(The Principles of the Existential Personalism in the Context of the Byzantine Anthropology)

Abstract: I examine within this study two essential preconditions of the existential personalism – the supremacy of a person over human being with its material interests and the freedom of spirit. My study is based on the Berdyaev’s philosphy. The fundation of personalism is supremacy of person before its being. While being is a product of an abstract mind and is deprived of its existence, the person is associated with freedom. If there was supremacy of being before a person that would lead to the determinism and exclusion of freedom. Therefore if there is freedom, it can not be determined by being. The spirit is not being but it is freedom. The spirit can not be tied to the order of being, but to a personal existence. Supremacy of person to its material needs has been defined by the founder of a philosofical movement, Berdyaev companion, Emmanuel Mounier. According to these principles i tis necessary to redefine the person not on the base of individuality but on the base of existentialism. So far has dominated the definition of a person in substacial definition according to Boëthius. We propose here non substantial determination. Because the spirit, pneuma, is the fundament of the personal identification and self-indentification. We develop this based on the authentic legacy of the Byzantine anthropology. According to it the fundamental characteristic of personal existence is that a person enters into relationships. In the byzantine antropology a person precedents being. It is a person who decides to objectify its being. The nature and characteristics of the person are manifested only in the relationship. An individuality is not able to create relationships. A person is determined to develop such relationships in vertical and horizontal directions hence to divine and human being. The prototyp is the Trinitarian and divine- human concept of a person developed by Kappodocia church fathers. Based on this holistic understanding of a person we show a contrast to a noetic and anthropological reductionism within latin (western) concept of defining a person whose result is a disoriented man. Suggested outcomes of this study may contribute to recovery of the holistic approach in uderstanding of the human person. Such new understanding of human being is as contradiction to deformed definition of human person according to natural, social or psychological determinism.

Authors: Grečo, Peter

DOI: 10.17846/CL.2017.10.1.83-97

Publication order reference: PhDr. PaedDr. Peter Grečo, PhD.; Institute for Humanistic formation, Ružová 51, 08301 Sabinov, Slovakia; email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Source: Konštatínove listy, 2017, vol.: 10, issue: 1, pages: 83-97 (PDF file)

Key words: A PERSON, FREEDOM, SPIRIT, RELATIONSHIP, MATERIALISE, BEING

Language: SLOVAK