A. Background of The Study

1
Chapter One
Introduction
A. Background of the Study:
“The objective world, to which we belong, consists of people and things.” 1 In every
side and corner of this world, one can see both human beings and objects. Just like now
in the post-millennial era, where the youth already live in the objective world, 2 almost
everyone experiences fast-paced moments. Popular technologies where the youth become
addicted to are very evident in this milieu. This is the face of the objective world
nowadays - full of leisure where people can easily get attracted and use objects to satisfy
their cravings.
The aforementioned points are the common centers of attraction of the youth who are
the subjects having the capacities to act, listen and contemplate; but because of leisure
they are being affected or fascinated with these contemporary things that lead them to the
practice of going with the flow. By merely going with the flow, the youth are not able to
classify or to experience a proper distinction between persons and things. Therefore, the
youth can easily get confused in determining which is right and applicable. One of the
pieces of evidence is that people are being treated now as objects and being used for
personal satisfaction.
1
Karol Wojtyla, Love and Responsibility, trans. Grzegorz Ignatik (Boston: Pauline Books and Media,
2013), 4.
2
The researcher interprets the objective world here as the present world where every being is always
present at hand. In other words, it is the state that the being of a person and the being of an object are being
interpreted simplistically.
2
One of the most concrete manifestations of this in today’s generation is pre-marital
sex. Pre-marital sex “is commonly defined as sex before marriage, it is referred to as
sexual-genital intercourse before marriage and done during a teen period or early
adulthood.”3 On the other hand, in the Catholic Church’s teaching, pre-marital sex is
called fornication, which according to the teaching of the Catholic Church:
Fornication is a carnal union between an unmarried man and an unmarried

woman. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of persons and of human sexuality
which is naturally ordered to the good of spouses and the generation and
education of children. Moreover, it is a grave scandal when there is a corruption
of the young.4
Statistical data testifies that the involvement of teenagers in pre-marital sex is getting
higher as the year passes by. The Commission on Population, for instance, showed in its
study that “some 196,000 Filipinos between the ages of 15 and 19 get pregnant each
year.”5 According to it, that scenario happens because “Filipino teens who were exposed
to vice or the internet at an early age usually end up with unplanned pregnancies.”6 It
became possible also because of the involvement of human desires because “the human
desires and activities… involve the search for and attainment of sexual pleasure and
satisfaction…”7 This is connected to Karol Wojtyla’s libidinistic interpretation of sexual
3
Dalmacito A. Cordero, Jr., “A Community-Based Sexual Ethics for Teens: Addressing Premarital Sex
Using a Sociotheological Approach,” Asia-Pacific Social Science Review 17, no. 1 (2017): 38.
4
The Catechism of the Catholic Church: Definitive Edition 1910 (Makati: Word & Life Publications,
1994), 2353. This work shall henceforth be abbreviated as CCC.
5
Katrina Domingo, “Nearly 200,000 Filipino teens get pregnant annually: POPCOM,” ABS-CBN News
(July 11, 2019), under “Spotlight,” https://news.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/7/11/19/nearly-200000-filipino-
teens-get-pregnant-annually-popcom (accessed May 31, 2020).
6
Ibid.
7
Raja Halwani et al., The Philosophy of Sex: Contemporary Readings, 7th ed. (New York: Rowman &
Littlefield, 2017), 2.
3
drive that implies “…treating the person exclusively as a means to an end, as an object of
use, becomes linked with this meaning in an even more drastic degree.” 8 Regarding that
matter, aside from the human relationship, a human person’s sexual relationship to
another person is affected also, because of the false attribution of the desire of man
especially to its sexual drive as the “[d]rive is a certain natural direction of tending, innate
in every man, according to which man’s whole developing from within and perfects
itself.”9
Therefore, the scenario that happens to the post-millennial youth, which is the early
pregnancy is a strong proof of confusion of the youth to the objective world where the
youth nowadays consider the other person as a thing. It became possible because man
emphasizes more his sexual pleasure and desire to the objective world, which leads to the
removal of the right treatment of the human person. This leads them to consider a person
as one’s object to achieve enjoyment. Hence, it is an alarming situation that the misuse of
sexual pleasure and desire causes the maltreatment of a person. Man can know and to
reason out because “man possesses reason, that he is a rational being.”10 Through that
way, man can critically think about the objective world to distinguish the object as
something, and a person as somebody that “must never be treated as a means to an end.” 11
But the question is, is a man ready to apply it? If a man is ready to apply it, what would
be the right process that man can apply it to limit his sexual drive? Concerning these
questions, the researcher chose the topic concerning the libidinistic interpretation of
8
Wojtyla, Love and Responsibility, 47-48.
9
Ibid., 30.
10
Ibid., 4.
11
Ibid., 10.
4
sexual drive for this study. It is because the researcher would like to show the real face of
libidinistic interpretation of sexual drive, and how it affects the human person in real
perspective of life using the view of a contemporary philosopher who is Karol Wojtyla.
As a contemporary philosopher and at the same time a great leader of the Roman
Catholic Church, Karol Wojtyla (1920-2005) gave a proper distinction between the
subject of a person and a thing. In his book Love and Responsibility, he expounded that
"[e]very subject is at the same time, an objective being that it is an objective something or
somebody."12 In this sense, Karol Wojtyla signified that the person or man as a subject is
called somebody whose distinction is separated into the objective world. The reason why
the subject of man as somebody is being separated is that in the very first sense the term
person, having a rational soul is referred to as a rational being who can reason out or can
act out. That is why the subject of man is different from the object of thing as something
which signified whether it is a plant in accordance to its vegetative soul or it is an animal
in accordance to its sentient soul as well.
In that sense, man can have a clear distinction of the objective world between the
object as something and the subject as somebody and not be confused about it. Therefore,
in this study, the researcher would like to explicate felicity as a means for fulfillment that
man may apply to limit the improper disposition of the sexual drive in the light of Karol
Wojtyla’s Philosophy.
12
Wojtyla, Love and Responsibility, 3.
5
B. Statement of the Problem:
As the researcher conducts a study of Karol Wojtyla’s view on the human person’s
sexual drive, the researcher is seeking how to limit the Libidinistic Interpretation of
Sexual Drive and to maintain the proper disposition of man's sexual drive. As to expound
it, the researcher would like to answer the following problems.
Main Problem:
How can felicity limit the libidinistic interpretation of a person’s sexual drive in
light of Karol Wojtyla’s philosophy?
Sub-problems:
1. What is Karol Wojtyla’s notion of felicity?
2. How did Wojtyla explain the libidinistic interpretation of the sexual drive?
3. How can the libidinistic interpretation of the sexual drive be limited through
Wojtyla’s concept of felicity?
C. Significance of the Study:
The researcher would like to present the significance of this academic work with the
contribution of Karol Wojtyla’s philosophy, particularly to understand the human
person’s sexual drive. This study would also like to contribute to a proper understanding
of how a human person uses sexual drive with a proper disposition to action, to
emphasize the uniqueness of one’s life to limit the dilemma of wrong disposition of urge
for self-enjoyment.
6
The theoretical significance of this work is to contribute to another study, as to
understand and apprehend more about Karol Wojtyla’s view on the human person’s
sexual drive for future researchers and readers. Furthermore, researchers and readers
could also apply this work to the field of psychological and physiological contexts to
assess man’s tendencies of improper dispositions of sexual drive and to integrate the
proper manner of human sexual desires as to recapitulate the real importance of it and to
rediscover the true dignity of the human person.
This present study will try to contribute to the seminary formation especially to the
seminarians considered as a youth of the post-millennial generation who also experience
the dilemma on the sexual drive as the natural phenomenon of human sexuality, so that
they may aim for a proper disposition about the sexual drive as a proper response to
commit or to live purely as celibate persons, just like what the new Ratio Fundamentalis
Institutionis Sacerdotalis states, that seminarians must "focus on the constitution of a
stable personality, characterized by emotional balance, self-control and a well-integrated
sexuality”13 to avoid falling into the trap of sexual pleasures “gravely hinder them from
relating correctly to men and women.”14
13
Congregation for the Clergy, The Gift of Priestly Vocation: Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis
Sacerdotalis (2017): 94. The number signifies the paragraph number and not the page number. Henceforth,
this document shall be abbreviated as RFIS.
14
RFIS, 199.
7
D. Review of Related Literature:
To show the relevance of this philosophical study, the researcher consulted some
works made by the scholars of Karol Wojtyla, who contributed understandings and
thoughts that may guide this philosophical study.
Books:
Acosta, Miguel, and Adrian J. Reimers. Karol Wojtyla’s Personalist Philosophy:

Understanding the Person and Act. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of
America Press, 2016.
In this book composed of three parts with eleven chapters, Miguel Acosta discussed
the Philosophical Anthropology of Karol Wojtyla. In the first part, he analyzed Wojtyla’s
philosophical development and proceeded with the method that Wojtyla used. Acosta
followed up in the second part and its succeeding chapters the notion about the
experience of a person and how does he correspond to his knowledge. Acosta also
discussed the truth about the human person and the challenge of nihilism.
Upon concretizing the discussion of Karol Wojtyla’s Philosophical Anthropology,
Acosta discussed in the third part the locus of Karol Wojtyla’s Philosophical
Anthropology which is to “…emphasized the idea of ‘human nature,’ that is, those
essential aspects which differentiate the human being from other natural beings.” 15 In that
15
Miguel Acosta and Adrian J. Reimers, Karol Wojtyla’s Personalist Philosophy: Understanding the
Person and Act (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2016), 105.
8
sense, Acosta implied that upon applying Wojtyla’s Philosophical Anthropology, the
person must understand that he or she is different from the other beings. This way, having
classified thoroughly what a person is for Wojtyla, he defined man’s actions by, the
awareness of his consciousness to realize the real essence of being a human person.
The researcher highlighted the thought regarding felicity because he used the term in
this study. In the discussion of felicity, Acosta said that “felicity refers rather to the
internal and intransitive in the act, in which it is identified with the realization of the
person’s ‘I.’ The realization of the ‘I’ is complex and is constituted by numerous
characters, but we can identify two of those clearly: truth and freedom.” 16 In other words,
Acosta explicated that felicity is not just something outside of the self of the human
person, but instead it is within the human person who is a rational being. He has the
capacity to determine, possess and govern actions toward to truth and authentic freedom,
because “personal felicity is not equivalent to that of “non-personal” beings, for instance,
that of animals…”17
The similarity of this book to this present study was the discussion about felicity.
Compared to the definition above, in this present study, the researcher identified felicity
here as “…something akin to fulfillment, to the fulfillment of the self through action.” 18 It
is like the end that motivates the person for a special duty to the proper actualization of
freedom, because “the fulfillment of the person in the action depends on the active and
inwardly creative union of truth with freedom.” 19 Because of those similarities about
16
Acosta and Reimers, Karol Wojtyla’s Personalist Philosophy: Understanding the Person and Act,
179.
17
Ibid., 180.
18
Wojtyla, The Acting Person, 174.
19
9
felicity, its contribution to this present study was on the solidifying manner that felicity,
having the same meaning with happiness is not just an ordinary happiness or that can be
found from what is pleasurable. It is instead to the person as “I” who has the capacity to
determine, possess and govern his actions towards freedom and truth for an authentic
felicity.
The difference of this present study to this book was on the entire discussion of this
book, because this present study focused on the discussion of Wojtyla’s notion of felicity
as a possible means to limit the libidinistic interpretation of the sexual drive. This book,
presented comprehensively the discussion of Wojtyla’s philosophical anthropology.
Grahn-Wilder, Malin. Gender and Sexuality in Stoic Philosophy. New York: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2018.
