Originally entitled Osoba i Czyn and published in Poland in 1969, TheActing Person is the official English translation and has been thoroughly edited and revised with the collaboration of the author. The book stresses that Man must ceaselessly unravel his mysteries and strive for a new and more mature expression of his nature. The author sees this expression as an emphasis on the significance of the individual living in community and on the person in the process of performing an action. The author states in his preface that he has tried to face the major issues concerning life, nature, and the existence of Man directly as they present themselves to Man in his struggles to survive while maintaining the dignity of a human being, but who is torn apart between his all too limited condition and his highest aspirations to set himself free. The author hopes that his book "contributes to this disentangling of the conflicting issues facing Man, which are crucial for Man's own clarification of his existence and direction of his conduct". The author's analysis of the human being is a dynamic counter to the materialistic and positivistic tendencies in various schools of modern philosophy. Ever since Descartes, the knowledge of Man and his world has been identified through cognition. This book is a reversal of the post-Cartesian attitude toward Man in that it characterises him as the person in action. Audience: The Acting Person will be of great interest to philosophers, anthropologists, and scholars specializing in phenomenology. It will also be of deep concern to theologians, priests, seminarians, and members of religious orders who wish to gain an insight into Pope John Paul II's philosophy of life.

Preface Facsimile Of The Handwritten Draft Of The Author¿s Preface Translation Of Handwritten Draft Of The Author¿s Preface Editorial Introduction Introduction 1. The Experience of Man 2. Cognition of the Person Rests on the Experience of Man 3. The Stages of Comprehending and the Lines of Interpretation 4. The Conception of Person and Action to Be Presented in This Study Part One: Consciousness And Efficacy One / The Acting Person In The Aspect Of Consciousness 1. The Historical Wealth of the Expression"Human Act" 2. The Attempt to Discern Consciousness in the "Human Act" 3. Consciousness and Self-Knowledge 4. The Twofold Function of Consciousness and the Experience of Subjectiveness 5. The Emotionalization of Consciousness 6. Subjectivity and Subjectivism Two / An Analysis Of Efficacy In The Light Of Human Dynamism 1. The Basic Conceptions and Differentiations of Human Dynamism 2. The Definition of Efficacy 3. The Synthesis of Efficacy and Subjectiveness. The Person as a Basic Ontological Structure 4. The Person and Nature: Their Opposition or Integration? 5. Nature as the Basis for the Dynamic Cohesion of the Person 6. Potentiality and Its Relation to Consciousness 7. The Relation of Potentiality to Consciousness Expressed by Subconsciousness 8. Man in Becoming: The Manifestation of Freedom in the Dynamism of the Man-Subject Part Two: The Transcendence Of The Person In The Action Three / The Personal Structure Of Self-Determination 1. The Fundamentals of the Personal Structure of Self-Determination 2. An Attempt to Interpret the Integral Dynamism of the Will 3. Free Will as the Basis of the Transcendence of the Acting Person 4. The Significance of the Will as the Person¿s Power of Self-Determination 5. Decision Is the Focus of the Activities of Free Will 6. Responsibility in the Acts of Will Motivation and Response 7. The Moment of "Truth about Good" as the Basis for the Acting Person¿s Perception and Transcendence 8. The Cognitive Experience of Values as the Condition of Choice and Decision 9. The Creative Role of Intuition Is Undiminished by the Judgment of Values Four / Self-Determination And Fulfillment 1. Performing an Action Brings Personal Fulfillment 2. The Reliance of Self-Fulfillment on the Conscience 3. Conscience Depends on Truthfulness 4. The Obligation to Seek Self-Fulfillment 5. Responsibility 6. Happiness and the Person¿s Transcendence in the Action 7. The Transcendence of the Person and the Spirituality of Man 8. The Unity and Complexity of the Man-Person Part Three: The Integration Of The Person In The Action Five / Integration And The Soma 1. The Fundamentals of the Person¿s Integration in Action 2. The Integration in the Action Manifested in Disintegration 3. The Person¿s Integration in the Action Is the Key to the Understanding of Man¿s Psychosomatic Unity 4. The Integration and the "Integrity" of Man on the Basis of Interacting Psychosomatic Conditionings 5. The Person and the Body 6. The Self-Determination of the Person and the Reactivity of the Body 7. Action and Motion 8. Instinct and the Person¿s Integration in the Action Six / Personal Integration And The Psyche 1. The Psyche and the Soma 2. A Characteristic of the Psyche a¿' Emotivity 3. Feelings and Consciousness in the Experience of the Body 4. Sensitivity and Truthfulness 5. Desire and Excitement 6. "Stirring Emotions" and Emotivity 7. The Emotivity of the Subject and the Efficacy of the Person 8. The Emotivity of the Subject and the Experience of Value 9. Action and Emotion a¿' The Integrating Function of Skill 10. Conduct and Behavior 11. The Person¿s Integration in Action and the Soula¿'Body Relation Part Four: Participation Seven / Intersubjectivity By Participation 1. ...

Now Pope John Paul II