The Acting Person: A Contribution to Phenomenological Anthropology (Analecta Husserliana) [Hardcover]

Karol Wojtyla (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 9027709858 | ISBN-13: 978-9027709851 | Publication Date: February 28, 1979 | Edition: 1

Originally entitled Osoba i Czyn and published in Poland in 1969, TheActing Person is the official English translation and has been thoroughly edited and revised with the collaboration of the author. The book stresses that Man must ceaselessly unravel his mysteries and strive for a new and more mature expression of his nature. The author sees this expression as an emphasis on the significance of the individual living in community and on the person in the process of performing an action. The author states in his preface that he has tried to face the major issues concerning life, nature, and the existence of Man directly as they present themselves to Man in his struggles to survive while maintaining the dignity of a human being, but who is torn apart between his all too limited condition and his highest aspirations to set himself free. The author hopes that his book "contributes to this disentangling of the conflicting issues facing Man, which are crucial for Man’s own clarification of his existence and direction of his conduct". The author’s analysis of the human being is a dynamic counter to the materialistic and positivistic tendencies in various schools of modern philosophy. Ever since Descartes, the knowledge of Man and his world has been identified through cognition. This book is a reversal of the post-Cartesian attitude toward Man in that it characterises him as the person in action. Audience: The Acting Person will be of great interest to philosophers, anthropologists, and scholars specializing in phenomenology. It will also be of deep concern to theologians, priests, seminarians, and members of religious orders who wish to gain an insight into Pope John Paul II’s philosophy of life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the Reviews: "The Acting Person represents a major effort to rethink the human reality in the face of the many frozen assumptions which dominate contemporary thought." (Professor Benjamin Schwartz, Harvard University) "This powerful phenomenological study will have lasting impact on those concerned with the contemporary conception of Man." (Professor Joseph Kockelmans, Pennsylvania State University) "A masterly critical edition ... its publication is an historical event" (Professor Kamil Dziewanowski, Boson State University)

Language Notes

Text: English, Polish (translation)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 396 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (February 28, 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9027709858
• ISBN-13: 978-9027709851
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,752,010 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Better Edition of the Acting Person, December 2, 2001

By 

Deena (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Acting Person: A Contribution to Phenomenological Anthropology (Analecta Husserliana) (Hardcover)

The Vatican has attempted to halt continued dissemination of the only English edition of The Acting Person with good reason. Apparently, it is not a faithful translation of Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II's Polish original. The translator, who is herself a phenomenologist but thinks differently from the author has changed crucial passages of his work. The second Polish edition which has been translated into French and Spanish is apparently accurate, for those who can read those languages. I myself am looking for one of these, preferably Spanish, but have not been able to find one. Two good overviews of Karol Wojtyla's philosophical anthropology can be found in Kenneth Schmitz's At the Center of the Human Drama and Jaroslaw Kupczak's Destined for Liberty.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The controversy on The Acting Person, May 27, 2000

By 

Rodrigo Guerra (Queretaro, Mexico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Acting Person: A Contribution to Phenomenological Anthropology (Analecta Husserliana) (Hardcover)

"The Acting Person" is a modified version of Karol Wojtyla's "Osoba i Czyn" originally published in 1969. Ana-Teresa Tymieniecka, the editor, changed important philosophical terminology (suppositum, esse, etc.) in order to push Wojtyla's book towards her personal approach to phenomenology. Even more, Tymieniecka wrote "The Acting Person" is the "Definitive text of the work established in collaboration with the author"... From 1979 to 1999 the controversy on this "definitive text" was intense.Tyemeniecka argued she had the full authorization of doing what she did and criticized the complaints from the Commision named by John Paul II for analizing the english translation (The members of the Commision were: Marian Jaworski, Andrzej Poltawski and Tadeusz Styczen). Even the official translator who worked close to Tyemeniecka, Andrzej Potocki, accepted she made important changes far from the convictions and intentions of the author. The controversy should finished in 1994 with the publication of Karol Wojtyla's "Osoba i czyn oraz inne studia antropologiczne" by T. Styczen, A. Szostek and others in the publishing house of the Catholic University of Lublin (TKUL). However, many scholars did not know the new and fully authorized edition. In 1999 Giovanni Reale and Tadeusz Styczen, with the full agreement of John Paul II, published "Persona e Atto. Testo polacco a fronte" in Rusconi Libri (Santarcangelo di Romagna 1999) and latter they published it again in Bompiani (Milano 2001) and in Karol Wojtyla's "Metafisica della Persona. Tutte le opere filosofiche e saggi integrativi" (Bompiani, Milano 2003). [...].

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where to find a copy of the Acting Person, January 22, 2001

By 

J DeWitt (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Acting Person: A Contribution to Phenomenological Anthropology (Analecta Husserliana) (Hardcover)

If anyone is interested in finding a copy of The Acting Person, log onto the website address: http://www.i-logic.com/personalism/jp2/actingperson.htm

This book should be read by anyone in academic philosophy. It is a masterpiece yet to be discovered by mainstream american philosophers. It's just too bad that it is not more readily available.