In this book, composed of three parts with fifteen chapters, Malin Grahn-Wilder
discussed that “the ancient Stoic thinkers discuss problems related to gender and
sexuality in various contexts of their philosophy: from Cosmology to Cosmopolitanism,
from Metaphysics to Moral Psychology, and from Physics to the Philosophy of Life.” 20
This book discussed the gender and sexuality in accordance to cosmology by knowing
the first principle of it. It also includes the relationship between metaphysics and moral
psychology, in order to understand what is this gender and sexuality and physics to
philosophy, in which the adherence of gender and sexuality in a rational set-up of life.
20
Malin Grahn-Wilder, introduction to the Gender and Sexuality in Stoic Philosophy, (New York:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), 1.
10
This book focused on the discussion that the gender and sexuality of one person are
necessary for his or her being and have the power to determine and conclude what kind of
being and substance that human is. Also, it claimed that we must have a proper
understanding of our gender and sexuality so that we might avoid some
misunderstandings and confusion. For the stoics, "[t]he reproductive capacity is one of
the rational capacities of the human soul, which makes gender appear as comparable to
the senses.”21 This clarified that physical traits of human gender and sexuality could
attract the other human or the affection of man and woman.
Proper education about human gender and sexuality was also discussed as important
for it must have an equal way of attributing what is for the boys and what is for the girls
as a sign of maturity to human's gender and sexuality. By that maturity to a human's
gender and sexuality, man can achieve equality and proper happiness that humans strive
in their gender and sexuality. Lastly, it was also discussed that through the help of proper
distinction and classification to human gender and sexuality, maturity can lead the person
to integrate properly to the community that has a lot of other genders and sexuality.
Human persons will then be able to connect properly as matured gendered human beings.
Now the similarity of this book to this study was on the discussion about human
sexuality. In which, in this book it highlighted gender and sexuality as a means to identify
or determine what level of a being the human is. In addition, it was also highlighted in
this book that in order to maintain the good apprehension of human’s gender and
sexuality, there must be the proper education of human gender and sexuality towards and
equal attribution of it. This present study, also discussed that the sexual drive of the
human person is a personal property because each human person was being categorized
21
Ibid., 9.
11
in sexual category as man and woman, in which it became part of the human existence.
Through felicity the excess of it may be limited. Therefore, the contribution of this book
to this present study was on the solid discussion about limiting the wrong disposition of
the human person regarding his sexual drive being interpreted in a libidinal aspect.
The difference of this present study from this book was on the further discussion
about gender and sexuality, because in this present study the focus would be on the
discussion of sexual drive on the libidinistic interpretation. In which, through felicity it
can limit the excesses. While in this book, it discussed gender and sexuality primarily in
the stoic viewpoint.
Halwani, Raja, Alan Soble, Sarah Hoffman, and Jacob M Held. The Philosophy of
Sex: Contemporary Readings. 7th ed. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017.
In this book, the authors provided a discussion about the philosophical aspect of the
importance of sex, which does not thoroughly point out the specific thoughts of such
philosophers. But, a compilation of analysis on how the concept of sex is discussed and
illustrated in different terms.
The discussion of this book was strengthened by its twenty-five chapters, which are
focused on the universal view of the sexual acts as how it was being connected to the
aspect of the human person’s sexual drive. In other words, all of the sexual acts that are
being experienced by the person are “included in the vast domain of human sexuality,
that is, they are related, on the one hand, to the human desires and activities that involve
12
the search for and attainment of sexual pleasure and satisfaction and, on the other hand,
to the human desires and activities that involve the creation of new human beings.”22
Moreover, upon considering that statement, the authors expounded it by showing the
positive and negative perspectives of acquiring sexual acts in human sexual desires,
which the persons were being familiar with in actualizing. Due to the reason that the
sexual acts became a casual manner in human life, a human person takes it as an entry
point to penetrate or to use one’s life for the means of satisfaction. Therefore, it leads to
the reality that sexual acts became a casual manner without considering the dangers of it.
Furthermore, the author mentioned Karol Wojtyla because of its statement that “only love
can preclude the use of one person by another because love is a unification of persons
resulting from a mutual gift of their selves.” 23 The author showed that Karol Wojtyla
refuted the notion that penetrating and using one’s life is not the best way to be with the
other person, but it must a proper aspect of love as respect for the other beings.
The similarity of this book to this present study was on the thought about the sexual
drive of the human person. It is because this book compiled the analysis on how the
concept of sex was discussed and illustrated in different terms, because sometimes the
sexual acts became normal that opened an entry point to penetrate the aspect of using
one’s life as an object for the means of personal gratification. Similarly, this present study
discussed the fact that if the sexual drive of the human person was acted upon for the
means of personal gratification, in which person treated as an object just like in the
libidinistic interpretation of the sexual drive, it would not lead the human person to
goodness in order for him to attain fulfillment towards felicity.

22
Halwani et al., The Philosophy of Sex, 2.
23
Ibid., 18.
13
That’s why the contribution of this book to this present study was on solid discussion
about the contemporary understanding of the sexual drive, because this present study
pointed out the understanding of the libidinistic interpretation of the sexual drive in the
post-millennial era or the generation Z. The difference of this present study from this
book was on the widespread discussion of the sexual acts or sexual drive in the
contemporary period, because this study focused only particularly on the post millennial-
era or generation Z.
Petri, OP. Thomas. Aquinas and the Theology of the Body. Washington DC.: The
Catholic University of America Press, 2016.
Thomas Petri discussed in this book that "'theology of the body' relies on an
appreciation of the intersection of the thought of John Paul II and Thomas Aquinas” 24
seeing that one of the foundations of St. John Paul II’s (Karol Wojtyla’s) anthropology
came from St. Thomas Aquinas. Furthermore, this book discussed St. Thomas Aquinas’
concept of anthropology and how it is interconnected with and influenced Karol
Wojtyla’s concept of anthropology.
This book is composed of eight chapters that discussed how Thomistic anthropology
is integrated with Karol Wojtyla's Anthropology to determine his ideas regarding the
proper morality in oneself. One of the chapters of this book discussed some aspects of
Wojtyla’s philosophical anthropology, because in that particular chapter, the author
viewed Wojtyla’s development of discussion about the human person. This was a
24
Thomas Petri OP, introduction to the Aquinas and the Theology of the Body (Washington DC.: The
Catholic University of America Press, 2016.), 1.
14
development which started from a simple statement of Wojtyla that “like the person of
God, no human person can ever be a mere object of our actions, but must be understood
in relationship.”25 From that simple statement it evolved because of some contributions of
some thinkers that influenced Wojtyla just like St. Thomas Aquinas and Max Scheler.
Through those infleuneces, Wojtyla was able to deepen his understanding about the
human person was not just a simple being in this world, but “persons actually experience
themselves as the agents of their actions, both the good and the bad.”26
Furthermore, another attribute of Wojtyla about the human person was highlighted,
particularly in his sexual ethics. One of the chapters of this book highlighted Wojtyla’s
sexual ethics. It stated that “for Wojtyla the sexual urge is only rightly understood in the
light of the existential significance of the complementarity of two sexes and the
orientation of the two to each other.” 27 In other words, the normal function of the sexual
urge or sexual drive of the human person is toward to another person of the other sexual
category, just like in the example of man to woman, man to woman. Moreover, that could
be attained if the human person will ascertain through his rational capacity, that the other
person is not an object, but a person itself. It is because, the reason why “sexual relations
are often difficult ‘is certainly that fact in his mind, in his reason, man often accords the
sexual urge a merely biological significance and does not fully realize it’s true, existential
significance.”28
25
Petri OP, Aquinas and the Theology of the Body, 97.
26
Ibid., 102.
27
Ibid., 131.
28
Petri OP, Aquinas and the Theology of the Body, 131.
15
Now, the similarity of this book to this study was on the further discussion about
Wojtyla’s philosophical anthropology, and at the same time the connectivity of it through
Wojtyla’s sexual ethics. It is because this present study also discussed the philosophical
anthropology of Wojtyla in order to root out what is felicity, as a possible means to limit
the libidinistic interpretation of the sexual drive that was discussed in Wojtyla’s sexual
ethics. Moreover, the contribution of this book to this present study was on the discussion
about the connectivity of Wojtyla’s philosophical anthropology and sexual ethics. The
difference of this present study to this book was on the usage of the term “sexual urge”
because this present study used the updated term which is “sexual drive.” This book
consistently used the term “sexual urge.”
Sri, Edward. Men and Women, and The Mystery of Love: Practical Insights from
John Paul II’s Love and Responsibility. Cincinnati: Servant, an Imprint of
Franciscan Media, 2015.
In this book, Edward Sri emphasized Karol Wojtyla’s Love and Responsibility as a
guide and another understanding about the misconceptions on the proper relationship to
the opposite sex, and some misconceptions about the proper disposition on man's
sexuality and also to the notion of man, especially in marriage. Edward Sri also
emphasized some elements such as friendship which is the primary battleground of man
and woman as to where they interact with the opposite sex. The attraction is the fuel of
their interaction that can lead to the aspect of emotion to the opposite sex. But somehow
these elements of friendship could be a good means to have a good interaction towards
16
the other people, became a hindrance or falsity to reach the common good for all.
Because of hindrances and falsity of the interaction towards the other person, it was
leveled only to the level of profit, in which even friendship became a means of
objectifying the human person.
That’s why, in the chapter of this book entitled as “Beyond the Sexual Urge,” it
highlighted that the human person must not be put in to false attractions that may lead to
objectification of the human person, Instead, it must be put through the rational capacity
of the human person, in order to go beyond those false attractions. In other words, this
attraction can be considered as the entry pass within the intrapersonal perspective of man
and woman. The relationship is the fruit of the proper attraction with the opposite sex. It
can be considered as the authentic bond between man and woman as the basic subject of
love. Love, which is the cause of their emotions with the opposite sex as applicable to
their sexuality, can lead to a manner of marriage as the end of the opposite sex.
The similarity of this book to this study was on the discussion about the attractions of
the human person particularly when it was being leveled to a sexual attraction. This book
it discussed that the aspect of friendship was used in order to objectify the human person
instead for the particular means and enjoyment. In this present study, also discussed that
because of false attribution of the human person to his desires due to the effect of
modernization, it led the human person to go with the flow and being confused what is
the difference between objet and person. That’s why the contribution of this book to this
present study was the solid discussion about the wrong disposition of the human person
to their desire, particularly in their sexual desire that can objectify the human person for
personal gratification and treat the human person as an object. The difference of this
17
present study to this book was on the further discussions of man and woman desires and
its affiliation to love, because this present study, discussed the affiliation of the human
person to the wrong disposition of the sexual drive that hinders them to good interaction
with the other human person.
Articles:
Cordero, Jr., Dalmacito A. “A Community-Based Sexual Ethics for Teens:

Addressing Premarital Sex Using a Sociotheological Approach.” Asia-Pacific
Social Science Review 17. no. 1 (2017): 34-51.
In this article, the author focused on the issues of premarital sex which became the
common dilemma of the whole world which is caused by teens due to the lack of proper
responsibility to their sexual drive. Therefore, this article discussed how could this
dilemma be transmitted in a normal situation of life which can control premarital sex. As
to the flow of this article, the author conducted a survey using a method of gathering the
responses of the teens by asking them about sexuality which is being underscored by
different concepts. The first concept was sexuality from the teens who do not have an
experienced of sex. The next one was the concept of sexuality for the teens who have
experienced premarital sex. Lastly was the concept of sexuality for the teens who follow
the teaching of the Church.
Upon surveying the youth, the author showed that the teens who are being surveyed
have their perspectives. It can be noticed, that the teens have their perspective of
18
sexuality resulting from the absence of ethical matters of sexuality or the proper
acquiring of it. That scenario is not normal, but it became normal because of the
confusion about the real perspective about sex. Therefore, at the end of this article, the
author presented the socio-theological approach where there is “correspondence between
the sociological, philosophical, and religious an alternative to a monochromatic approach
to the sourcing of principles and practices.”29 It would like to view that the teens who are
human beings must have the right viewpoint and good practice of free will based on their
respective individuality.
