On the eve of the tercentenary of Kant’s birth, just as it was a hundred years ago, Kantianism is simultaneously on the receiving end of the blows of history and attacks by rival philosophical ...parties, both progressivist and reactionary. The radical wings of both parties perceive modernity as a depressing, nauseating period which must be broken with by moving toward the past or toward the future. One of the most original and profound diagnoses of this attitude was offered by Hans Jonas, who discerned in radical doctrines of a hundred years ago a similarity with the gnosticism of antiquity. Jonas’s diagnosis has not lost its relevance. That is why the central question addressed in this study is as follows: what prescription does the Kantian programme offer for modernity’s “gnostic dizziness?” I maintain that Kant’s critical turn is still an effective strategy by means of which to compensate for the sudden stresses and “gnostic impulses” provoked by the modern worldview revolution, bringing back an “orientation in thinking” which reorients the world process and individual activity. The imperative to always see and respect humanity in a particular individual warns against the “category mistake” committed by modern radicals who ascribe agency (subjectivity) to non-human abstractions which cannot possess this property. In theory, Kant grounds the view that humanity should resign itself to the fact of its perspective being limited and local. Kantian practical philosophy provides the traveler with a map of regulative ideas and a “moral compass”, along with an explanation of disruptive factors, offering a working explanation of the situation and its possible outcomes. Kant’s “Copernican revolution” brings human beings back into focus and imagination to order, allowing for the hope that new challenges will be successfully met.
This paper aims to answer the research question: How to educate oneself towards maturity in light of the theoretical approach of Zdzisław Chlewiński? Chlewiński developed the theory of mature ...personality, identifying three components: reliable insight into oneself (authenticity), autonomy and a personalistic attitude towards other people. In this paper, self-education towards maturity is considered as developing the qualities listed by Chlewiński, thus becoming increasingly authentic and autonomous as well as increasingly human in one's relation to the other. Using Chlewiński's method of text analysis, the following areas (tasks) of self-education towards maturity were identified: (1) in terms of honest insight into oneself (authenticity): distancing oneself from the excessive, inflexible use of defence mechanisms that lead to the formation of a distorted self-image and playing inaccurate roles; a reliable answer to the question about the most important life values; the formation of an attitude of gratitude; (2) in terms of autonomy: the formation of pro-social and altruistic life plans; the development of a solid willpower and self-reliance; (3) in terms of the personalistic attitude towards other people: building empathic and supportive relations, distancing oneself from manipulative behaviour (including ingratiation). To illustrate self-education with respect to the aforementioned areas, the selected aspects of biographies of truly mature individuals, prominent Polish people representing different lifestyles, were referred to: Karol Wojtyła, who later became Pope John Paul II; General Fieldorf “Nil” – a hero of World War II; and Wanda Półtawska – a doctor of psychiatry, 102 years old in 2023 when this paper is being written. Their biographies provide inspiration for self-education towards maturity. On the basis of the analysis undertaken, it was concluded that Zdzisław Chlewiński's theory can serve as a source of guidance for further analyses of the biographies of truly mature people.
Due to the problematic issues of the times into which it is projected, pedagogical reflection is at risk of losing its particularity as a theory called to preserve the perennial fundamentals of the ...person and education. Exerting the theoretical references of pedagogical anthropology inspired by personalism and its recovery in a hermeneutic perspective, the article outlines the specificity of pedagogy and its intrinsic relationship with the concept of the person. From the investigation emerges a ‘pedagogy of the person’ committed, especially in the contemporary context, to outlining the main ‘thematic nuclei’ to guide education: person, educability, interpretation and search for truth.
The education of the person supposes the formation of his freedom. Maritain says that ‘man is born free but is called to conquer his freedom’. To educate is to help the person to be more perfectly ...free. However, in our times, freedom is often misunderstood and is reduced to simple choice. For this reason, in this article we will reflect, following the teachings of Karol Wojtyla, John Paul II and the Gaudium et Spes Constitution, on the most profound sense of freedom that should guide true educational action.
While some scholars conclude that there is a positive relationship between the possession of nuclear latency and the initiation of international conflict, others conclude that there is no ...relationship between them. As such, these findings are in need of reconciliation, but there have been almost no scholarly efforts to do so. In this article, I argue and find that latent nuclear states with personalist authoritarian regimes are more likely to initiate international conflict than those with other types of regimes (i.e. both democratic regimes and nonpersonalist authoritarian regimes). My finding indicates that not only personalist regimes drive the positive relationship between nuclear latency and conflict initiation, but also inconclusive findings in previous studies stem from an oversight of the variation in the level of personalism across latent states.
In search of ethical conceptual frameworks that are applicable to the practical reality of companies, ethical leadership has recently gained ground in Business Ethics scholarship as a broad umbrella ...under which to fit both normative and descriptive approaches to management. This article delves into Carlos Llano's seminal studies in the field, and his rediscovery of the “practical idea” as a dynamic principle for integrating the practice of management and ethical leadership in light of a realistic personalism. Llano was one of the first authors to study the firm from a humanistic, people-centered perspective as a “community or people,” and his view of practical wisdom is an effort to integrate this intellectual virtue with human will by offering a personalist open dynamism that is at the center of all relationships at work, allowing those involved to grow therein. Hence, his notion of the practical idea is his most original contribution to the promotion of managerial action as a catalyst for person-centered leadership.
En la modernidad, la reflexión moral ha estado influida por orientaciones fundamentadas en la razón y por orientaciones fundamentadas en el sentimiento. Dos ejemplares de estas orientaciones son la ...Ilustración y el Romanticismo, respectivamente. El desarrollo de estos movimientos culturales e intelectuales está asociado a un contexto social y político en el que las demandas por los derechos políticos y sociales se presentaban junto a la insistencia en la importancia de la solidaridad, la hermandad y el compromiso personal relacionados con el desarrollo de las comunidades. En este artículo desarrollamos algunos aspectos de este complejo contexto cultural y presentamos las reflexiones de Max Scheler acerca de la religión como una perspectiva representativa de las visiones herederas del romanticismo que reivindicaron la importancia de los valores y el compromiso moral frente a las crisis políticas que sufrió Europa a inicios del siglo XX.
This paper looks first at the scope of religious experience, offering some representative examples of phenomena that typically give rise to spiritual experiences. This leads on a consideration of the ...phenomenology of such experiences – the particular way in which they present themselves to the conscious subject. Lastly, the paper tackles the vexed question of the source of such experiences, and suggests that this is best understood in terms of a (certain kind of) theistic framework.
Karol Wojtyła’s seminal essay, “Thomistic Personalism,” presents an integral theory of the human person that may serve as the foundation for an authentically personalist psychology. Relevant to the ...contemporary field of psychology, which appears fragmented and in search of a unifying paradigm, Wojtyła considered theory (anthropology), research (epistemology), and practice (ethics). In terms of research, he identified four complementary methods of understanding the human person: revelation (theology), reason (philosophy), observation (empiricism), and introspection (experience). In terms of theory, Wojtyła addressed the rudiments of Rychlak’s four dimensions of a personality theory: structure, motivation, development, and personality. In terms of practice, he described four guiding ethical principles: freedom for morality, freedom for love, personal good and common good, and transtemporal values. Wojtyła thus offered an outline for the project of a comprehensive psychology of persons with significant implications for the theory, research, and practice of psychology.
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