Synopses & Reviews
PERSONALJSM PERSONALISM by EMMANUEL MOUNTER ROUTLEDGE KEGAN PAUL LTD Broadway House, 68-74 Carter Lane London CONTENTS INFORMAL INTRODUCTION TO THE PERSONAL UNIVERSE page vii Personalism is not a system, vii. General idea of the personalist universe, viii. Brief history of the person and of the personal condition, xi. PART ONE THE STRUCTURE OF THE PERSONAL UNIVERSE I. EMBODIED EXISTENCE page 3 The person immersed in nature, 3. The person transcends nature, 5. The consequences of this condition, 8. Embodied existence, 10. The per sonalisation of nature, n. Checks upon the personalisation of nature, iS. II. COMMUNICATION page IJ The self-defence of the individual. Personalism opposed to individualism, ly. Communication as primordial fact, 19. Obstacles to communication, 24. Community or collectivity, 25. Concerning the unity of persons, 29. III. THE INTIMATE CONVERSION page J 3 Self-recollection, 33. The secret, the inmost self, j5. Intimacy. Privacy, 36. The vertigo of the abyss, 38. From appropriation to disappropria tion, 38. Vocation, 41. The dialectic of the interior and the objective, 42. IV. CONFRONTATION page 45 The singular. The exceptional, 45. The values of refusal. The person as a protest, 43. Jacobs CONTENTS wrestling. The resort to force, 49. Affirmation. The person in acting and choosing, So. The irreducible, 5i. V. FREEDOM UNDER CONDITIONS page 64 Freedom is not any thing, 54. Freedom is not pure spontaneity, 56. Freedom in the total environment of the person, 58. Freedom of choice and freedom of association, 63. VI. THE HIGHEST DIGNITY page 65 Concrete approaches to the transcendent, 65. The aim of the transcendent, 6 7. The personalisation of values, 68. i Happiness, yz.2 Science, 32. 3 Truth. Sketch of a personalist theory of knowledge, 33. 4 Moral values. Outline of a personalist ethics, j6. 5 Art. Sketch for a personalist aesthetic, 77. 6 The community of destinies. History, 79. 7 The religious values. Personalism and Christianity, So. Frustration of value. Suffering. Evil, Negation, Si. VII. ENGAGEMENT page 83 Factors of frustration, 83. The four dimensions of action, 86. The political and the prophetic poles. The theory of self-commitment, 91. PART TWO PERSONALISM AND THE REVOLUTION OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY page .97 The European Nihilism, 98. The rejection of nihilism, 100. Economic society, 103. Family and society. The relations of the sexes, loff. National and international society, 109. The State. Democracy. Sketch of a personalist doctrine of power, in. The education of the person, 116. Culture, 118. The position of Christianity, 121. INDEX page 125 vi INFORMAL INTRODUCTION TO THE PERSONAL UNIVERSE THE word personalism is of recent usage. Employed in 1903 by Renouvier to describe his philosophy, it then fell into disuse. Several Americans have made use of it, following Walt Whitman in his Democratic Vistas 1867. It reappeared towards 1930 in France, a very different climate of thought, to designate the first researches of the review Esprit and of some neighbouring groups Ordre Nouveau and others concerning the political and spiritual crisis then arising in Europe. 1 Lalands Vocabulaire philosophe gives the word currency in the 5th Edition of 1947. Contrary to all custom, the Larousse makes it a synonym for egocen tricity. It follows, apparently, an undecided and branching course, that of an inspiration seeking and testing its directions.However, what is called personalism today is by no means a novelty. The universe of the person is the universe of man. It would indeed be surprising if we had had to wait till the XXth century for its exploration, albeit under other names. The most recent personalism is grafted, as we shall see, upon a long . tradition. Personalism is not a system Personalism is a philosophy, it is not merely an attitude. It is a philosophy but not a system. 1 Esprit was founded in 1932 see its files and E...
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