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The Human Person as an Integrated WholeLjudska osoba kao integrirana cjelina: Integrating Polarities in the Philosophy of Dietrich von HildebrandIntegracija polarnosti u filozofiji Dietricha von Hildebranda
Abstract
One of the biggest threats to the dignity of the human person which characterizes today’s thinking is the reduction of the human person to one constitutive aspect: the body, subjectivity, relationality, and the like. Based on the philosophy of Dietrich von Hildebrand, the paper demonstrates how six false dichotomies of a similar kind are resolved, namely: spirit and body, substance and relation, subjectivity and objectivity, Eigenleben and transcendence, affectivity and rationality, gift and freedom.
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Karol Wojtyła and Dietrich von Hildebrand made some of their most important philosophical contributions in affirming and illuminating the subjectivity of the human person. A careful reading of both authors shows that they affirm individual subjectivity in at least three different meanings, which the paper wants to elucidate in order to deepen the understanding of the human person and avoid possible misunderstandings and equivocations of the term subjectivity. In the first meaning, subjectivity is given in the conscious self-experience, where I both interiorize and subjectivize the intentional contents of the world of objects, and at the same time experience myself subjectively as an “I”. Second is the narrower understanding which refers to all things which address me personally and not someone else, such as my own happiness or wellbeing. Finally, both forms are grounded in the ontological subjectivity, which is a basis for all man’s acts and happenings and which grounds his unity and identity. None of these forms are affirmed at the expense of the objectivity or transcendence of the human person, but they provide a deeper and fuller understanding of the human person. Proper understanding of subjectivity also helps us to critique erroneous theories which do not do justice to the dignity of the human person.
The following article is an attempt at the reconstruction of Dietrich von Hildebrand’s political project rooted in Christian personalism, intended as an antidote to the evils of totalitarianism. A brilliant philosophical analysis of this subject was given by Josef Seifert in his seminal article “Personalistische Philosophie und der Widerstand gegen Hitler. Zum Kampf Dietrich von Hildebrands gegen den Nationalsozialismus, seine Ideologie und seinen rassistischen Antisemitismus”1, to which I am greatly indebted. Since Hildebrand’s project was highly conditioned by the particular historical circumstances shaping the political situation in Europe in 1930’s, my modest contribution is meant to put his philosophical and religious crusade against National Socialism (and Bolshevism) in the context of his attitude towards the German nation, towards democracy, authoritarianism, monarchism and socialism in Austria, as well as towards Fascism in Italy. I will also aspire to identify the philosophical elements of Hildebrand’s vision which preserve the lasting value.
Is love from the heart or from the will? Many writers claim that love is an act of the will. Von Hildebrand is emphatic in his claim that love is the voice of the heart, that to really love a person is to feel love for that person, and not merely to will for him what is good, and surely not merely to “will to love” him. In this, I think von Hildebrand is absolutely correct. But I also think that those who stress the role of the will are basically correct. And so my project in this paper is to show that these two seemingly opposed claims are not really contradictory but actually two sides of the same coin. Indeed, a careful reading of von Hildebrand himself shows that he too provides an important and even essential role for the will in his theory of the nature of love. I discuss six major ways in which the will plays a crucial role in love. The most important of these is the will as the center of cooperative freedom. The experience of love is in its very nature a gift, something I cannot produce for myself by an act of will. But once it is there in my heart I can freely say an inner yes to it. I can identify myself with it and make it explicitly my own. It is now my love in a new way since it is not merely the voice of my heart but of my whole being. Another major way in which the will plays a crucial role in love is faithfulness and perseverance. Briefly, we can say that love is the voice of the heart and the role of the will is to serve love.
THE GREATNESS and sublimity of marriage, the closest and most ultimate of unions, raised by Christ to the dignity of a Sacrament, is revealed at one stroke in the exhortation of St. Paul wherein he compares married love to the love of Christ, the Word made Flesh, for His Holy Church. 5 The greatness of marriage No natural human good has been exalted so high in the New Testament. No other good has been chosen to become one of the seven Sacraments. No other has been endowed with the honor of participating directly in the Kingdom of God. This in itself suggests the infinitely precious value already attached to marriage in the realm of nature, the richness and grandeur it unfolds. Before we examine the nature, the meaning, and the beauty of Christian marriage (which St. Paul calls "a great mystery in Christ and the Holy Church" 6), we shall examine the essence and meaning of marriage in the realm of nature, and its specific character in reference to all other fellowships and communities. Only in this way can we understand what was so gloriously exalted by Jesus Christ and thus dispel the misinterpretations of the nature of marriage so frequently encountered. Several passages of Holy Scripture dignify marriage by employing it as an image of the relation between God and the soul. This relation prefigures in an imperfect fashion the perfect model, very much as the Old Testament prefigures the New. Indeed, Christ calls Himself the spouse of the soul, and the Song of Songs presents the union of Christ and the soul in the form of a betrothal.
What is a person? This fundamental question is a perennial concern of philosophers and theologians. But, Christian Smith here argues, it also lies at the center of the social scientistâs quest to interpret and explain social life. In this ambitious book, Smith presents a new model for social theory that does justice to the best of our humanistic visions of people, life, and society. Finding much current thinking on personhood to be confusing or misleading, Smith finds inspiration in critical realism and personalism. Drawing on these ideas, he constructs a theory of personhood that forges a middle path between the extremes of positivist science and relativism. Smith then builds on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, Anthony Giddens, and William Sewell to demonstrate the importance of personhood to our understanding of social structures. From there he broadens his scope to consider how we can know what is good in personal and social life and what sociology can tell us about human rights and dignity. Innovative, critical, and constructive, What Is a Person? offers an inspiring vision of a social science committed to pursuing causal explanations, interpretive understanding, and general knowledge in the service of truth and the moral good.
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