An outline of the concept of duty in the ethics of Karol Wojtyła and Max Scheler

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15633/lie.61107

Keywords:

Kant’s ethics, Maritain’s personalism, cognitive-emotional experience of values, commandment of love

Abstract

On the basis of the analysis of the text of Karol Wojtyła’s habilitation dissertation, and the concept of ethics by Max Scheler reconstructed in the text, the understanding of duty („ought”, das Sollen) in both authors is presented, and the need to introduce duty into the system of ethics is discussed. Scheler’s phenomenological approach focuses on the feeling of moral values, which are legitimized by moral improvement and, at the same time, excluded by duty. Wojtyła’s Catholic personalism requires the realization of values in act, and hence translating them into duty. Types of duty communication in the form of commandments and evangelical counsels are discussed, which does not limit the freedom of the will. Wojtyła’s arguments against the Schelerian system from the standpoint of the Christian ethics are presented, exposing the morality of human efficacy, in which the key role is played by the objectification of values and the participation of conscience.

References

Gilson É., Thomism. The Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, transl. L. K. Shook, A. Maurer, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto 2002.

Hobbes T., Leviathan, or the Matter, Form, & Power of a Common-Wealth Ecclesiastical and Civil, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1929.

Kant I., Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, ed. and transl. A. W. Wood, Yale University Press, New Haven 2002.

Mały słownik terminów i pojęć filozoficznych, ed. by A. Podsiad, Z. Więckowski, Instytut Wydawniczy Pax, Warszawa 1983.

Maritain J., Neuf leçons sur les notions premières de la philosophie morale, Les Editions Pierre Tequi, Paris 1951.

Scheler M., Der Formalismus in der Ethik und die materiale Wertethik. Neuer Versuch der Grundlegung eines ethischen Personalismus, Verlag von Hans Niemeyer, Halle 1921.

St. Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica, transl. English Dominican Province, https://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu (21.02.2023).

The New Lexicon Webster’s Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language, Lexicon Publications, New York 1991.

Wojtyła K., Ocena możliwości zbudowania etyki chrześcijańskiej przy założeniach systemu Maxa Schelera, in: K. Wojtyła, Dzieła filozoficzne, t. 1, ed. J. Merecki, Instytut Dialogu Międzykulturowego im. Jana Pawła II, Kraków 2022.

Wojtyła K., “Person and Act” and Related Essays, transl. G. Ignatik, The Catholic University of America Press, Washington 2021.

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Published

2023-06-30

Issue

Vol. 29 No. 1 (2023)

Section

Articles

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