Phenomenology and Metaphysics in the Crucible of Ethics

Abstract

Phenomenology and metaphysics had only indirect interest for Wojtyla: there were there as required by ethics. From this outlook, “objectivity” is initially a difficulty for Thomistic metaphysics; but, when considered against phenomenology’s intentionality, it becomes a permanent ambition / yearning in Love and Responsibility. In order to synthesize experiential description and normative commitment, Wojtyla will note the phenomenological tension between them. The notion of an objectivity that overcomes the formalism of intentio will start to emerge, and we find it explicitly present in Person and Action. Here, the norm requires an internal finality in its moral object which includes the effective dynamism of the will.