Original scientific paper
The Metaphisyics of the Subject According to Joseph de Finance. Openness is in the Nature of Man
Anto Pavlović
; Filozofski fakultet Družbe Isusove, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
Anthropology, if not metaphysically grounded, is in danger of being reduced to a mere phenomenological approach to the human being, and may thus produce an incomplete picture of that which man truly is in his essence. It can therefore find valid hypotheses for its development solely in metaphysics for only then is it rendered able to offer integral answers to that which human subjectivity exhibits on the phenomenological level. This is the basic conviction from which J. de Finance sets forth in his reflections on the human subject. The intention, therefore, of this research paper is to look into the fundamental determinants of his anthropology by directing attention to its metaphysicality in particular. The aspect under which we approach the problem above may be summed up in the question: is a philosophy of the subject possible on the foundations of classical metaphysics? This paper endeavours primarily to demonstrate that classical metaphysics encompasses, aside from the object, also the subject with its subjectivity, then goes on to investigate the very meaning of the concept of the subject and subjectivity in the context of de Finance's philosophy. Furthermore, we examine in particular what open subjectivity is and why the subject which reveals itself in such subjectivity, through its ontological status, is surpassed by one whose subjectivity we call closed. The closing section is devoted to ontological openness (of spirituality) with which human existence is imbued at its deepest core. These reflections demonstrate that man is the only creature capable of recognizing in the totality of being the origin and purpose of his spiritual openness.
Keywords
J. de Finance; Aristotel-Thomas Aquinas; subject-subjectivity; essence-nature; spiritual subject-person; totality of being
Hrčak ID:
74281
URI
Publication date:
30.11.2011.
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