W drodze ku przyszłości – integralny czy odczłowieczony rozwój?

Abstract

Social transformations are not homogenous. Social life experiences a peculiar schizophrenia when, on the one hand, it strives to respect human dignity, but on the other it diverges from universally acknowledged and recognised human rights. It is more and more stressed that the creation of social life must not be left up to a blind or sophisticated fate, but instead it ought to be an outcome of reasonable and responsible human actions. The process of divergence from unawareness and contingency towards premeditated and deliberated actions givesrise to a further question: whatshould be the ultimate criterion of validity of social transformations? This question is also addressed by Pope Benedict XVI in his encyclical Caritas in veritate, which emphasizes the possibility and necessity to perceive the shape of social life through the human nature. Now that the person, the subject of social life, is to carry out the dynamism of their nature in social life as well, this life ought to be formed in a way that will facilitate the person’s development. Thus, it can be said that the measure of validity ofsocial transformationsisthe human being whereasthe key to success in building social systems lies in the knowledge of the human nature.