The Task of Christian Philosophy Today *

by Karol Wojtyla

The problem of man's subjectivity is today of paramount importance for philosophy. Multiple epistemological tendencies, principles, and orientations wrestle in this field and often give it a diametrically different shape and sense. The philosophy of consciousness seems to suggest that it was the first to discover the human subject. The philosophy of being is ready to demonstrate that, on the contrary, the analysis conducted on the basis of pure consciousness must lead in consequence to its annihilation. It is necessary to find the correct limits. according to which the phenomenological analyses, developed from the princi pies of the philosophy of consciousness, will begin to work to enrich the realistic image of the person. It is also necessary to establish the basis of such a philosophy of person. Apart from this, the problem of the subjectivity of the person, and especially this problem in relation to the human community, imposes itself today as one of the central questions concerning the world outlook (Weltanschaung). This is at the basis of the human "praxis" and morality (and consequently ethics) and at the basis of culture, civilization, and politics. Here, exercising its essential function, philosophy takes the floor as the expression of basic understanding and ultimate justification. Though the need for such understanding and justification always accompanies man in his earthly existence, this need becomes especially acute at moments, such as the present, of great crises and confrontations regarding man and the very sense of man's existence, and in consequence regarding the nature and meaning of his being. It is not the first time that Christian philosophy is faced by a materialistic interpretation, but it is the first time that this interpretation has had at its disposal so many resources and expresses itself in so many currents. It is well known that such situations in the course of history contribute to a deeper re-thinking of the whole Christian doctrine and of its particular elements. This is true in the present case in which the truth about man gains a distinctly privileged place. Twenty years of discussions on the world outlook have made it clear that it is not cosmology or philosophy of nature
*This was written by Cardinal Karol Wojtyla in 1976 as the introduction to his article "The Person: Subject and Community," Review of Metaphysics, 33 (1979/1980),273-308, but was omitted by the Review. (Ed.)

The Human Person

alone, but precisely philosophical anthropology and ethics which are at the center, contributing to the great and fundamental controversy on man. From the point of view of Christian philosophy, and also of theology, such a turn of events, which has found its expression also in the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, and especially in the Constitution Gaudium et Spes, points to the need for study on the subject of the human person in its many aspects.