The similarity of this article to this study was on the discussion about the disposition
of the human person about pre-marital sex. This article viewed it that each the youth
especially in this modern age have their personal perspective on sexual aspects, that
because of the lack of familiarity, it might lead them to the wrong disposition of it which
is the pre-marital sex. This present study, it also discussed the view point of the youth
especially who were under of the post-millenial era or the generation Z regarding their
perspective about sexual drive. Due of the practice of going with the flow, the youth may
consider pre-marital sex as a possible output of the libidinistic interpretation of the sexual
drive.
Therefore, the contribution of this article to this present study was the discussion on
the modern viewpoint of the sexual activities of the teens or the youth nowadays. That is,
being inclined thoroughly to the practice of going with the flow towards the possibility of
the pre-marital sex or as a possible output of the libidinistic interpretation of the sexual
drive. But the difference of this present study to this article was on the further
recommendations about addressing the pre-marital sex. It is because this present study
29
Cordero, Jr., “A Community-Based Sexual ethics for Teens,” 45.
19
addressed the pre-marital sex as a possible output of the libidinistic interpretation of the
sexual drive, in which the person is objectified for the personal gratification.
Franks, Angela. “End-less and Self-Referential Desire: Toward an Understanding of

Contemporary Sexuality.” The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 18. no.4
(2018): 629-646.
This article focused on understanding contemporary sexuality which tackles the
desire being motored on its end. Angela Franks, the author of this article, used the ideas
of St. Thomas Aquinas, St. John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla), and Luke Timothy Johnson to
define the norms of sexuality revolution from classics to contemporary. This article was
divided into four topics, namely, Contemporary Sex: Messy versus #MeToo, Desire’s
Ends, Sex: Endless or Ordered, and The Necessity of Virtue.
First, the author signified the Contemporary Sex: Messy versus #MeToo as two
oppositions accounts in the contemporary sex which "the messy view tends toward
reading any ambiguous experience of sexuality as part of its messiness and the #MeToo
approach highlights the negative aspects of sex, centering in particular on dynamics of
consent and pressure."30 Second, on Desire’s Ends, the author pointed out that “Aquinas
affirms that ‘goodness is what all desire.’ Aristotle insisted that our desires must be
structured toward an ultimate good…”31 It would like to impose that the desire is
interconnected to the sensitive appetite as what being grasped and accommodate by the
30
Angela Franks, “End-less and Self-Referential Desire: Toward an Understanding of Contemporary
Sexuality,” The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 18. no. 4 (2018): 630.
31
Ibid., 633.
20
senses. Third, on Sex: End-less or Ordered, the author pointed out that sex became end-
less because of the use of contraceptives that disrupted the end of sex for procreation, and
the sex is ordered when the end of it is for procreation. Last in The Necessary Virtue
where the author gave three virtues that is applicable to manage man's end-less and self-
referential desire. These are temperance that helps man to have moderation, charity that
can lead man to have a good relationship with the neighbor, and hope to help man to
desire the good.
The similarity of this article to this study was the discussion about the Sex: End-less
or Ordered because this article signified that sex is end-less. This article it highlighted
that the sexual activities are became endless because the human person, due to the
modernization is not aware about the end or the object of the sexual activity or sexual
drive which is procreation. But because of the motivation for the sake of self-
gratification, procreation was being disregarded. Just like in this present study, the
highlight is that, if the youth of the post-millennial era or generation Z continued the
practice of going with flow, aiming self-gratification in the libidinal aspect, the end or the
object of the sexual drive which is the procreation would be disregarded becoming the
problem.
Therefore, the contribution of this article to this present study was on the discussion
about the modern perspective of the sexual activities that became endless because
continual adherence of the youth to the practice of going with flow, in which the
libidinistic interpretation of the sexual drive became prominent. The difference between
this present study to this article was on the further discussion of the contemporary
sexuality, because this present study focused only on the sexual aspect that was being
21
misinterpreted in the post-millennial era or the generation Z in which the libidinistc
interpretation of the sexual drive became prominent.
Therefore, the contribution of this article to this present study was on the discussion
about the modern perspective of the sexual activities that became end less because
continual adherence of the youth to the practice of going with flow, in which the
libidinistic interpretation of the sexual drive became prominent. On the other hand, the
difference between this present study to this article was on the further discussion of the
contermporary sexuality, because this present study focused only on the sexual aspect
that being misinterpreted in the post-millenial era or the generation Z in which the
libidinistc interpretation of the sexual drive became prominent.
Holub, Grzegorz. “Persons as the Cause of their Own Action: Karol Wojtyla on
Efficacy.” Ethical Perspectives 23. no. 2 (2016): 259-275.
The author of this article first defined the meaning of Efficacy as the "determining the
role it plays and how strong it sheds some essential light on the ontology of the human
22
being."32 Meaning to say that a man does not show such actions ordinarily, but it requires
intervention to redefine what action should be acted out and is derived from the others.
Furthermore, it differentiated the ideas and thoughts of Max Scheler and Immanuel Kant
regarding the action of a man being caused for the effectiveness of it in line with the
discussion of causes of human action regarding Karol Wojtyla’s Efficacy.
In the latter part of the article, the author discussed how Karol Wojtyla pointed out
the action of the person in the context of efficacy wherein he introduces the difference
between acts and happenings. For Karol Wojtyla, “[a]cts have characteristics of the
pursuits initiated by the person in the strict relation to reason and the will.” 33 Attributing
that the act of the human person had an intimate connection between man's reason and
will as the battleground to balance it. For Karol Wojtyla, "Happenings or 'what happens
in me' contain a different kind of causation. There is no direct link between them and
reason and the will.”34 Apprehending that the happenings in human persons have no
intimate connection with man's reason and will which show a contrast to the concept of
Act.
The similarity of this article to this present study was on the discussion about the
person as the primary cause of his actions by attributing the moment of efficacy of the
human person. It is because, in this article it discussed that Efficacy as "Determining the
role it plays and how strong it sheds some essential light on the ontology of the human
32
Grzegorz Holub, “Persons as the Cause of their Own Action: Karol Wojtyla on Efficacy,” Ethical
Perspectives 23, no. 2 (2016): 260.
33
Ibid., 266.
34
Ibid., 268.
23
being."35 It means that the human person must not rely on to such actions in the ordinary
sense. Rather it must include intervention to redefine what action should be performed. In
this present study it also emphasized that the efficacy helps the human person to
understand the personal self, in order for him to become effective and responsible for
what action the human person may choose in order to attain self-fulfillment towards
felicity.
The contribution of this article to this present study was on the another understanding
and discussion about the moment of efficacy of the human person that may help them to
really determine, possess and govern themselves towards the good action leading the
human person to self-fulfillment and to reach the felicity. The difference of this present
study to this article was on the other discussion about the action of the human person and
efficacy that did not fit in this present study. It is because this present study discussed the
importance of the moment of efficacy as the means for the human person to become an
effective and responsible on the actions he or she may choose to do towards self-
fulfillment and felicity.
Holub, Grzegorz and Piotr Stanislaw Mazur. "The Experience of Human Being in the
Thought of Karol Wojtyla.” Filosofijia, Sociologijia 28. no. 1 (2017): 73-83.
35
Holub, “Persons as the Cause of their Own Action: Karol Wojtyla on Efficacy,” 260.
24
This article focused on the experiences of the human being using the thought of Karol
Wojtyla. The author emphasized how a human being corresponds to his experiences.
First, the author emphasized the human experience as the “inner experience constitutes
our world and our self-identity depends on it to a considerable extent. Thus, it seems, we
cannot play it down or reduce it to something else. On the other hand, outer experience
leads us to many inventions and discoveries – in a sense it guarantees our control over
the world.”36 Meaning to say, human beings have two dimensions of experience that lead
to apprehending the other beings in their actual sense. In the middle of this article, the
author showed that the two dimensions of human experience, which have a unifying
concept that what we perceive outside or inside of our experience is still one because we
experienced it.
To narrow it down, the author concluded that the two dimensions of the human
experience are not a hindrance for the human person to identify whether that which it is it
perceives a human being or the simple object. Furthermore, “Wojtyla is convinced that
human being is not a one-dimensional reality, hence the experience connected with his
existence is complex and rich. Particularly, he proves how the internal experience is
intertwined with the external one, and how they complement each other.”37 It means,
what we experienced is the real one and as human beings who can rationalize, we can
distinguish what would be the importance of it. Moreover, we are responsible for our
experiences in this world as a sign of right consciousness in apprehending the difference
between a human and an object.
36
Grzegorz Holub and Piotr Stanislaw Mazur, "The Experience of Human Being in the Thought of Karol
Wojtyla,” Filosofijia, Sociologijia 28, no. 1 (2017): 74.
37
Ibid., 81.
25
The similarity of this article to this study was on the discussion about the experience
of the human being through the help of Karol Wojtyla. It is because, this article discussed
on how the experience of the human person helped him to recognize himself and the
other human person, to apprehend the reality of it. In this present study, it discussed the
experience of the human person as a possible means to determine the difference between
object and person, to avoid the aspect of objectifying the human person for personal end
or means.
Therefore, the contribution of this article to this present study was on the better
understanding of the moment of efficacy as how the human person’s experience himself
as the doer and actor of the actions towards for a proper determination, possession and
governance of it. So that, when that action is attributed to sexual drive, the human person
may still correspond to his experience between human and object and do what is ethical
and necessary. The difference between this present study to this article would be on the
further discussion about the experience of the human beings, which did not correspond to
the discussion of this present study. It is because, this present study discussed the aspect
about the experience of the human person particularly on the moment of efficacy, which
enables the human person to identify what is good and bad that could direct him to self-
fulfillment and felicity.
Szydlowska, Joana, and Jozef Szopinski. "The Man's Contribution to Forming His
Own Sexual Identity.” Journal of Human Sexuality. no.10 (2019): 53-65.
26
In this article, the author presented and showed how a man can contribute and form
his personality regarding his sexual identity in the context of involvement in his maternal
and paternal aspect of a man. The author showed the flow of this article in a way of
counseling with a client who experienced difficulty with his personality regarding his
sexual identity. Furthermore, the author specified also that the maternal aspect of a
mother could be a bridge towards having confusion about a man's sexual tendencies. But,
in a real sense, the maternal aspect of a mother could not be taken away because it was
already inscribed to us because we were born through them.
In addition, the author specified in the middle of the discussion of this article, that
separation to the maternal aspect of a mother could be a way and help to inculcate to man
the firmness on his sexual identity. By separating himself from the maternal aspect, he
can form and help himself, manifest or show more the masculine aspect instead of the
feminine aspect. Therefore, the author firmly added the role of the paternal care of the
father, where he emphasized that the paternal aspect would be the possible way to help
the man on his sexual identity and be firm on his personality as a man. The author also
specified the role of the paternal care of the father in the middle of the article. This
paternal aspect of the father could show masculine manners and firmness on sexual
identities. Commonly, the father is the one who needs to show an attitude of being
powerful. In that way, his son could be attracted to manifest the fatherly image including
its emotions, attitudes and distinction.
Due to man being so much attracted to maternal care, man would not be able to
become firm and distinct to his sexual identity to improve his personality as a man. That
was the main problem of this article in which the author came up to the conclusion that
27
man would have consequences and even disturbing anxiety to his relationship with his
parents. Thus, effeminacy and homosexual tendencies become permanent to man.
The similarity of this article to this present study was on the discussion on forming
the sexual identity of a human person. This article highlighted the factors that could
affect the sexual identity of the human person through the maternal and paternal aspects.
