Online Symposium: Coughlin on JP II and Human Dignity

The first of (what we hope will be many) contributions to MOJ's online symposium on John Paul II's jurisprudential legacy comes from my friend and colleague, Fr. John Coughlin.  In a published paper, "Pope John Paul II and the Dignity of the Human Being," Harv. J. L. & Pub. Pol'y (2003), Coughlin writes:

[L]ong before his election as Pope, Karol Wojtyla was developing his understanding of the dignity of the human person in his philosophical and theological writings.  In a 1968 letter to the French theologian Henri de Lubac, Wojtyla wrote, “The evil of our times consists in the first place in a kind of degradation, indeed in a pulverization, of the fundamental uniqueness of each human person. This evil is even much more of the metaphysical order than of the moral order. To this disintegration, planned at times by atheistic ideologies, we must oppose, rather than sterile polemics, a kind of "recapitulation" of the inviolable mystery of the person . . . .” 

The belief that each human being possesses a metaphysical value simply in the fact of his or her existence remains at the root of John Paul II's indefatigable defense of human dignity. . . . 

The philosophical foundation for John Paul II's defense of the dignity of the human being begins with two ancient truths. First, it posits the universality of one human nature that transcends the limits of history and culture. One must admit that, historically, the idea of the universality of human nature has stemmed from Aristotelian cosmology, which mistakenly understood the universe as fixed and immutable.  Because he desires a philosophical approach consistent with the modern scientific method, John Paul II attempts to retrieve essential aspects of the tradition through the adoption of a radical realism and the human capacity to know it. His philosophical method requires a turn to the human subject and a phenomenological analysis of the somatic, emotional, intellectual, and moral dimensions of human experience.  Nonetheless, he refuses to embrace a skepticism that denies the possibilities for the apprehension of truth in the human intellect. Rather, John Paul II's reflection on experience leads to his affirmation of a universal human nature and permanent natural law contained within the human person.  In his view, the dignity of the human person, human rights language, and an objective moral order all depend on the universality of human nature.

Second, John Paul II accepts the classical metaphysical view, which understands the human person as characterized by the intellect and free will. In accordance with the modern starting point, John Paul II believes that reflection on human experience reveals the human being as a dynamic and irreducible unity of body and spirit.  The intellect signifies the interior consciousness of the human being in which the multi-faceted interplay of somatic, emotional, reasoned, aesthetic, and spiritual awareness form the concept of self in relation to others and to the world.  Free will means that the human being may pursue goals identified in the intellect to constitute oneself through action.  The interrelatedness of the intellectual and intentional faculties enables the human being to constitute oneself in accordance with the understanding of value recognized through the intellect and appropriated through the intentional act of the will. In Pope John Paul II's understanding, each human person remains "a remarkable psychophysical unity, each one a unique person, never again to be repeated in the entire universe."  John Paul II thus understands the dignity of the human being both in an objective and in a subjective sense. The objectivity derives from the universality of human nature according to which every human person possesses the potential for intelligent and free action. The subjectivity flows from the fact that the human being may employ the intellect and will creatively to constitute the individual self. . . .

The philosophical foundation of Pope John Paul II's defense of human dignity has metaphysical, existential, and moral dimensions. The universality of a transcendent human nature affords a metaphysical foundation for the dignity and worth of each human being. Existentially, the human being acts through the intellect and will to create a sense of self in concrete historical circumstances. The creative freedom of the human being is enhanced to the extent that the will acts in accord with the objective moral order understood in the intellect. Theologically, John Paul II sees the human being as created in the image of God, conflicted as a consequence of freedom to choose between good and evil, redeemed by the perfect love of Christ, and living in the present time with the hope of the absolute consummation of this love. Considered together, the philosophical and theological foundations constitute a sturdy conceptual structure on which to rest human dignity. It is upon this structure that the Universal Pastor of the Catholic Church has relentlessly preached his message of human dignity to the four corners of the earth.

Fr. Coughlin has also discussed the jurisprudential implications of John Paul II's work and thought elsewhere, including, e.g., "Natural Law, Marriage, and the Thought of Karol Wojtyla," Fordham Urban Law Journal (2001).

Rick