II
The idea of man
LP’s writings do not present any overall conception of man, so the term »idea of man« is used instead of the more ambitious »anthropology«. A particular idea of man underlies discussion of other specific subjects, so it will be my task to present it as a systematic pattern. There are two basic features of his view of man which become apparent in the material. The first emphasizes that man is more than matter. Focus is directed to that which distinguishes man from animals and the rest of creation. Man is open to eternity. LP is critical of the attempts to reduce man to an empirically observable phenomenon. The other feature emphasizes man as an active agent, as the subject of actions, with the possibility of changing his situation both coram Deo and coram hominibus. The view which sees reality as a closed, causal system, i.e. determinism, is rejected. The first feature focusses on man’s spirit and can be described as »idealism«, whilst the second focusses on man’s will and is termed »voluntarism« in this study.
1 Man as open to eternity This section tries to describe various aspects of the idealistic concepttion. Firstly, the divine side of man is identified as »the spiritual aspect of man«, where the statement »the spirit of man emanated from God’s being«, plays an important part. Even if the texts can be said to express a metaphysical idealism, it cannot be claimed that they advocate a metaphysical dualism. Consequently, what LP understands by the phrase »immortal man« is investigated. Immortality is understood from a threefold perspective. Firstly, immortality is not identified with »eternal life«. Secondly, it is a question of a quantitative view of eternity: eternity lies ahead of man and is primarily aimed at safeguarding the idea of judgment. Thirdly, eternity is something in man, that is, it refers to his ability for transcendence. Closely connected with this aspect of are the ideas of religion and conscience. The third element in the view of man as open to eternity consists of the idea of ethically determined man. First and foremost, his fight against ethical nihilism and the connection with his political activity are here discussed. A political philosophy in nuce is contained in ethical idealism.
Summary in English
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