Il personalismo di Jacques Maritain

The question ‘Who is man and what is man?' has multiple answers, which reflect the fragmentary nature of humanism. Each ‘fragment of humanism' offers some partial truths to build a single comprehensive vision of man, ultimately revealing the person as the center of interest of any humanism. The integral and inclusive humanism of Jacques Maritain, considered both from the perspective of his personalism and in comparison with the view of Emmanuel Mounier, presents itself as the unity beyond any fragmentation. Specifically, by interweaving a reflection on the suppositum as the relationship with what exists/the existent that makes the human being a person, Maritain overcomes the semantic ambiguity of humanism through the metaphysical meaning of the person. His personalism is a way of freeing the ‘prisoner truths' of anthropocentric humanism in order to reach an integral conception of man.

His wished-for return to a realistic and ‘ontocentric' humanism appears as an authentic project of renewal, guided by fraternal friendship and based on the principle of ‘caring for people' to achieve the common good of humanity as a whole. The aim of Maritain's personalism is to make humanism no longer fragmented, but realistic, ontocentric, integral and inclusive, finally providing the foundation for an authentically ethical community. [Publisher's text]