Próba ujęcia istoty miłości

Abstract

Following the idea of the encyclical letter Deus Caritas est, the author works out some basic aspects of love in the spirit of personalism. In the real world there are various kinds of “pre-love”: starting from its intra-atomic form, through the natural form, to the cosmic one. But love in its proper sense appears only in man as a personal being. The essence of love consists in discovering and experiencing it as a common interpersonal relationship (ontological love), and translating it into personal-functional values, situating man in the bosom of reality (existential and functional love). Love is rooted in the mental, volitional and behavioural areas, but its final source is the whole man as the personal “I”.