Are We Free? The Personal Identity of K. Wojtyla in the Face of Hume’s Empiricism

Authors: Martínez Mares M*

DOI: 10.23880/phij-16000247

Volume 5, Issue 2

Abstract

This article questions the basis of the actions of the human being to address the question: are we free or is freedom a simple illusion? For this purpose we elaborate a comparison of the concept of “experience” between Hume and Wojtyla; two currents that, starting from the same fact, experience, bring to the stage two very different types of human subject: while one understands their actions determined by motivation mechanisms, as a mere product of conditioning, whether external or internal, the Polish philosopher defends the person as the active principle of his acts. The key to the difference is in what is meant by experience. Wojtyla’s proposal of integral experience reconciles the dynamism of human subjectivity, sensitive and affective, with an interiority not only exposed to stimuli but, fundamentally, as a personal interiority anchored in a structure of self-determination

Keywords: Experience; Action; Consciousness; Freedom; Reality

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