Features of Karol Wojtyla's anthropology

Abstract

The goal of the paper is to study the peculiarities of Karol Wojtyla’s anthropological views. It offers a comparative study of the thinker’s methods and ideas with Thomism, phenomenology, and personalism. The analysis is based on the works of researchers of the philosophical and theological heritage of Karol Wojtyla and comparison of their results with his teachings. The relevance of the paper lies in the fact that a human being is one of the central issues of philosophical research. Religious philosophy emphasizes the spiritual essence of a human being, which correlates with God, while in the 17th and 18th centuries the essence of a human being is identified with the mind. In turn, Marxist philosophy emphasizes the active essence of a human being. In some areas of modern philosophical thought denies the reality of the personal «I». The influence of philosophical thought is important for the development of society, so the study of anthropological ideas of Karol Wojtyla, Pope John Paul II, one of the most influential figures of the late 20th-early 21stcentury is essential for the philosophy and processes of state formation. Results. It is established that the basis of Wojtyla’s philosophical and theological heritage is a Christian doctrine, which gives grounds for some researchers to characterize his ideas as Christian or theological anthropology. The paper performs the analysis of Wojtyla’s creative heritage in the context of philosophical, theological, and, in particular, Christian anthropologies. Conclusions. It has been established that the anthropological teaching of Wojtyla presents an original integrity, contains a rethinking of key anthropological concepts and philosophical currents, based on Christian values, individual and social dimension of a human being, and has applied value. The key ideas and methods that bring Wojtyla’s anthropology closer to Thomism, phenomenology and personalism are revealed. Among scientists, there is a problem of inconsistency in determining the key principles of anthropological teachings of Wojtyla and inconsistency in referring the thinker to one of the philosophical currents.