Abstract

Raphael E. Bexten:
Person and nature as basic philosophical concepts and in the philosophy of Robert Spaemann
(FKTh 2017-2, p. 98–112)

On the one hand this essay defends the thesis that Spaemann's concept of personality is a substantive-rational concept of human dignity and, on the other hand, it argues that the substantive-onto-relational concept of personality corresponds to the adequate concept of the person. Recourse to Boëthius is used to define the basic structure of human existence.

For this purpose, various definitions of nature are discussed as well as the relationship between nature and an underlying basic spriritual element.

The essay should be understood within the context of a theory of the human person which implies relevant findings and at the same time demonstrates them in a synoptic way.