Karol Wojy's Philosophy Of The Human Person

Chapter 4

Inquiry into the Possibility of Ecological Aspect in St. Karol Wojtyła’s Philosophy of the Human Person

A person is an objective entity, which as a definite subject has the closest contacts with the whole (external) world and is most intimately involved with it precisely because of its inwardness, its interior life.

- St. Karol Wojtyła, Love and Responsibility, 23.

Before delving into the vast subject, it is vital to recollect the important points that have been already touched upon the progression of the study. First, the researcher dwelt with the foundation of St. Karol Wojtyła’s conception of the human person which is grounded on metaphysics. Hence, he is indebted to Aquinas’ personalism where he draws his basis of the personalistic

Karol Wojtyła’s philosophy of the human person. As regards to the researcher’s study, it is unusual to use Wojtyłan philosophy with respect to ecology. Basically, he is an avid ethicist and personalist. In fact, Peter Kreeft would describe him as the “greatest modern Christian anthropologist. ” However, in the present study, the researcher attempted to present Wojtyła’s philosophy of the human person, which in a way, also concerns with ecological issues. It is the researcher’s initiative to explore all the more the possibility of an ecological aspect of his philosophy. Since there are underlying principles in his philosophical anthropology which acknowledges the connectedness of the human person with the environment. As an academic pursuit, the researcher laid down the fundamental thought of St. Karol Wojtyła which is the metaphysical and phenomenological experience of the human person. This would be the basis in inquiring the ecological aspect of his

Moreover, among the created beings of God, it is man created as imago Dei whom he endowed a task on how to relate properly with the other as well as his natural environment. Wojtyła claims that, “It is otherwise with the ‘order of nature’, which means the totality of the cosmic relationships that arise among really existing entities. It is therefore the order of existence, and the laws which govern it have their foundation in Him, Who is the unfailing source of that existence, in God the Creator.” Hence, the whole order of creation is a conglomeration of the natural orders to produce a harmonious universe. There is a “cosmic relationship” between these entities that God himself designed. That is the reason why each entity has its ontological connection. For to change one structure affects the structure as a whole. “The point, rather, is that the order of things, the relationships among them and the laws governing them intelligible not only to us, but in a way to each other,” as Reimers notes. In the same way, Wojtyła emphasizes of an awareness of this connectedness and its affectiveness towards his environment . He says, “Awareness of a tie, awareness of a share in the existence and activity, the joys and sufferings of another being bids us think tenderly not only of other people, but also for instance of the