Experience as a Source of Knowledge. Analysis of Karol Wojtyła’s Introductions to Love and Responsibility
Keywords:
Karol Wojtyła, Love and Responsibility, experience, phenomenology, pastoral experience, moral knowledge, sexual ethics, personalismAbstract
The article argues that the “Introductions” Karol Wojtyła authored for the first (1960) and second (1962) Polish editions of Love and Responsibility function as a methodological key to his ethics of sexuality and his broader anthropology. Focusing on the opening argumentative sections of both “Introductions,” it reconstructs a triple framework – historical, ecclesial, and philosophical – in order to explain Wojtyła’s response to the claim that only those with marital experience can speak credibly about sexual ethics. Situating Wojtyła within the ecclesiastical scientific milieu of the mid-twentieth century, the study shows that his central move consists in expanding the notion of experience beyond empiricist immediacy in accordance with the fundamental insights of the phenomenological tradition (Husserl, Heidegger, Scheler). Read in this light and within the broader coherence of Wojtyła’s corpus (his studies on Scheler and Person and Act), pastoral experience emerges as a distinct epistemic modality capable of yielding morally significant knowledge.
Downloads
References
Baniak, J., Powołanie do kapłaństwa i do życia zakonnego w Polsce w latach 1900-2010. Studium socjologiczne (Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Wydziału Nauk Społecznych UAM, 2012).
Budrowska, K., “Cenzura, tabu i wstyd. Cenzura obyczajowa PRL-u (1948-1958),” Napis Vol. 18 (2012), 229-244.
Bulzacchelli, R.H., “lrreducibility and the Personalistic Norm as a Departure from Thomism: A Critique from the Thought of Karol Wojtyła/John Paul II,” Wojtyła Studies Vol. 2, No. 2 (Aug. 2025), 80-117.
Derdziuk, A., “Podręcznik kapucyńskiego moralisty z Münster,” Roczniki teologiczne Vol. 46, No. 3 (1999), 147-166.
Fisette, D., “Phénoménologie et métaphysique: remarques à propos d’un débat récent,” in: La Métaphysique: Son Histoire, Sa Critique, Ses Enjeux, ed. by J.-M. Narbonne, L. Langlois (Paris-Québec: Vrin-PUL, 1999).
Gschwandtner, C., “Turn to Excess: The Development of Phenomenology in Late Twentieth Century French Thought,” in: The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Phenomenology, ed. by D. Zahavi (New York: OUN, 2012), 445-466.
Harmignie, P., “Dominicus-M. Prümmer, O.P., prof. Un. Fribourg (Suisse), Manuale Theologiae Moralis secundum principia S. Thomae Aquinatis [compte-rendu],” Revue Philosophique de Louvain Vol. (1924), 122.
Heid, S., Celibacy in the Early Church. The Beginnings of a Discipline of Obligatory Continence for Clerics in East and West, trans. by M.J. Miller (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000).
Heidegger, M., Being and Time, trans. by J. Macquarrie, E. Robinson (Oxford-Cambridge: Blackwell, 1962).
Henry, M., “Quatre principes de la phénoménologie: À propos de Réduction et donation de Jean-Luc Marion,” Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale Vol. 96, No. 1 (1991), 3-26.
Hossain, F.M.A., “A Critical Analysis of Empiricism,” Open Journal of Philosophy Vol. 4 (2014), 226-227.
Huneman, P., Kulich, E., Introduction à la phénoménologie (Paris: Armand Colin, 1997).
Husserl, E., Cartesian Meditations. An Introduction to Phenomenology, trans. by D. Cairns (The Hague-Boston-London: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1982).
Husserl, E., Ideas. General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology, trans. by W.R.B. Gibson (London-New York: Routledge, 2012).
Husserl, E., La crise de la humanité européenne et la philosophie, trans. by N. Depraz (Paris: Hatier, 1992).
Husserl, E., The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology. An Introduction to Phenomenological Philosophy, trans. by D. Carr (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1970).
Klich-Kluczewska, B., Przez dziurkę od klucza. Życie prywatne w Krakowie (1945-1989) (Warszawa: Trio, 2005).
Klich-Kluczewska, B., Rodzina, tabu i komunizm w Polsce 1956-1989 (Kraków: Libron, 2015).
Machniak, J., Sługa Boży Jerzy Ciesielski (Kraków: Wydawnictwo św. Stanisława, 2007).
Marion, J.-L., Being Given. Toward a Phenomenology of Givenness, trans. by J.L. Kosky (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2012).
Marion, J.-L., La Rigueur des choses. Entretiens avec Dan Arbib (Paris: Flammarion, 2012).
Marion, J.-L., Reduction and Givenness. Investigations of Husserl, Heidegger, and Phenomenology, trans. by T.A. Carlson (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1998).
Miłosz, Cz., “Państwo wyznaniowe?” Kultura Vol. 7-8 (1991), 3-11.
Ricoeur, P., À l’école de la phénoménologie (Paris: Vrin, 1987).
Romano, C., Au cœur de la raison, la phénoménologie (Paris: Gallimard, 2010).
Scheler, M., Der Formalismus in der Ethik und die materiale Wertethik. Neuer Versuch der Grundlegung eines ethischen Personalismus (Halle a. d. Saale: Verlag von Max Niemeyer, 1921).
Scheler, M., On the Eternal in Man, trans. by B. Noble (London-New York: Routledge-Taylor&Francis, 2017).
Vansteenberghe, E., “Chronique de théologie morale et spirituelle [note critique],” Revue des sciences religieuses Vol. 12, No. 2 (1932), 256-294.
Wojtyła, K., Aby Chrystus się nami posługiwał (Kraków: Znak, 1979).
Wojtyła, K., “An Assessment of the Possibility for Building Christian Ethics Based on the Presuppositions of Max Scheler’s System,” in: K. Wojtyła, The Lublin Lectures and Works on Max Scheler, (The English Critical Edition of the Works of Karol Wojtyła/John Paul II,) Vol. 2, ed. by A. Lopez, trans. by G. Ignatik (Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2023), 383-500.
Wojtyła, K., Love and Responsibility, trans. by G. Ignatik (Boston: Pauline Books&Media, 2013).
Wojtyła, K., “Ocena możliwości zbudowania etyki chrześcijańskiej przy założeniach systemu Maxa Schelera,” in: K. Wojtyła, Dzieła filozoficzne, Vol. 1, ed. by J. Merecki (Kraków: IDMJP2-UPJP2, 2024), 39-289.
Wojtyła, K., “Osoba i czyn,” in: K. Wojtyła, Osoba i czyn oraz inne studia antropologiczne, “Człowiek i moralność,” Vol. 4, ed. by T. Styczeń, W. Chudy, J.W. Gałkowski, A. Rodziński, A. Szostek (Lublin: TN KUL, 2020), 51-344.
Wojtyła, K., “Person and Act,” in: K. Wojtyła, Person and Act and Related Essays, (The English Critical Edition of the Works of Karol Wojtyła/John Paul II,) Vol. 1, ed. by A. Lopez, trans. by G. Ignatik (Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2021), 93-416.
Wojtyła, K., “Problem doświadczenia w etyce,” Roczniki filozoficzne Vol. 17, No. 2 (1969), 5-24.
Wojtyła, K., Teachings for an Unbelieving World. Newly Discovered Reflections on Paul’s Sermon at the Areopagus (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2020).
Wojtyła, K., “Zagadnienia katolickiej etyki seksualnej. Refleksje i postulaty,” Roczniki filozoficzne Vol. 13, No. 2 (1965), 5-25.
