Personalism is the philosophical movement which asserts the primacy of the human person in all aspects of Philosophy. It originated as a kind of reaction to the depersonalizing elements of Hegelian Absolutism, Materialism, collectivism and the relativism of Individualism. Although Kant was not considered a Personalist, he provided the Personalists with their root justification, in his Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, where the Categorical Imperative is stated as: “Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end.” By this a person was an end unto him/herself, and ought not be treated solely as a means to some end. Personalism should be distinguished from Individualism where the importance of the individual is stressed, when in the Personalist tradition it is the person which is stressed in all fields. The uniqueness and dignity of the human person in nature is the starting point for all Personalist thought. Hence Personalism focuses primarily on the moral and ethical questions and their implications for other branches of Philosophy. Person and personality become fundamental to all branches of Philosophy, and form the point of departure for all analyses.
Every human being has dignity by this. To distinguish ‘person’ from ‘human being’ is important. Although all human beings are persons, it is not altogether clear that all persons are human beings. Some animals such as pets have interactions with us which would tend to ascribe personhood to them. God for the theologian is also considered a person, in fact for Christian Theology, three persons in one substance. But still the notion of personhood is fundamental in doing philosophy from a Personalist perspective. Ultimately social class, race or origin have no bearing on a person and the personhood that belongs to him/her with the dignity and value that implies. The human is said to be unique in possessing personhood in a primary way. A person is someone who is capable of social interaction with others and is held responsible for his/her actions, hence a moral agent. It is this agency which gives dignity and value to the human being as a person. It is this intrinsic value stemming from Kant which gives Personalism its impetus, as opposed to the Hobbesian view that the value of a person is his “publique worth” which is mere extrinsic value.
While there are many forms of Personalism and it can be found among Phenomenologists, Existentialists, Idealists and Thomists, Personalism has a long history. In Europe it has become associated with the Phenomenological and Existentialist tradition stemming from Husserl and his students – Max Scheler, Roman Ingarden and Edith Stein. In the Catholic, Thomist and Neothomist tradition Emmanuel Mounier, Jacques Maritain and Paul Ricoeur can be counted among Personalists as well as Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II). In America it has its roots in Idealism the dominant school of thought in the latter half of the 19th century. Borden Parker Bowne at Boston University was influenced greatly by his Methodist theology, he developed his form of Idealism he called Personalism, which was to spread throughout the U.S.A. and to the University of Southern California where it took root. Under the influence of Royce, George Holmes Howison the first Philosophy Professor at the University of California in Berkeley attended Harvard Divinity School and, as did many Philosophers of his day, undertook Philosophy from his Theological perspective. He called his view Personal Idealism, yet he seemed critical of Bowne's approach. Howison was reliant more on the Kantian notion of freedom (autonomy) than many of the Hegelians, and yet his Idealistic Philosophy ran parallel to Royce and many of the more Absolute Idealists. Ralph Tyler Flewelling and others established the Personalist School of Philosophy at the University of Southern California. There hence developed a distinction between the Boston Personalists and the California Personalists although they have in the beginning a common root. Martin Luther King Jr. can be counted among the Personalists from his studies at Boston University with Brightman, Bertocci and others of the later generation of Boston Personalists.. Personalism is still alive and well and represented by the Personalist discussion Group attached to the various meetings of the American Philosophical Association and its journal The Pluralist formerly The Personalist Forum.
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