If a human person inclined himself to the maternal aspect, it may confuse his sexual
identity. Conversely, if a human person inclined himself to the paternal aspect, it would
strengthen his sexual identity. This present study, highlighted the discussion that when a
human person was being born in this world, he or she would already be involved in the
reality of having a particular category or orientation. It is the sexual category of being a
man or woman, in which it became a part of the existence of the human person.
The contribution of this article to this present study was on the better understanding
of the sexual category of the human person. It is because in the sexual identity of a
human person, their sexual category should be clear a man or a woman, so that he or she
may not be confused on what identity that the human person has. So, at the very first
sense, it is already clear for the human person what sexual desires or sexual drive he or
she may act out through the help of his or her rational capacity by determining,
possessing and governing his or actions. The confusion on sexual identity, may also lead
the human person to the aspect of objectifying the other for the sake of personal
gratification, just like what was being done in the libidnistic interpretation of the sexual
drive. The difference of this article was on the further discussion about the psychological
factor of the sexual identity of a human person. This present study instead discussed the
28
aspect of the sexual category, in order for the human person to verify and it may become
clear for them they for what they intend their sexual desire or sexual drive.
Thesis/Dissertation:
Odeyemi, John Segun. “Understanding Human Sexuality in John Paul II’s Theology
of the Body: An Analysis of the Historical Development of Doctrine in the
Catholic Tradition.” Ph.D. diss., Duquesne University, 2016.
This dissertation written by John Segun Odeyemi was composed of five chapters
which discussed understanding the human sexuality of John Paul II with the view and
help of his work Theology of the Body as an exploration on how of John Paul II’s notion
of human sexuality affects the developing principle and practice of the Catholic Church.
The author also would like to view that the focus of this dissertation would be on
recapitulating the notion of St. John Paul II’s notion regarding what human sexuality is
all about as counterpart to the accusations to the Roman Catholic Church. In that way, the
author would like to add another flavor of studies on it, to update and redeem the
Catholic Church practices and teachings against the criticism from the contemporary
world.
The framework of this dissertation was discussed in a series of chapters for it to be
verified. For example, in the first chapter of this dissertation, the author specified all the
documents concerning the topic and attributions about human sexuality. It includes: some
famous encyclical letters from St. John Paul II’s like Familiaris Consortio (November
29
22, 1981) a synodal exhortation being addressed to the Christian family in the modern
world. Veritatis Splendor (August 6, 1993) an encyclical letter on the splendor of truth,
and Evangelium Vitae (November 25, 1995) an encyclical letter about the Gospel of Life.
Those works highlighted the value of a human person, the family towards for the good
and truth. that contain also his notions about human sexuality.
In chapter two of this dissertation, the author discussed what St. John Paul II’s notion
of human sexuality is all about. “As a bodily person within the marital union, the
conjugal act constitutes the person’s bodily, subjective, and moral act. It is in this sense
that JPII argues that for the sexual act to be morally right, the unity of the person’s
integrity as a human person in the union of body and soul must exist as an intrinsic good
of self-integration.”38 In that sense, the author would like to show how the body of the
human person is being inter-connected with the context of faith and love, and how this
body became unique as male and female. It is because “through mutual consent and utual
respect, marital intercourse as bodily union becomes a mutual gift between a man and his
wife, becoming a communion of persons that is always open to the possibility of
procreation, the gift of another life.”39
In the third chapter of this dissertation, the author discussed the accepted
phenomenon about the thinking of the contemporary world regarding marriage in
connection with human sexuality. Then in the fourth chapter, the author included the
interactions and even the comment of the contemporary thinkers regarding the real notion
about human sexuality and even marriage. In the last chapter of this dissertation, the
38
John Segun Odeyemi, “Understanding Human Sexuality in John Paul II’s Theology of the Body: An
Analysis of the Historical Development of Doctrine in the Catholic Tradition” (Ph.D. dissertation,
Duquesne University, 2016), 107.
39
Ibid.
30
author discussed the implications, and even the suggested matters that could improve
one’s notion regarding the stand of the church about human sexuality.
The similarity of this dissertation to this study was on the discussion about human
sexuality of the person and the uniqueness of it being a male and female. It highlighted
the aspect of Wojtyla’s notion of human sexuality that came from the inspiration of his
work Theology of the Body. The work highlighted the distinctiveness of the human
person and even its sexual identity towards an end which ought to be observe in right
way. This present study, also discussed the attribution of Wojtyla that the human person
must not be objectified for a particular gratification of the self. This is because the human
person as a rational being can determine first the action that he can act out towards and
end. Just like in the context of sexual drive of the human person, that must undergo the
proper determination, possession and governance of it, so that the end of that sexual drive
might not become a problem.
Therefore, the contribution of this dissertation to this present study was on the
discussion about the proper understanding of the human sexuality of the human person. It
is important that the human person must have a proper understanding of his or her
sexuality, so that it may not lead to a wrong disposition of it just like the libidinistic
interpretation of the sexual drive. The difference of this present study to this dissertation
was on the origin of the discussion about understanding the human sexuality. This is
because the origin of this present study about the understanding of the human sexuality of
the human came from Wojtyla’s sexual ethics. While, in this dissertation, the origin of
the understanding of human sexuality came from Wojtyla’s work Theology of the Body.
31
Salaria, Jose Reynaldo. “Retrieving Chaste Love and Committed Relationship as

Ideal Virtues for Young Unmarried Persons, Based on The Thoughts of Karol
Wojtyla.” AB thesis, Ateneo de Manila University, 2018.
Salaria discussed the retrieving of chaste love and committed relationships as ideal
virtues for young unmarried persons, based on the thoughts of Karol Wojtyla. In this
thesis, the author was able to discuss all of the thoughts of Karol Wojtyla, by using some
of his primary works such as The Acting Person and Love and Responsibility.
This thesis was divided into four chapters to synthesize Karol Wojtyla’s thoughts
where the author revisits some factors which young unmarried persons were commonly
involved, namely, early pregnancy, HIV Aids and Liquid Relationships due to the cause
of sexual revolution which became the confusion of the young unmarried person. The
author of this thesis also discussed the introduction of Karol Wojtyla’s philosophy using
his one work The Acting Person. The work elaborated the aspect of action that is
interconnected to the consciousness of action which leads man to have self-determination
and will to have self-fulfillment, so that man may have participation.
In chapter three, the author discussed the involvement of Karol Wojtyla's Love and
Responsibility by analyzing love by the sexual urge, metaphysical and psychological
love, the involvement of chastity, and the involvement of man's body. Lastly, Salaria
concluded his implications of Karol Wojtyla's thought on how to retrieve chaste love and
committed relationship as ideal virtues for young unmarried persons, by understanding
the aspect about intersubjectivity, so that the human person may go back to the good
participation towards the other.

32
This thesis also discussed the importance of the action of the human person “wherein,
in the very performance of an action by a person in an appropriate manner, the person
fulfills himself in it.”40 It was fulfillment of the self because the person was properly
determined, possessed and governed his action by choosing what is good. This directs the
human person towards felicity, which this thesis discussed as “happiness or ‘felicity,’ a
privilege exclusive to the unique structure of the person. It assumes that self-fulfillment
lead to felicity. However it is not based on the action eo ipso, but in choosing of the good,
being in mind the moral truth.”41
The similarity of this thesis to this present study was on the discussion of Wojtyla’s
philosophical anthropology and sexual ethics. This thesis, discussed the important aspect
of human action being determined, possessed and governed properly by the human
person as the “I” who was the doer of the action towards self-fulfillment in order to attain
felicity and to retrieve chaste love and committed relationship of the young unmarried
persons. This present study, discussed the important aspect about human actions, in order
to attain self-fulfillment towards felicity, so that the human person may limit the
libidinistic interpretation of the sexual drive.
The contribution of this thesis to this present study was on the factor about retrieving
chaste love and committed relationship of the young unmarried persons. This may verify
the discussion of this present study about youth of the post-millennial era or in the
generation Z, being allured of the practice of going with the flow that leads them to
confusion between object and person. Through felicity, the human person may be led to
40
Jose Reynaldo Salaria, “Retrieving Chaste Love and Committed Relationship as Ideal Virtues for
Young Unmarried Persons, Based on The Thoughts of Karol Wojtyla” (AB thesis, Ateneo de Manila
University, 2018.), 20.
41
Ibid., 26.
33
move away from the practice of going with the flow, in order to have a proper distinction
between person and object. The difference of this present study to this thesis was on the
terms being used, just like “sexual drive,” while in this thesis it used the term “sexual
urge.”
E. Methodology:
For the proper procedure of this study, the researcher will use a kind of methodology
called “Methodological Hermeneutics Framework… which involves [a]nalysis of the
grammatical construction of the language of the philosopher’s text… [and] [a]nalysis of
the technical construction of the language of the philosopher’s text in the context of his
life situation.”42 Furthermore, this present study will use the works of Karol Wojtyla with
the help of secondary sources, articles, and theses to expound more on this particular
study. Also, the researcher based the form and style on the 7th edition of Kate L.
Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertation: Chicago
Style for Students and Researchers and the latest published A Quick Guide for Thesis
Writing by the Immaculate Conception Major Seminary.
Various resources from the Immaculate Conception Major Seminary Library and
internet sources were used also because there were new and updated sources available to
be downloaded. The researcher collects data to accommodate the need for text and
articles that would tackle Karol Wojtyla's view on the human person’s sexual drive.
This present study is divided into five chapters. The first will be the introductory part
and followed by chapter two entitled "Karol Wojtyla's Notion of Felicity”. It would be
42
Emmanuel D. Batoon, A Guide to Thesis Writing in Philosophy Part I: Proposal Writing (Manila:
REJN Publishing 2005), 61-62.
34
followed by chapter three entitled "Karol Wojtyla’s View on Libidinistic Interpretation of
Human Person’s Sexual Drive" which presents the idea to the concept of Sexual Drive
that the researcher will be able to present the basic norm of Karol Wojtyla about Sexual
Drive. Moving on, chapter four entitled "Limiting the Libidinistic Interpretation of the
Sexual Drive through Karol Wojtyla’s Concept of Felicity." In this chapter, the
researcher will be presenting the whole idea of how Felicity can be mean to limit the
Libidinistic Interpretation of the Sexual Drive. Lastly, this work will end with chapter
five which will conclude the whole present study starting from the main problem and
expounding the provided theoretical and practical recommendations for further studies of
this work.
F. Scope and Limitation:
The scope of this study will be on the presentation of Karol Wojtyla’s textual data
about the human person’s sexual drive and how his notion of Felicity can limit the
Libidinistic Interpretation of Sexual Drive, following the man to avoid the improper
disposition about the sexual drive. To support this study, it will include some of Karol
Wojtyla's works like Love and Responsibility and The Acting Person for the researcher to
use and justify his sexual drive specifically to the notion of Libidinistic Interpretation of
Sexual Drive and how it will be limited by the notion of Felicity. Furthermore, ideas and
understanding from different scholars were included also to have a deeper understanding
of Karol Wojtyla's philosophical thoughts regarding his view on the human person’s
sexual drive.
35
The limitation of this study will be in English translated works of Karol Wojtyla since
the researcher is not capable to read and understand the works of Karol Wojtyla written
in the Polish language and translated by Andrzej Potocki. In other words, the researcher
relies only on English translations. Moreover, the researcher will focus only on Karol
Wojtyla’s Philosophy particularly on his view of the human person’s sexual drive, and
not on the whole and the widespread dimension of Karol Wojtyla's philosophy that could
not tackle the aim of this study.
G. Definition of Terms:
To understand more this humble work, the researcher will be giving the definitions of
the terms that are used in the entire discussion. This definition of terms would help the
readers to fully undertake the totality of what the researcher would like to expound and
discuss.
1. Felicity: It focuses on“…something akin to fulfillment, to the fulfillment of the
self through action.”43 It is like the end that motivates the person for a special duty
to the proper actualization of freedom, because “the fulfillment of the person in
the action depends on the active and inwardly creative union of truth with
freedom.”44 Meaning to say, it shows that freedom creates a spectrum in man’s
action that shows a variety of how does man takes control and becomes effective
in his action while apprehending the truth in every circumstance of life situation.
