Osobowość, wolność i rozumność człowieka w świetle wybranych dzieł Jacques’a Maritaina

Abstract

Jacques Maritain in such texts as Integral Humanism, Three Reformers, Philosophical writings and others shows the proper, according to him, concept of man. According to the French thinker a man is a person who is characterised by a freedom of choice and endowed with reason. Explaining each of these attributes, Maritain refers to philosophical ideas of St.Thomas from Akwin. The personality of man should be distinguished from his individuality, like the form is distinguished from the matter. Moreover, explaining the issue of personality, Maritain makes reference to the concept of love which is understood as the act of making the way towards the other person, in order to give oneself as a gift. To love this way freedom is necessary. The freedom is what the most characterises the man and does not go against the God’s omnipotence. However, the freedom cannot be a total autonomy but it must come under moral norms recognised by the mind. Analysing the issue of mind, the French philosopher shows that the process of cognition must be always associated with the existence. Thus, he polemicises with Descrates who separated the process of cognition from the existence and directed it to ideas of man. Accepting the Cartesian point of view causes that the cognition becomes uncertain and impossible to verify.