Karol Wojtyła as Philosopher of Encounter

Abstract

The article’s presupposition is that the encounter with the other is one of the central themes in Karol Wojtyła’s works. In order to show Karol Wojtyła as a philosopher of encounter, the article examines his epistemological method and its purpose, his concept of freedom and love, and finally his understanding of man in the ethical perspective. First, the article describes Wojtyła’s attitude of realism and turning to experience as indispensable elements of his personalism. Wojtyła’s idea of human freedom is then discussed against the backdrop of determinism and indeterminism and in the context of the autonomy of created things. Next, the article outlines Wojtyła’s concept of love by applying his hermeneutics of the gift. The ontological and moral dimension of love in and between human persons is explained through the reality of the law of the gift. Finally, the discussion on love is complemented by the ethical reflections on the hierarchy of values, including the objective and subjective aspects of ethos.