43
Karol Wojtyla, The Acting Person, trans. Andrzej Potocki (Holland: D. Reidel Publishing Company,
1979), 174.
44
36
Furthermore, felicity could classify also as “…the fulfillment of freedom through
the truth. To fulfill freedom in truthfulness – that is to say, according to the
relation to the truth – is equivalent to the fulfillment of the person. It is the
fulfillment that plays the role of creating the state of the felicity of the person.”45
2. Libidinistic Interpretation: This interpretation leads to “…treating the person
exclusively as a means to an end, as an object of use, becomes linked with this
meaning in an even more drastic degree.”46 In other words, in this interpretation of
the sexual drive, the inclination of man to attain delight becomes more powerful
than the freedom and will of man. Therefore, it corresponds to the interpretation
which “imparts to the sexual drive a purely ego-centric meaning, that is, the
meaning naturally belonging to the drive for self-preservation,” 47 in other words,
seeking delight to preserve oneself without considering the very nature of the
other person.
3. Sexual Drive: It is an “…activity of urging on” 48 in which it is a “certain natural
direction of tending, innate in every man…”49 It shows that the sexual drive is like
a power of man’s inclination to attain delight using the freedom to will something.
On the other hand, his inclination for delight is something different compared to
animals, because “in man, the drive-by nature is subordinated to the will, and
thereby it is subject to the specific dynamic of freedom that is at the disposal of

45
Ibid.
46
47
Ibid., 50.
48
49
Ibid., 30.
37
the will.”50 Henceforth, sexual drive in this sense is part of the nature of man, that
man’s inclination to attain delight is a conscious experience and he is responsible
for the choice he makes to attain it.
4. Limit: In this present study, the researcher understood the term limit as
possible means to put a perimeter to and to avoid the wrong tendency of the
libidinistic interpretation of the sexual drive by attributing the claim of Karol
Wojtyla that “man possesses reason, that he is a rational being.” 51 Through
that way, man can critically think about the objective world to distinguish the
object as something, and a person as somebody that “must never be treated as
a means to an end.”52 It is because if the human person will still incline his
sexual drive in the aspect of libidinistic interpretation by “…treating the
person exclusively as a means to an end, as an object of use…” 53 the aspect of
the sexual drive for procreation has no love at all and it is only for secondary
purposes, in other words, procreation becomes a problem. Just like in
Wojtyla’s discussion about the problem of Malthusianism that
“Malthusianism has been associated with the purely ‘libidinistic’
interpretation of the sexual drive. For since the earth is threatened with
overpopulation, and economist complains about the ‘overproduction’ of
people so that the production of the means of living cannot keep up.” 54 That
50
Ibid., 33.
51
Ibid., 4.
52
Ibid., 10.
53
Ibid., 47.
54
38
aspect became possible because “the sexual drive which seemingly turns out
to be the force that is more powerful than human forethought in the economic
sphere.”55
Chapter Two
Karol Wojtyla’s Notion of Felicity
55
Ibid.
39
This chapter discusses Karol Wojtyla’s philosophical anthropology as a foundation to
specify how Wojtyla deals with the human person. For Wojtyla, “philosophical
anthropology is a ‘philosophy of the human being’ with a broader focus which, besides
treating essential and at times metaphysical characteristics of the human being, also
pauses to analyze the existential….” 56 Moreover, this chapter also covers Wojtyla’s
discussion of felicity in connection with his philosophical anthropology and how felicity
may be achieved by the human person.
A. Human Person:
Going back in the Medieval period, Boethius defined a person as an “individual of a
rational nature (individua substantia rationalis naturae).”57 In that statement, the subject
of a person as somebody was being emphasized because it has a rational soul being
referred to as a rational being who can reason out or can act out. That is why the person is
different from other beings which can be signified like a plant to its vegetative soul or an
animal to its sentient soul. Therefore, it can be understood that man has a separate mode
of existence in this objective world. Hence, Wojtyla defined man’s nature as something
that “includes the power of self-determination based on reflection and manifested in the
fact that while acting, man chooses what he wants to do.” 58 This power is called free
56
Acosta and Reimers, Karol Wojtyla’s Personalist Philosophy, 111.
57
Boethius, Liber de persona et duabus naturis (Patrologia Latina 64, 1343C-D), quoted in Karol
Wojtyla, Love and Responsibility, trans. Grzegorz Ignatik (Boston: Pauline Books and Media, 2013), 4.
58
40
will,”59 because “man possesses reason, that he is a rational being.” 60 Furthermore, if a
man is a rational being and possesses reason, therefore man has the intellectual capacity,
to actualize his freedom and will that enables him to understand what kind of desire that
he encounters in this world.
a.1. Karol Wojtyla’s view on Human Person
In the very first sense, the primary input of Karol Wojtyla’s view of the Human
Person is “based on the systems of metaphysics, of anthropology, and of Aristotelian-
Thomistic ethics…”61 which Wojtyla obtained during his seminary days. The researcher
noticed, and maybe the readers of Wojtyla’s works regarding the human person may also
notice, that Wojtyla’s thoughts regarding the human person are quite similar and
synonymous to the Aristotelian-Thomistic notion of the human person. In connection
with that, since Wojtyla applied the Aristotelian-Thomistic notion of the Human Person,
he also insisted on his notion about the human person to vary the distinctiveness and
uniqueness on how he views a human person. For Wojtyla, “the word ‘person’ has been
coined to stress that man cannot be reduced wholly to what is contained in the concept of
‘a specimen of the species,’ but has in himself something more, some particular fullness
and perfection of being.”62 In other words, the person as a rational being and a being
59
Ibid.
60
Ibid., 4.
61
Karol Wojtyla, translation of handwritten draft of the author’s preface by Professor M. K.
Dziewanowski to the The Acting Person. trans. Andrzej Potocki (Holland: D. Reidel Publishing Company,
1979), xiv.
62
41
distinct from the other beings and could not be put to another being that could exist,
because for Wojtyla “the person is alteri incommunicabilis–nontransferable,
incommunicable.”63 Also, he would like to suggest for the future researchers that “to
emphasize this fullness and perfection the word ‘person’ must necessarily be used.” 64 The
researcher of this present study is ascertained that the term person for Wojtyla is central
to his philosophical contribution to Personalism in the Contemporary period.
a.2. Dignity of a Human Person
Karol Wojtyla emphasized the dignity of a human person, because “Wojtyla not only
observed but experienced the horrors of the regimes. He too, was a victim and had his
shares of pains and sufferings, first during the Nazi occupation and later during the
Communist regime in Poland.”65 Meaning to say, the Nazi regime which Wojtyla
experienced is his turning point to identify the dignity of a human person aside from its
given existence in this objective world. In that Wojtyla’s personal experience from the
Nazi regime, he said that “the outbreak of the war took me away from my studies and the
University. In that period, I also lost my father, the last remaining member of my
immediate family…"66 In that period also, Wojtyla has seen “the years of German
occupation in the west and Soviet occupation in the East brought about the arrest and
63
Wojtyla, Love and Responsibility 6.
64
Ibid., 4.
65
Peter Simpson, On Karol Wojtyla (Belmont CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2001), 8. quoted in
Jove Jim Aguas, Person, Action, and Love: The Philosophical Thoughts of Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II)
(Manila: University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2014), 22.
66
Karol Wojtyla, Gifts and Mystery (Pasay, Paulines, 1997), 45.
42
deportation to concentration camps of an immense number of Polish priests.”67 On the
other hand, that kind of personal experience of Wojtyla from Nazi’s regime imposed
imagery that “…destroys the individuality of the person and makes him become
whatever the people in power desire; the dehumanizes the person reduces him to an
object.”68
Therefore, Wojtyla insisted that “intellect and freedom are essential and irrevocable
properties of the person. Herein also lies the whole natural basis of the dignity of the
person.”69 It means Wojtyla would like to elucidate that the human person is a being
associated with his freedom and will as far as he exists in this world. Therefore, a human
person can now automatically know the difference between his being and the being of the
other human person, even to other kinds of being like animals and plants. He can
automatically distinguish the difference between his existence and the existence of the
other beings in this world, even its dignity. Thus, if “someone else treats a person
exclusively as a means to an end, then the person is violated in what belongs to his very
essence and at the same time constitutes his natural rights.”70
67
Wojtyla, Gifts and Mystery, 47.
68
Jove Jim Aguas, introduction to the Person, Action, and Love: The Philosophical Thoughts of Karol
Wojtyla (John Paul II) (Manila: University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2014), xvi.
69
Karol Wojtyla, Person and Community: Selected Essays, trans. Theresa Sandok, OSM. (New York:
Peter Lang, 1993), 178.
70
43
B. Human Action:
One of the starting points of Karol Wojtyla’s philosophical anthropology is the action
of the human person. For Wojtyla, action “…gives us the best insight into the inherent
essence of the person and allows us to understand the person most fully. We experience
man as a person, and we are convinced of it because he performs actions.” 71 Therefore,
the human action for Karol Wojtyla is a kind of dynamism and penetration to know the
other human beings as a human person. It is not just a simple human person only, but a
human person in a whole sense.
Furthermore, for Wojtyla, there are two kinds of operation of the action in man and
those are: “‘man-acts’ and ‘something-happens-in-man.” 72 First- is all about the
distinction of “man-acts” which in this distinction “it reveals the fully human, conscious
activity of the subject; those that are being accompanied by his consciousness.” 73
Meaning to say, these are the actions that were being actualized and being performed by
the human person in a direct manner way because of human consciousness and will like
eating, doing academic demands in school and taking a bath every day and many more
actions that the human person is consciously aware on what he is doing. On the other
hand, the second distinction is all about “something-happens-man” which in this
distinction shows the action that “simply happen or operate in man even when a man is
not conscious of them. They reveal man’s passivity and they simply happen without the
accompaniment of his consciousness.”74 It means these are the actions that are actualized
71
72
Ibid., 61.
73
Aguas, Person, Action and Love, 71.
74
44
and performed by the human person in an indirect manner way because human
consciousness and will are absent. The example for that is the mannerisms of the human
person just like nail-biting, unexpected sneezing, unexpected yawning, unexpected
irritation, and many more actions that the human person is not consciously aware of what
he is doing, but instead, it is the action that just happened unexpectedly to the human
person.
b.1. Efficacy
Part of the proper understanding of the self is being expounded in Wojtyla’s
discussions on efficacy. For him, the term “efficacy” is “to be understood as the having
experience of being the actor.”75 It means that efficacy helps the human person to know
the personal self as the primary source of action, which is important because in that way
the human person would be able to become effective and responsible for what action he
or she will do. “By experiencing his own being as the efficient cause of the action, ‘man
discovers that he is completely immanent in the action and simultaneously transcends
it.”76
Furthermore, due to the significance of knowing primarily the self of the human
person with the help of man’s consciousness in experiencing such actions, the span or the
scope of this efficacy is not just only for the particular or selected aspect regarding man’s
consciousness and experience to the action. The span or the scope of this efficacy is for
75
76
Rocco Buttiglione, Karol Wojtyla: The Thought of the Man who became Pope John Paul II, trans.
Paolo Guetti and Francesca Murphy (Grand Rapids Michigan: WB. Eardams Publishing Co., 1997), 135.
