement in mind and heart is placed in the context
of the solidarity as a social bond establishing an ethical community transcending the political quest for power and the need to find an enemy. The text analyzes the various counterfeit forms of education in order to deepen our awareness of the meaning of authentic upbringing. Salient points of his teaching are discussed in conclusion.

2022-04-19



Journal: Philosophy and Canon Law

On the Sources of Karol Wojtyła's The Acting Person

Jarosław Merecki

Language: EN | Published: 23-07-2021 | Abstract | pp. 1-15

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.

2021-07-23



Journal: Philosophy and Canon Law

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

Pavol Dancák

Language: EN | Published: 28-06-2021 | Abstract | pp. 1-14

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.

2021-06-28



Journal: Philosophy and Canon Law

Responsible Procreation—Co-Responsibility of Spouses. From Adequate Anthropology to the Legal Anthropology of Matrimony

Andrzej Pastwa

Language: EN | Published: 18-12-2020 | Abstract | pp. 37-55

This study successfully verifies the thesis that both eponymous anthropological criteria (responsible procreation and co-responsibility of spouses), referring to the nature of personae humanae, have an invaluable epistemological value in the matrimonial law. Opening a wider horizon of cognition and interpretation, they become indispensable in the accurate/reliable deciding of cases concerning the invalidity of marriage. The subsequent stages of the discourse proposed here, step by step from the general guidelines of adequate anthropology to the detailed assumptions of the legal anthropology of matrimony, have very clearly confirmed the words of John Paul II that “[…] an authentically juridical consideration of marriage requires a metaphysical vision of the human person and of the conjugal relationship” (Address to the Roman Rota, 2004).

2020-12-18



Journal: Philosophy and Canon Law

“Person” in the Polish Family and Guardianship Code

Elżbieta Szczot

Language: EN | Published: 31-12-2021 | Abstract | pp. 1-15

The article presents the issues related to the understanding of the person in the Polish Family and Guardianship Code. It shows the complex issue of acquiring legal capacity, including the legal capacity of the conceived child, the relation between parental authority and the child, adoption of the child, the acquisition and scope of capacity for legal acts, as well as some limitations resulting from incapacitation were showed.

2021-12-31



Journal: Philosophy and Canon Law

A Child is a Human Being Now. Responsible Parenthood in the Light of Janusz Korczak’s Pedagogy

Krzysztof Wieczorek

Language: EN | Published: 28-10-2020 | Abstract | pp. 97-117

The author extracts from the Humanae Vitae encylical the thread of responsible parenthood. He asks about the situation of a child in family half a century after the publication of the papal document. He points towards a number of threats and disruptions in the adult-child relations, which result from an improper understanding of who a child is from the philosophical perspective. He opts for a development of philosophical reflection on a child and enriching it with new aspects. He reaches out for inspiration to the works by Janusz Korczak, which present an outline of the original philosophy of a child. What deserves particular recognition is the perception of a child as a “a project of a future man,” and not as a full-valued person who deserves appreciation of the contemporary ontic and social status. In the conclusion the author develops and clarifies Korczak’s controversial postulate of the “children’s right to death,” giving it a contemporary interpretation.

2020-10-28



Journal: Philosophy and Canon Law

“Person” in CIC and CCEO Matrimonial Law. On the Idea of Vetera et Nova Harmonization in the Church Doctrine and Jurisprudence

