La interpersonalidad en Karol Wojtyla (II)

Abstract

The “philosophers of dialogue” discovered, at the beginning of the twentieth century, that the constitution of the modern self required the presence of a you. The discovery of the need for a you opened up different philosophical positions: some maintained the priority of the you over the I; others the priority of the we over the you and over the I; still others the priority of the personal subject over the interpersonal relationship. This text aims to explain Wojtyla’s position on this issue and why. The Polish philosopher maintains the priority of the personal subject over the relationship and, at the same time, that the I is constituted or realized through the you (the man through the woman and the woman through the man) and in the we. Thanks to the discovery of the subjective dimension of the person, Wojtyla discovers categories such as “self-determination”, “self-control”, “self-giving”, “psyche”, “soma”, etc., which are constitutive of the person and which we could not find in an anthropology that began with the you or the we. Furthermore, starting with the community seems to call into question personal freedom. On the other hand, Wojtyla maintains that the you and the we are absolutely necessary for the full realization of the self as a person. Through joint (good) action, one realizes oneself and, at the same time, others.