45
the totality of the human person because Wojtyla explained that the person must not be
seen as a simple dynamism, but should be seen in a whole dynamic way where
everything else about the human person is included.
b.2. Self-Determination
“Self-determination presupposes that the person is at the same time the subject of the
action and also the object of an action.” 77 It means that self-determination allows man to
decide or actualize according to his will, and also to the actions that he wants to be
performed. Wojtyla “explains that self-determination is the ability of the person to move
from the ‘I can’ and ‘I need not’ to ‘I want,’ or I will.’” 78 In other words, through self-
determination, it helps the human person as the “I” as the cause of action, to have a
proper willingness to decide fruitfully and maturely on what actions he wanted to be
performed that could lead him to experience freedom. Because the “‘I’ as the first object
of the act of the will should not be confused with the relationship with the object of the
will which takes place in every act of volition when the subject tends toward an object or
a given value.”79
77
Buttiglione, Karol Wojtyla, 142.
78
79
46
b.2.1. Self-Possession
Wojtyla presents another essential characteristic of the human person to validate
man’s way to understand, determine, and distinguish himself. It is the attribution
regarding the proper self-possession. For Wojtyla:
Self-determination is possible only on the ground of self-possession. Every

authentically human ‘I will’ is an act of self-determination at a particular moment
it presupposes structural self-possession. For only the things that are man’s actual
possessions can be determined by him; they can be determined only by the one
who possesses them.80
The researcher notices that this self-possession is an opportunity for the human
person to learn how to assure or confirm such actions proper to man and connected to his
freedom and will. In this sense, this self-possession is a product of proper determination
that leads the human person to thoroughly govern the innermost self so that the human
person may have a true confirmation of what is for him.
b.2.2. Self-Governance
Wojtyla insists that self-governance is “something far more fundamental and far more
strictly related to the inner personal structure of man who differs from all other structures
and all other existents in that he is capable of governing himself.” 81 This governing
process of the human person is not just about the physical aspects that can make the
human person more conscious. This governing process of the human person must be
80
81
Ibid.
47
focused thoroughly on his innermost self, which concentrates him to the way on how the
human person will use his respective will and freedom.
The researcher noticed that for Wojtyla this self-governance is quite different from
self-control. Self-control “is the power to control oneself and applies only to one
functions of the dynamism appropriate to man, to one of his powers or virtues, or a set of
these.”82 This self-control process makes the human person limited invalidating his way
to understand, determine, and distinguish himself. Hence, the self-governing process does
not limit but leads the human person to fully understand, determine, and distinguish
himself. “Self-governance is man’s power to govern himself and not only to control
himself.”83
C. Human Freedom:
Freedom is one of the traits that a human person has. For man, particularly those in the
post-millennial period, freedom is something that can make the person accountable for
what he or she wanted to do. In other words, freedom is an opportunity for the human
person to express truthfully what he or she wants in life. Furthermore, “according to
Wojtyla, freedom should be analyzed as an aspect of the human person and the human
will since the freedom that is appropriate to the human person is the freedom that results
from the will.”84 In other words, Wojtyla elucidates that freedom is not just a simple
acquisition of autonomy of the self, that no greater person thoroughly control him or her.
82
83
Ibid.
84
48
But freedom exists when it “constitutes the real and privileged position of man in the
world and also the main condition of his will.”85
c.1. Free will
Wojtyla does not look at the free will of the human person as a vague classification of
what the will is. Instead, free will is also connected to the freedom of the human person,
therefore “Wojtyla integrates the will and freedom, showing them as powers…” 86 It
means that the free will of the human person is connected to his freedom, enables the
human person to have proper self-determination. Free will gives also access to the proper
self-governance, focused thoroughly on their innermost self. In other words, free will is
connected to freedom enables also the human to become independent in choosing what
he thinks is necessary. In other words, this free will has something to do with the human
person as a rational being, because for Wojytla “in nonpersonal beings whose dynamism
is achieved solely at the level of nature, there are no reasons for the existence of the
will.”87
c.2. Transcendence
For Wojtyla, transcendence “means to go over and beyond the threshold or a boundary
(trans-scendere).”88 His discussion of transcendence helps the human person to have a

85
86
Acosta and Reimers, Karol Wojtyla’s Personalist Philosophy, 162.
87
88
Ibid., 119.
49
proper viewpoint on which things are necessary or not. This transcendence for the human
person “…may refer to the subject’s stepping out of his limits toward an object, as is in
different ways the case in what is known as intentional acts of external (‘transcendent’)
perception.”89 Wojtyla introduces two processes of transcendence: horizontal and vertical
transcendence.
c.2.1. Horizontal Transcendence
First, the horizontal transcendence is “transgressing the subject’s limits in the
direction of an object – and this is intentionality in the ‘external’ perception or volition of
external objects – may be defined as ‘horizontal transcendence.’”90 This horizontal
transcendence of the human person is like a linear representation of the transcendence. It
is inclined to the will and volition of the human person but not to a deep process without
any certain end. It is only as a process of the instant eagerness of the human person.
On the other hand, the researcher noticed that Wojtyla is not contented with the
horizontal transcendence. He gives the second kind of transcendence for the human
person to truly surpass such boundaries of life in this world.
c.2.2. Vertical Transcendence
Wojtyla presents the second kind of transcendence as vertical transcendence. For him
it is “the fruit of self-determination; the person transcends his structural boundaries
89
90
Ibid.
50
through the capacity to exercise freedom; of being free in the process of acting, and not
only in the intentional direction of willings toward an external object.” 91It means that, for
the human person to vertically transcend, “the person has to transcend himself or stand
92
above himself to determine himself.” In other words, self-determination helps the
human person to know and transcend not just on the ordinarily of the things, but instead
to direct himself for the truth.
c.3. Conscience
According to Wojtyla, conscience “consists of a very specific effort of the person
aimed at grasping the truth in the spheres of values, first of all in the sphere of moral
values.”93 It means that, even if the person has the freedom and the power to will, he or
she still needs to re-evaluate what he or she wants to acquire in this life with such
boundaries. “Man’s conscience is connected with the mind not only my consciousness
but also by moral truthfulness. It has often been stressed that the function of the
conscience is to judge the moral value of action of the good or the evil contained in the
action.”94 In that way, the human person may truly distinguish which is righteous or not,
or what is necessary or not. For Wojtyla, conscience is like a device or a sifter for the
human person to distinguish which is righteous or not. In other words, a conscience that
91
92
93
94
Ibid.
51
the human person has is “the necessary condition of man’s fulfillment of himself in the
action.”95
c.4. Self-fulfillment
After the human person acquires the proper way of sifting what is necessary or not, he
is now able to have a good way of self-fulfillment. Also, self-fulfillment is not just a
fulfillment after choosing what is good or bad but instead the actualization of the actions
chosen as good. “The fact that every performance of an action means fulfillment makes
‘to fulfill’ almost synonymous with ‘to perform.’” 96Therefore, it encapsulates such
demands or duties to grasp the fulfillment of the self. After the human person chose what
is good and necessary and avoided false and evil through the help of conscience, that
human person may associate the morality in his or her particular actions because “that
morality as a modality of conduct participates in the innerness of the man and achieves a
measure of durability in him.”97
Concerning those statements, Wojtyla discussed that “man fulfills himself as the
person, as the ‘somebody,’ and as such he may become either good or bad, which means
that he may or may not achieve self-fulfillment.” 98 With those statements, the researcher
concludes that if the human person will just rely on bad action or unnecessary things and
without the proper use of conscience, the human person might fall into evil matters. On
95
96
Ibid., 149.
97
Ibid., 151.
98
Ibid., 153.
52
the other hand, if that person willfully relies on such good or necessary things and with
the proper usage of man’s conscience, he can achieve his totality and he or she may attain
self-fulfillment.
D. Felicity:
The universal understanding of the term felicity is “happiness… or appropriate
expression or style.”99 In other words, the term felicity is synonymous with happiness and
contentment. To see the connection between felicity or happiness in the world of
philosophy, the researcher will discuss Wojtyla’s notion of felicity.
d.1. Karol Wojtyla’s Attribution of Felicity
After the human person acquires the proper way of determining the self, it leads him
to the proper self-governance and possession. At the same time, after the human person
actualized proper freedom, free will, and conscience, it leads him to the end of self-
fulfillment. In the end of self-fulfillment, the human person may have the feeling of
happiness because after pursuing such necessary aspects and manners that may validate
the distinction of the being of a human person, it leads him to be more authentic in this
world. Wojtyla said that “the analysis of fulfillment as the reality that in the dynamic
whole of the person-action relation unrolls parallel to self-determination cannot be
continued without at least touching upon happiness, that classical theme in the
philosophy of man.”100
99
Collins English Dictionary and Thesaurus, 4th ed., s.v. “Felicity.”
100
53
In that statement, the researcher concludes that to sustain those right aspects or
manners with the fruitful self-fulfillment of the human person, it must reach happiness.
That happiness is like a bridge to have solid connectivity for the human person to fully
subsists to his proper way of self-determination and for the actualization of freedom, free
will, and conscience of the human person. Furthermore, for Wojtyla, “‘happiness’ and
‘felicity’ are susceptible to subtle distinctions in meaning which do not reduce to
differences in degrees of intensity. We can sense, however, that ‘felicity’ fits better than
‘happiness’ into the general line of our analysis.”101
d.1.1. Demand in Human Person
Moving forward, when a human person continues to fulfill himself through the touch
of felicity, he must not be complacent to the simple way of fulfilling the self. Instead, it
should include such demands for the human person to fully authenticate his self-
fulfillment. That demand according to Wojtyla is “the sphere of felicity is to be sought in
what is eternal and intransitive in the action, in what is identifiable with the fulfillment of
the ego as the person.”102 In other words, the demand of felicity to the human person is
not just to have felicity in a way of being fulfilled to the self externally, but it must be the
felicity that is fulfilled internally. Thus, felicity is being done through the authentic effort
of the human person to think and to reason through the means of being a rational being.
101
102
Ibid., 175.
54
d.1.2. Effect in Human Action
After attributing the demand of felicity to the human person, it follows an effect that
drives the human person to actualize felicity more in an authentic way. The demand of
felicity to the human person is not just to become happy in what was being fulfilled to the
self externally but being happy internally. It is because felicity is being done through the
authentic effort of the human person with the means of being a rational being.
Therefore, the effect of the felicity to the human person is to become happy internally
that is inclined to the power of man to reason out the truth that leads the person to the
proper freedom and even proper self-fulfillment. Indeed, “the fulfillment of the person in
the action depends on the active and inwardly creative union of truth with freedom.”103
d.2. The Role of Felicity in the Human Person
Felicity is not just to experience authentic happiness through the proper self-
fulfillment. Instead, it has a special role for the human person to have fruit from self-
fulfillment that may direct his character to actualize what is necessary and even
important.
d.2.1. Transparency
One of the role of felicity is transparency. “The fulfillment of the human person in the
action depends on the active and inwardly creative union of truth with freedom.” 104 In
103
104
Ibid.
55
other words, this transparency of the human person is another aspect of human freedom
after actualizing the self-fulfillment and gaining felicity. Therefore, the human person is
urged to do what is already necessary and important in his actions because “freedom
alone, as expressed in the simple ‘I may but I need not,’ does not seem to be rendering
man happy in itself. Within these terms, freedom is but a condition of felicity, albeit to
deprive man of his freedom is equivalent to engendering his felicity.”105
Therefore, due to the mal-information of freedom as another aspect of transparency to
the human person, it might lead the human person to the confusion on doing what is
already true and necessary. Hence, it might be the cause that hinders the human person to
become transparent to his actions. Wojtyla elucidates that “felicity has to be identified not
with the availability of freedom as such but with the fulfillment of freedom through the
truth.”106 Freedom of man as another aspect of transparency must not rely only on what is
already instant. It should inculcate the innermost truth that leads man to attain authentic
freedom and transparency, not diffused to such devastating hindrances.
d.2.2. Responsibility
Another role of felicity is responsibility. For Wojtyla “the notion of ‘responsibility’
shows that if we want to bring out in full relief its social and interhuman implications, we
have first to make the man himself with personal structure and his transcendence in the
object of our analysis.”107 If the human person is aware of his process of self-fulfillment
105
106
Ibid.
