“Culture of the Person” and “Culture of Works” According to Karol Wojtyła
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15633/lie.3940Keywords:
Wojtyła, culture, human act, moralityAbstract
This article presents basic features of the philosophical concept of culture in the thought of Karol Wojtyła. In particular, it aims to highlight the distinction between the “culture of the person” and “culture of works,” which seems to be fundamental for the whole anthropology and ethics of the philosopher from Wadowice.
On one hand, the designators of culture are the works and creations of man, on the other hand, the value of man himself as a person, his inner life, and who he is as a man. As Wojtyła emphasized, the latter is the most internal and profound dimension of culture because it is expressed in morality. The very ability to produce certain objects or produce certain effects, e.g. a work of art or a technical device, does not determine the “culture” of its creator. The decisive factor is acting according to the criterion of moral good and evil, which shapes the personality of the creator, who he is “as a person,” and not only “as an engineer or a composer.”
References
Baldwin E., Longhurst B. [et al.], Introducing Cultural Studies, Athens 2000.
Jaspers K., Chiffren der Transzendenz, München 1970.
John Paul II, Letter to Artist, Vatican City 1999.
Kuper A., Culture. The anthropologists’ account, Cambridge–London 1999.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae, Ia, q. 5 (De bono in communi), in: Thomas Aquinas, Opera omnia, vol. 4 (Summa theologiae Ia, q. 1–49), Romae 1888, p. 56–65.
Wojtyła K., The Acting Person, trans. A. Potocki, in collaboration with the author by
A.-T. Tymieniecka, Dordrecht [etc.] 1979 – „Analecta Husserliana” 10 (1979).
Wojtyła K., [List] Do Brata Mieczysława [Kotlarczyka] (2 listopada 1939), in: M. Kotlarczyk, K. Wojtyła, O Teatrze Rapsodycznym. 60–lecie powstania Teatru Rapsodycznego, oprac. J. Popiel, wybór T. Malak, J. Popiel, Kraków 2001, p. 303–307.
Wojtyła K., Chrześcijanin a kultura, „Znak” 16 (1964) nr 10 (124), p. 1153–1157.
Wojtyła K., Considerations on the Essence of Man / Rozważania o istocie człowieka, trans. J. Grondelski, Lublin–Roma 2016.
Wojtyła K., Ewangelia a sztuka. Rekolekcje dla artystów, oprac. A. Dobrzyński, Kraków–Rzym 2011.
Wojtyła K., Love and Responsibility, trans. H. T. Willetts, London 1981.
Wojtyła K., The Problem of the Construction of Culture Through Human Praxis, in: K. Wojtyła, Person and Community. Selected Essays, trans. T. Sandok, New York [etc.] 1993, p. 263–275.
Wojtyła K., Teoria e Prassi: un tema umano e cristiano, in: Teoria e Prassi: atti del Congresso internazionale Genova – Barcellona ’76, Neapoli 1979, p. 31–41.
Wojtyła K., The Transcendence of the Person in Action and Man’s Self-Teleology, „Analecta Husserliana” 9 (1979), p. 203–212.
Wojtyła K., Thomistic Personalism, in: K. Wojtyła, Person and Community. Selected Essays, trans. T. Sandok, New York [etc.] 1993, p. 165–175.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
The following rules apply to copyright:
1. The author declares that he or she has full copyright to the work, and such copyright it is not limited to the extent applicable to this declaration, that the article is an original work and that it does not infringe any third-party rights.
2. The author agrees to a free-of-charge, non-exclusive and non-restricted use of the work by Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow i.e.:
- to record and duplicate: make copies of the work by means of printing, reprography, magnetic or digital storage;
- to circulate the original or the copies of the work (disseminate, lend or lease the original or copies thereof, publicly display, screen or make the work publicly available so that everyone is able to access it at the time and in place they wish to do so);
- to include the work in a compilation;
- the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow may grant sublicenses Creative Commons Acknowledgement of authorship-Non-commercial use-Without derivative work 3.0 Poland
- the author and the title of the work will be listed,
- the place of publication (name of the periodical and an Internet link to the originally published work),
- the work will be distributed in a non-commercial way,
- no derivative works will be created.
The UPJPII Press does not waive any of its copyrights to any target group.
If you want to publish the text in Logos and Ethos, you must sign the license. However, the signing takes place at a later stage of publishing. Check the license: [license_en.pdf]
