Philippine E-Journals

THE PERSONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE HUMAN BODY IN WOJTYLA’S PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

Bai Ziqiang

 

Abstract:

The human body has always been a fascinating object of investigation throughout human history. Indeed as a topic, the human body encompasses almost the totality of human concerns. It can be examined in various contexts and from multiple points of view. In fact, the human body has been treated from so many diverse standpoints that it seems no longer able to be considered from a particular broader perspective as a sing subject matter. In Karol Wojtyla’s philosophy of the human person, however, a particular broader perspective of the body is possible and also necessary. The human body for Wojtyla’s is not completely reducible as a specific object of investigation. As a part of the whole that is the human person, the human person body is also something that is irreducible, i.e., with a personal significance. Without acknowledging the body’s personal significance, the different consideration of the body are without a particular broader perspective and thereby easily lapse to be considerations not of the human body but a specific organism. This paper intends to explore the body’s personal significance in Wojtyla’s philosophy of the human person. Specifically this paper proceeds in two steps, first Wojtyla’s understanding of the human person is presented, and then his analysis of the human body as a personal.