Review article
https://doi.org/10.31192/np.17.1.11
Comparative Approach to the Term, Concept and Phenomenon of Personalism
Ivan Čulo
; Institut Fontes Sapientiae, Zagreb, Croatia
Ivan Šestak
orcid.org/0000-0002-2088-9041
; Faculty of philosophy and religious studies, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
As mentioned before, personalism is being determined as a philosophy, philosophical direction, discipline, school, science, movement, theory, learning and the like. In this regard, descriptions of personalism have different connotations and accents depending on the historical, geographical or ideological context. Thus, for example in Germany personalism was associated with the the thought of F. Schleiermacher or W. Sterna, in the Anglo-Saxon world with various American protestant thinkers (Bowne, Britghman and others) and in the ex – Soviet area personalism was considered to be more of a bourgeois ideology than a systematic philosophy.
Although, throughout various attempts of determination of personalism in the history of philosophy one can follow the roots of personalism back to the antiquity, yet the term ‘personalism’ is dominantly determined by the 20th century. All the determinations point out to the importance of the term ‘person’ and her/his role in the community, hence, in principle, personalism can be defined as the direction within the philosophy of the twentieth century which places the person in the center of interest and designates it a double function: a) the person is the absolute center and standard for society and all i institutions; b) a person is the basis for proclaiming absolute universality and solidarity among all people. In most determinations, it is pointed out that personalism is opposed to individualism and is close to the Christian understanding of the world and man.
In the historical and geographical diffusion of ideas in modern thought there are many types of personalism. American idealistic personalism, Russian personalism, various European personalisms, communitarian Christian personalism etc. Each of these forms has its own understanding of the person and places it at the center of philosophical consideration. Given the breadth of what can be understood under the concept of personalism, some have concluded that „there is little in common among different personalisms apart from their opposition to the various forms of materialism“ and that „full history of personalism stll has to be written“.
From different personalistic determinations, as a cross section, one can conclude that Nikolai Berdyaev, Jacques Maritain and Emmanuel Mounier are its three most prominent representatives and that personalism is most often associated with France.
The roots of French personalism are commonly found in French neocritism and tomism, and German existentialism, and the contribution of Russian religious philosophy to French personalism has not been sufficiently explored yet. However, even a superficial glimps into the personalism and its movements provides the insight on the activities of a number of Russian emigrant thinkers. Since Orthodox and Roman Catholics acted together in the personalistic movements and that Protestants joined them, we can talk about a kind of ‘ecumenism before ecumenism’ or that personalism is a true and complete Christian philosophy.
Keywords
personalism; european personalism; french personalism; Jacques Maritain; Nicolai Berdyaev
Hrčak ID:
218184
URI
Publication date:
26.3.2019.
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