107
Ibid., 169.
56
and acquiring felicity as an end, the human person must become aware that he is doing a
responsibility to become truthful and transparent at all times. “A man who is untrue to
others or tells lies to others is not only responsible for misleading others, he also neglects
his obligation to truthfulness. Hence the person-agent is responsible for the truthfulness
of his action.”108
d.3. The Distinctiveness of Felicity
In this sub-discussion, the researcher discusses the distinctiveness of felicity from the
discussion of Karol Wojtyla, to clarify the term felicity and how it is different from the
other synonyms and definitions.
d.3.1. Difference of Felicity to Happiness
In ordinary language, it seems that the term felicity is the same with “happiness… or
appropriate expression or style.”109 Hence, felicity and happiness are not different from
each other. Both of them do have the same meaning. But for Wojtyla, there has
something to be different because “‘felicity’ fits better than ‘happiness…’” 110 The
difference between felicity and happiness is “something akin to fulfillment, to the
fulfillment of the self through action.” 111 For Wojtyla, the term felicity is the stronger
term to be used, because it contains a very important manner that is directly connected to
108
109
Collins English Dictionary and Thesaurus, 4th ed., s.v. “Felicity”.
110
111
Ibid.
57
the human person that corresponds to the will and freedom of the human person. While
the term happiness only bears a lesser impact that talks about only the feelings or
expressions of the human person.
d.3.2. Difference of Felicity to Pleasure
Wojtyla gave a difference between felicity and pleasure by elucidating “between the
fact ‘man-acts’ and the fact ‘something happens in man.’” 112 Felicity and pleasure already
have a difference. It shows two dimensions of the human person.
First, “felicity is structurally conjugated with the experience of acting and with the
transcendence of the person in the action.” 113 It means that felicity is a dimension that the
human person is the one who actualizes and supervises thoroughly the action with
sincerity to be fulfilled. This felicity is thoroughly or directly inclined first to the
structure of the human person and not on the action. Second, pleasure or “we rather speak
of joy or satisfaction. The fact that the satisfaction may also be pleasurable is only
secondary the vexation caused by remorse is also secondary.” 114 It means that pleasure is
a dimension in which the action is the one which supervises the human person, for
example, pleasure is something like a wind for the kite to fly, or like a portion of food
that makes the dog aggressive. Hence, pleasure is like a deceiver that when you are being
deceived of it, it will become your actions whether good or bad. Therefore, the difference
between felicity and pleasure is that “felicity points to the personal structure while
112
113
Ibid.
114
Ibid.
58
pleasure can be related to what may be viewed as the simply natural structure of the
individual…”115
Synthesis
Chapter two discussed Karol Wojtyla’s notion of felicity. For Karol Wojtyla, the
human person is a rational being in nature with the capacity to think thoroughly to
distinguish the difference between the existence of a thing and a person, so that proper
attribution of the dignity of the human person may be verified. Aside from the fact that
the human person is a rational being in nature, the human person manifests such action
because of being a rational being.
If the human person is the rational being with the power to think thoroughly, he
directs his actions in proper means to help himself to have a proper process of
determining, governing, and possessing so that the human person may have a proper
distinction of freedom. Freedom, which is not just being autonomous to the self like
acquiring such what is pleasurable, is inclined to the power of the human person to
rationalize, to choose and to verify what is wrong and right, what is good or evil, what the
human person wills is still in accordance to the truth. In that way, it leads man to go
beyond the hindrances and boundaries of life for him to have proper self-fulfillment.
Through the proper process of self-fulfillment, it leads the human person to have felicity,
which is a concrete product of the human person after pursuing such right processes and
stages to understand the self, so that actions may actualize morally and truthfully.
Chapter Three
115
59
Karol Wojtyla’s View on Libidinistic Interpretation of Human Person’s Sexual Drive
This chapter discusses Karol Wojtyla’s sexual ethics to highlight who the human
person is and how Wojtyla deals with human sexuality. For Wojtyla, “the sexual context,
however, is not only about a ‘static’ distinctiveness of sex, but about the real contribution
in human actions of a dynamic element closely linked to the distinctiveness of sex in
human persons.”116 Moreover, this chapter also covers Wojtyla’s discussion of
Libidinistic Interpretation of Sexual Drive in connection with his sexual ethics and how a
human person’s sexual drive should rely on man’s freedom in performing such actions.
A. Instincts and the Sexual Drive:
The universal understanding of the term drive is “motive or interest… (a) means by
which power is transmitted in a mechanism.” 117 In other words, the term drive is
commonly known or being interpreted in the sense that we push ourselves to something
desirable that leads us to be more fascinated by that particular desirable thing. On the
other hand, in an etymological aspect “‘instinct’ is derived from the Latin instinguere,
which means more or less the same as ‘to urge,’ ‘to drive.’” 118 In that sense, the term
drive might be also associated with some particular aspects that the human person is
familiar with, just like the desire for foods, fashions, and even in a sexual context.
116
117
Collins English Dictionary and Thesaurus, 4th ed., s.v. “Drive.”
118
60
For Wojtyla, this instinct or drive has something to do with the human person as part
of his existence in the world. Therefore, Wojtyla provided a distinction between
“instinctive reactivity” and “instinctive movements.” For him “instinctive reactions are
indicative of a dynamization that is appropriate to nature itself, while instinct with its
inherent drive tells of nature’s dynamic orientation in a definite direction.” 119 Through
that kind of distinction, Wojtyla would say that “this is what we mean when speaking of
the instinct of, or urge for, self-preservation and of the sexual or reproductive instinct or
drive.”120
Instinct or drive being elucidated to the human person has two aspects. On one hand,
the instinct or drive that has something to do with the person’s bodily nature stimulates a
certain reaction upon dealing with his existence in this world and an example of this is
self-preservation. On the other hand, the instinct or drive that corresponds to sexual
context happens in a certain relationship between a human person and a person of another
sex. For Wojtyla, that example is “the sexual drive in its integral dynamism and
purposefulness becomes the source of the propagation of life; hence it is simultaneously
the instinct of reproduction…”121
a.1. The Difference in Human Person’s Sexual Drive to Animal Sexual Instinct
119
120
Ibid., 215-216.
121
Ibid., 218.
61
To narrow down, Wojtyla gave a difference between the human person’s sexual drive
and the animal instinct. For Wojtyla, “in man, the drive-by nature is subordinated to the
will, and thereby it is subject to the specific dynamic of freedom that is the disposal of the
will.”122 Through that statement of Wojtyla, the sexual drive of the human person is not
just ordinary energy when they get aroused, but instead, it was being powered by the will
because the human person is a rational being in nature.
Therefore, Wojtyla insisted that “the sexual drive is found in man as completely
different situation than in animals, where it constitutes a source of instinctive actions that
are subject to nature itself.”123 It means that the human person may have a special duty in
his sexual drive, because the human person as a rational being in nature, his “drive-by
nature is subordinated to the will, and thereby it is subject to the specific dynamic of
freedom that is the disposal of the will.” 124 It means that the human person should not just
rely thoroughly on what is pleasurable only, but instead, through the means of the will,
the human may look beyond it, assessing whether it is necessary and important what are
the objects and who is the person of another sex. In that sense, the human person may
inculcate that “the sexual drive in the human person is always by nature turned toward
another human person – such it is a normal function.”125 Therefore, because of the power
of the human person’s will that correspond to its freedom, the human person must
understand also that “the sexual drive must be assessed in man in the level of love, and
122
123
Ibid.
124
Ibid.
125
Ibid., 32.
62
actualization of the drive belongs to the cycle of responsibility, precisely the
responsibility for love.”126
a.2. The Distinctiveness of the Sexual Drive of the Human Person
Furthermore, aside from the fact that is the sexual drive is being powered by the will
of the human person, according to Wojtyla “the sexual drive in the human person is
always (also) by nature turned toward another human person – such is its normal
formation.”127 In other words, the view of the human person’s sexual drive is when a
sexual urge of a man is directed toward the sexual urge of the woman, which for Wojtyla
is the natural and applicable context of the sexual being of a human person. Thus, for
Wojtyla “when it turns towards these properties in the person of the same sex, then we
speak of a homosexual perversion.”128
B. The Human Person’s Sexual Drive:
For Wojtyla, “every man is a sexual being, and, belonging to one of the two sexes,
entails a certain orientation of the whole being itself, an orientation that is manifested in
a concrete development of this being from within.”129 In other words, the orientation
“evoked by belonging to one of the sexes is not only manifested inside, but at the same
time proceeds to the outside, and it ordinarily (again, we are not speaking about disorder
126
127
Ibid., 32.
128
Ibid., 32-33.
129
Ibid., 31.
63
or perversions) reveals itself through a certain natural tendency, a direction toward the
other sex.”130 It means that every human person is a sexual being involved in the reality of
having such a particular sexual category or orientation, therefore it is normal that the
human person may have such experiences or drive towards the person of another sex.
That “is a certain natural direction of tending, innate in every man, according to which
man’s whole being developed from within and perfects itself.”131
On the other hand, it does not mean that man as a sexual being and capacity to
experience such drive that leads him to urge is just a normal context or stably for the
human person to be experienced. Instead, this particular sexual drive of the human person
is still “a certain property of the human being, a property that is reflected in action…”132
b.1. Sexual Drive as Property of a Human Person
For Wojtyla, “every man is by nature a sexual being, that is from birth belonging to
one of the two sexes.”133 It means that before the human person was being born in this
world, he or she was already categorized in what sexual category the human person is
included. Furthermore, according to Wojtyla “before the period of puberty, the sexual
drive exists in a child in the shape of an unspecified and even unconscious interest, which
130
131
Ibid.
132
Ibid.
133
Ibid., 31.
64
only gradually reaches consciousness.”134 In that sense, the researcher noticed from
Wojtyla’s insight that
even though a newborn child, a toddler is being belonged also to the sexual category
without such deep interpretation about the sexual drive. But according to Wojtyla, “the
period of puberty brings a rapid growth of the drive, some eruption of it is so to speak.” 135
Therefore, the teens are the ones who experience this kind of evolution to their sexual
drive and their respective sexual category or property because of the boost and the
beginning of wonderment in life. Furthermore, Wojtyla added also that “the drive is
stabilized in the period of physical and physical maturity, then it undergoes a phase pre-
senile (climacteric) stimulation.”136 In which, the adults are the ones who experience this
kind of evolution to their sexual drive and their respective sexual category or property
because of the certain maturity that they obtained. Lastly, Wojtyla elucidated that the
sexual drive of the human person “sooner or later slowly vanishes in old age.” 137 It means
here that, the awakening, growth or consciousness part of the elders regarding their
sexual drive somehow may lessen or disappear, due to some complications of their body.
“Various factors among physiological conditions can increase or diminish sexual
excitability; for instance, fatigue contributes to its decrease, whereas excessive fatigue, as
well as insomnia…”138 But, the elders are still sexual being, because even when they
134
135
Ibid.
136
Ibid.
137
Ibid.
138
Ibid., 255.
65
reach the old age, they are still a human person who exists and “from birth belongs to one
of the two sexes.”139
In other words, in the very sense, before the human person was born in this world, he
or she is already included in the sexual category of the human person, whether a male or
a female. Moreover, that particular involvement to the sexual category as a property of
the human person, the researcher noticed that as time passes by, his or her sexual drive
was being developed depends on the stages of life. Furthermore, it might become “a
common universal human property, at every step, its contribution to the interactions and
co-existence between persons of different sex men and women, must be taken into
account. This coexistence belongs in the framework of social life.”140
b.2. Sexual Drive and Human Existence
If the sexual drive is a universal property of the human person, therefore it has
something to do with the existence of the human person. For Wojtyla, “the sexual drive
possesses an existential meaning, for it is closely linked to the existence of the man, to
the existence of the species Homo sapiens, whereas it is not linked merely to man’s
physiology or even psycho-physiology, which are the objects of the natural sciences.” 141
In other words, the aspect about the sexual drive of the human person has a deeper
meaning or sense which is not just on the natural biological classification of the human
139
140
Ibid., 34.