Andrzej Pastwa

Language: EN | Published: 31-12-2021 | Abstract | pp. 1-33

serious confrontation with the subject: “Person” in the Code of Matrimonial Law (CIC and CCEO), is an—invariably relevant—challenge that the study of canon law and jurisprudence have to face. The argument for the validity of this conclusion is provided by the famous John Paul II’s thesis, proclaimed in the Familiaris Consortio exhortation (1981) and the famous 1997 Address to the Roman Rota, which can be summarized in the following words: the foundation and structural principle of interpersonal (ethical and legal!) relationships in marriage is matrimonial love. This axiom—still insufficiently present in the thoughts of canonists and church judges—reflects the deepest truth, of which “prophetically” the author of the monumental works Love and Responsibility and The Acting Person gave testimony; the truth that not elsewhere, but in the conciliar spiritually person-centric vision of matrimonial community (communio/consortium), a hermeneutic key should be sought for an adequate and complete understanding of the structure of marriage, harmoniously integrating its two personal and institutional dimensions.
Karol Wojtyła’s/John Paul II’s brilliant thought deserved to be confronted with the premises that prove the hypothesis that the mere declarative identification in the expressed judgments/concepts with the idea of a personalistic aggiornamento (“programmed” especially in numbers 47–52 of the Council’s Constitution Gaudium et Spes) does not yet guarantee the adequacy and completeness of the canonistic approaches to the “truth of matrimony.” This is both in the sphere of theological exposure in accordance with the Magisterium (in the light of the “Image of God”) and at the praxis level: the interpretation and application of the normative records in the nodal canons of CIC and CCEO. The first part of the study is dedicated to illustrating such a state of affairs – in various proposals of doctrine and jurisprudence: from a concept that is completely misguided and destined to fail in advance; through a concept that, because of its extremely conservative approach to the need for vetera et nova harmonisation, has not stood the test of time, to concepts, indeed, universally acknowledged in the study of canon law, whose authors (or their adherents), after all, should be suggested to implement certain necessary corrections: bigger or smaller. In the second part, the research contemplation focuses on the conclusions of the realization of the conciliar postulate of “harmonization” in presenting a person-centric vision of matrimony. These synthetic remarks constitute an attempt to show the basis for an adequate interpretation of the formula adopted by the two codes announced in the title: “a partnership of the whole of life”.

2021-12-31



Journal: Philosophy and Canon Law

Scholē as a Way of Learning to Be Human in the Age of the Internet

Pavol Dancák

Language: EN | Published: 29-06-2023 | Abstract | pp. 1-12

The article offers a brief philosophical reflection on scholē and human being in the context of the Internet. The first part of the article shortly explains the urgency of the problems that arise from the extensive use of the Internet, such as addiction to digital devices, being constantly connected to the Internet and receiving unreliable information. The second part of the article offers a reflection of scholē (leisure) as a space for transcendence which is a very important attribute of the human being and which is the foundation of our culture. Scholē is an organic component of culture and education, and leisure presents not the cessation of work, but a work of a rather different kind, the work restored to its human meaning, as a celebration and
a festival. The article concludes that scholē provides us with precise and true information about what the human person essentially needs.

2023-06-29



Journal: Philosophy and Canon Law

Pillars of the System of ius matrimoniale canonicum According to Remigiusz Sobański

Andrzej Pastwa

Language: EN | Published: 29-12-2022 | Abstract | pp. 1-26

 “The Gaudium et spes Constitution does not approach [matrimony] a priori—as the Casti connubii Encyclical did—but, instead, it analyzes the reality of matrimony as it is reflected in the Christian consciousness shaped by the teaching of the Church.” This characteristic sentence, derived from Śląskie Studia Historyczno-Teologiczne [Silesian Studies in History and Theology] (1968), which debuted at that time on the market of theological periodicals, shows in itself the epistemological sensitivity and sharp methodical sense of the Author and the Executive Editor of the periodical. This study adopts a hypothesis, which suggests that in this
and similar lines of the famous article from 1969—perfectly set in the current of the conciliar aggiornamento—a key to understanding the phenomenon and scientific format of the work of Rev. Professor Remigiusz Sobański (1930–2010) appeared. Positive verification of this hypothesis is not in doubt: the experience of half a century of work as a scientist and person with real-life experience (a judge and officials in the Katowice Tribunal) and the related fact that he has become an undisputed authority in the field of canonical matrimonial law, resulted in the Author’s exposition of the systemic principles of the codified ius matrimoniale (CIC 1983). This finding makes it necessary to reflect, with sharpened attention, on the title area “Pillars of the system of ius matrimoniale canonicum according to Remigiusz Sobański” in the following order: (1) “the principle of matrimonial indissolubility” (irrevocabilis consensus personalis—vinculum
indissolubile), (2) “the principle [that] shapes from within all the canonical norms on marriage” (favor matrimonii), (3) “the principle of the right to marriage” (ius connubii), (4) “sacrament— one of the structural elements of the Church” (sacramentum matrimoni; principles: eo ipso sacramentum and favor fidei).

2022-12-29



Journal: Philosophy and Canon Law

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

Tomasz Gałkowski

Language: EN | Published: 31-12-2021 | Abstract | pp. 1-15

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.

2021-12-31