Juan Gabriel Ascencio

This article presents a philosophical commentary on the concept of Person developed by Romano Guardini in World and Person, targeting specifically the first two chapters of part II of the book’s which contain the pages with greater philosophical relevance. Special attention is given to the way in which Guardini synthesized elements drawn from anthropological currents such as existentialism, phenomenology, dialogical philosophy and personalism. The commentary seeks to highlight the structure he provides, which ensures the philosophical unity of the section examined. Guardini’s theoretical relation with some of the main thinkers of his day is also considered. The closing section of the article presents a series of comments on some of Guardini’s most valuable anthropological teachings.

This reflection takes its point of departure from the final part of Truth and Method, where Gadamer associates the transcendental notion of beauty, as it had been elaborated by Plato, with his universal hermeneutic. Beauty and goodness are shown to be united in Gadamer’s reflection on Philebo, thereby demonstrating, according to Gadamer, the ontological function of beauty as mediation between idea and phenomenon. In the end, this mediation makes it possible to establish an analogy between beauty and language in terms of their capacity for mediation: beauty is the mediation of the good, which in itself is inaccessible, in the same way that linguistic understanding is the mediation of the truth, which in itself is inaccessible. Consequently, Gadamer’s reflection on beauty appears to be united to that on the good and on truth.

This article pursues the goal of explaining the differences and similarities between the concepts of “man” and “person”. Differences are explored at first from a historical perspective, within a framework which gives special attention to the Church Fathers, Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, Locke, Kant, Scheler and Spaemann. Then, using Frege’s distinction between meaning and reference, the points of similarity are identified in the reference which is common to both concepts, whereas the study of their meaning brings out the differences between them. Finally, before offering a synthesis of the meaning of the two concepts, their ontological foundation is specified and hence the impossibility of reducing persons to non-personal objects is established.

Although Romano Guardini was not directly active during the Council, his work did pave the way for it. The present article examines his influence over the theological movements which prepared the Council. Taking into consideration explicitly his philosophical influence, three major traits of his method of thought are examined. Specific texts of the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes appear to have borrowed such traits, even if such a dependence cannot be proved true for Guardini or for any other modern philosopher.

This article is structured in two stages. The first considers the nihilistic attempt to destroy “modern” reason by means of the cognitive historicity that modern reason overlooked. In any case, there are various specific ways to bring about that destruction. They range from Nietzsche’s radical strategy, to Heidegger’s and Vattimo’s existential-ontological way, and to Gadamer’s hermeneutical choice. Once the main traits of nihilism have been identified by means of historic al analysis, the second stage begins. A comparison is drawn between those traits and the numbers in which Fi des et Ratio deals with nihilism, trying to understand its essential elements in order to arrive at a clear discernment of what it involves and also to identify a way to cope with it

The article presents a preliminary study and a translation into Spanish of an unpublished anthropological text of the German-Italian philosopher and theologian Romano Guardini. The text offers a synthetic expression of his vision on man, highlighting its existential dimension, which in turn is presented according to Guardini’s unique style of thought known as Christian Worldview. The preliminary study offers a twofold context, historical and theoretical. Cross-references to other works of Guardini are also provided in the concluding section.

This article, the first of a series, brings up a question: why has Romano Guardini’s aesthetic theory remained unexamined? In the first part, after pointing out Guardini’s writings on art and beauty, a possible cause is found in his nearness to Heidegger’s aesthetic thought. Yet, the author argues that Guardini’s position is grounded in his own life experience and in his ongoing aesthetic reflection, which developed independently from Heidegger. Two theoretic paths, proper to Guardini, are thus identified: his interest in catholic liturgy and his work on “polar opposition”. In the second part, Guardini’s “The Spirit of the Liturgy” is analyzed in order to show the basis of his aesthetic thought