The Human Condition and the Specifically Human Significance of Life in the Philosophy of Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka

Abstract

The crucial philosophical issue decisive for the path which a theory or a philosophical system takes to explain the human universe is that of its means of access to the real. Philosophical query stems from the desire to encompass the totality of what there is, to differentiate it appropriately, and to discover its order and modes of operations in order to uncover the reasons for its origination, as well as its scope. This effort at a “philosophical point of view” entails the consideration of the place and role of man within its scope. Moreover, intrinsic to this effort at a “philosophical reconstruction” of the human universe is the postulate of certainty with which it is to be established.¹ Every great philosopher has sought a uniquely appropriate way to approach the reality of the human being, life, nature, and the cosmos. However, it is not the choice of criteria, according to which one or another type of cognition, empirical or intellectual, is approached, but to what this evidential criterion is applied and how this object of investigation is preconceived, that not only separates the various philosophies, but also determines their respective starting points.