141
Ibid., 35.
66
person, but it goes deeper on the innermost classification of human existence in which
Wojtyla stated that:
If the sexual drive has merely a ‘biological’ meaning, then it can be considered an
area of use, and it can be agreed that it constitutes for man an object of use no
different from the various living or inanimate objects of nature (przyroda). But
since the sexual drive possesses an existential character, since it is linked to the
very existence of the human person, which is the person’s first and most
fundamental good, then it must be subject to the principles that apply in relation to
the human person.142
It means that human existence is not just about the externalities of the human
person just like the sexual drive in which the other person can perceive it naturally,
but instead, it must have a deeper understanding by attributing the existence of a
human person in a right aspect.
C. Understanding the Human Person’s Sexual Drive in Libidinistic Interpretation:
In Karol Wojtyla’s book entitled Love and Responsibility he included three
interpretations regarding sexual drive which are the religious interpretation, rigoristic
interpretation, and libidinistic interpretation. To be specific by following the scope of this
present study, the researcher will be presenting a discussion-based on Wojtyla’s thought.
In its etymological aspect, the word libidinistic “refers to the Latin word libido (delight
resulting from use).”143 Furthermore, in a general understanding, Wojtyla viewed also the
basic understanding from Sigmund Freud that “the sexual drive in his view is
fundamentally the drive toward the delight.”144 Through that consideration of general
142
143
Ibid., 46.
144
Ibid.
67
understanding from Sigmund Freud, it means that the sexual drive primarily leads the
human person to the delight or the libido. Therefore, for Wojtyla, it shows a scenario that
“man plunges into it when he encounters it, and he strives for it when he does not
experience (przezywac) it, so he is interiorly determined to seek it. He seeks it continually
and, in a sense, in everything he does.”145
c.1. Cause of Sexual Drive in Libidinistic Interpretation
If the sexual drive of the human person is automatically tending to have a delight,
therefore the researcher noticed that it became a usual act146 which the human person
might become too familiar with. Therefore, for Wojtyla “in this understanding, the person
remains only a subject that is ‘exteriorly’ sensitized to sensory-sexual stimuli, which
evoke the lived-experience of delight.”147
It means that, if the person will just feel some desire or drive in external aspect,
therefore the human person may easily tend his sexual desires for him to be delighted or
to enjoy that particular desire. Now if the human person is not still satisfied, it might be
possible that the human person may continue it as long as he strives for that particular
delight.
145
146
The researcher interprets the usual acts here as the ordinary acts. In other words, it is the state that
when the human became too much familiar in his or her actions being interpreted simplistically.
147
68
c.2. Effects of Libido on Human Desires
The sexual drive of the human person is automatically tending to have a delight, that
leads to the usual activities.148 For Wojtyla, it may affect that “this ‘libidinistic’
interpretation of the sexual drive correlates very closely with the utilitarian attitude...” 149
which in Wojtyla’s critique in utilitarianism he said that “the utilitarian considers the
principle of maximizing pleasure while at the same time minimizing pain...”150 It means
that the effects of libido to human desires is it may easily inculcate to the human person
to insist on what is most favorable for him in his sexual drive to be delighted. But, for
Wojtyla, there is another effect to the human desires that it should be considered and that
is “treating the person exclusively as a means to an end, as an object of use, becomes
linked with this meaning in an even more drastic degree.”151
c.3. The Aspect to Limit the Libidinistic Interpretation of Human Person’s Sexual Drive
“The sexual drive seemingly turns out to be a force that is more powerful than human
forethought in the economic sphere.”152 Here, the researcher noticed the example for that
is the post-millennial era or the generation Z because one of the most evident
manifestations of today’s generation is pre-marital sex which “is commonly defined as

148
The researcher interprets the usual activities here as the ordinary activities. In other words, it is the
state that when the human became too much familiar in his or her activities being interpreted simplistically.
149
150
Ibid., 20.
151
Ibid., 47-48.
152
Ibid., 48.
69
sex before marriage, it is referred to as sexual-genital intercourse before marriage and
done during a teen period or early adulthood.”153 On the other hand, in the Catholic
Church’s teaching, pre-marital sex is called fornication, which according to the teaching
of the Catholic Church:
Fornication is a carnal union between an unmarried man and an unmarried

woman. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of persons and of human sexuality
which is naturally ordered to the good of spouses and the generation and
education of children. Moreover, it is a grave scandal when there is a corruption
of the young.154
Moreover, that example was testified because statistical data made by the Commission
on Population testifies that the involvement of the teenage to the pre-marital sex are
getting higher as the year pass by that “some 196,000 Filipinos between the ages of 15
and 19 get pregnant each year.”155 In that example, the generation Z or the post-millennial
era became possible because of the immediate acquisition of human desires, activities, or
urges that may lead to the aspect of sexual pleasures and satisfaction. In that sense,
everything pleasurable to the human person becomes agreeable whether it is a person or a
thing. Therefore, without putting any considerations, the generation Z or the post-
millennial era can easily get confused in determining which is right and applicable. The
result is that people are being treated now as objects and being used for personal
satisfaction.
153
Dalmacito A. Cordero, Jr., “A Community-Based Sexual Ethics for Teens: Addressing Premarital
Sex Using a Sociotheological Approach,” Asia-Pacific Social Science Review 17, no. 1 (2017): 38.
154
155
Katrina Domingo, “Nearly 200,000 Filipino teens get pregnant annually: POPCOM,” ABS-CBN News
(July 11, 2019), under “Spotlight,” https://news.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/7/11/19/nearly-200000-filipino-
teens-get-pregnant-annually-popcom (accessed May 31, 2020).
70
Furthermore, the researcher noticed that example from the generation Z or the post-
millennial era is connected to Karol Wojtyla’s libidinistic interpretation of sexual drive
that implies “…treating the person exclusively as a means to an end, as an object of use,
becomes linked with this meaning in an even more drastic degree.”156 In which the human
person’s sexual relationship to another person is affected also, because of the false
attribution of the desire of man especially to its sexual drive. Moreover, that fact from the
generation Z or the post-millennial era is quite the same as the problem from
Malthusianism. Therefore, Wojtyla viewed an example from the Malthusianism led by
Thomas Malthus that:
Malthusianism has been associated with the purely ‘libidinistic’ interpretation of

the sexual drive. Since the earth is threatened with overpopulation, and
economists complain about the ‘overproduction’ of people so that the production
of the means of living cannot keep up.157
Moreover, Malthusianism led by Thomas Malthus dwells in an economical aspect,
and “it belongs to the field of demography, which deals with the problem of the actual
and potential number of people on the globe and its particular parts.” 158 In other
words, Malthusianism is a group concerned with the economical aspect especially on
the number and account of the population of the people here in this world. Hence, one
of the economical aspects that Malthusianism encountered was “the sexual drive
seemingly turns out to be a force that is more powerful than human forethought in the
economic sphere.”159
156
157
Ibid., 48.
158
Ibid.
159
Ibid.
71
Through that representation, there is a possibility of “utilitarian mentality remains
in this case faithful to its presuppositions: after all, the point is to obtain the great
possible pleasure, which the sexual sphere provides in such a prominent degree in the
form of libido.”160 Therefore, in this present study, the researcher used the term limit
as possible means to put a perimeter to and to avoid the wrong tendency of the
libidinistic interpretation of the sexual drive by attributing the claim of Karol Wojtyla
that “man possesses reason, that he is a rational being.” 161 Through that way, man can
critically think about the objective world to distinguish the object as something, and a
person as somebody that “must never be treated as a means to an end.”162
D. Libidinistic Interpretation Vis-à-vis Other Interpretations:
In this discussion, the researcher would like to discuss the libidinistic interpretation
and its differences from the other interpretations that Wojtyla included in his book Love
and Responsibility and those two are the religious interpretation and the rigoristic
interpretation.
160
161
Ibid., 4.
162
Ibid., 10.
72
d.1. The Difference of Libidinistic Interpretation to Religious Interpretation
Wojtyla pertains this interpretation primarily to the valid teaching of the Catholic
Church about the sexual drive of the human person that truthfully corresponds to the
ethical aim of the Catholic Church. Wojtyla elucidates that:
for the world consists of creatures, that is, of such beings that do not have their
existence from themselves, for they do not have in themselves the ultimate reason
and of this existence. This source, and with it the ultimate reason for the existence
of all creatures, is invariably found in God.163
In other words, at the very first sense when the human person was created by God, He,
therefore, put the capacity to have the freedom and will to reason out and to think
critically between what is good and bad. Therefore, our decision to use our sexual drive is
not just a joke to be dealt with, but it is already in our capacity whether to do it in a good
or bad way because the human person has rational nature. Furthermore, it can easily be
attributed that:
Procreation is the proper end of the sexual drive, which – as has been said –
provides at the same time material for the love of persons, of a man and woman.
This love owes to the drive fertility in the biological sense, but it also should
possess the fertility proper to itself in the spiritual, moral, and personal spheres.164
It means that in the Religious interpretation that “the human being is – as the church
teaches – a work of God himself: God creates the spiritual and immortal soul of this
being whose organism begins to exist as a consequence of bodily intercourse between a
man and woman.”165 In other words, the human person is not just a simple human being
that exists here in this world, but instead, he is a human being created by God having the
163
164
Ibid., 39.
165
Ibid.
73
freedom and will to reason out and to think critically between what is good and bad.
Therefore, the decision of the human person in his sexual drive must be clear enough, so
that it may not contradict his existence as a rational nature. In that sense, the human
person must understand that “bodily intercourse should proceed from the love of the
persons, and also there find its full justification.” 166 Therefore, the difference between
Libidinistic interpretation to the religious interpretation is that in the libidinistic
interpretation the human person may easily tend to his sexual desires for him to be
delighted or to enjoy that particular desire. The human person may continue it as long as
he strives for that particular delight, and therefore, the aspect of procreation has no love
at all and it is only for secondary purposes. On the contrary, in the religious
interpretation, the aspect of procreation is the primary concern of the human person
because of the love involved in it, and the sexual drive of the human person here
truthfully corresponds to the ethical aim of the Catholic Church.
d.2. The Difference of Libidinistic Interpretation to Rigoristic Interpretation
In this interpretation, “the Creator uses a man and a woman and their sexual
intercourse to ensure the existence of the species Homo sapiens, he uses persons as a
means to his ends.”167 It views that the human person was being controlled by the Creator
by imposing something to the human person’s freedom and will to put to its mind the act
to sustain or endure more species in this world. Yes, there is a sense of procreation, but
166
167
Ibid., 43.
74
the intention of the sexual drive for procreation is not leading to authentic love. But, for
Wojtyla in the real sense, it cannot be because:
the Creator does not use persons merely as means or tools of his creative power
but opens before them the possibility of a particular realization of love. It depends
on them whether they will place their sexual intercourse on the level of love, on
the level proper to persons, or below this level.168
Therefore, the difference between the Libidinistic interpretation to the rigoristic
interpretation is that in the libidinistic interpretation the human person may easily tend to
his sexual desires for him to be delighted or to enjoy that particular desire. In which the
human person may continue it as long as he strives for that particular delight, therefore
the aspect of procreation has no love at all and it is only for secondary purposes. While in
the rigoristic interpretation that there is the aspect of the procreation, but the primary
concern of the human person is for the self-preservation in which the love being included
here is intended only for secondary purposes.
Synthesis
Chapter three discussed Karol Wojtyla’s notion of libidinistic interpretation of the
human person’s sexual drive. For Wojtyla, the human person commonly may experience
instinct or drive that we push ourselves to something desirable. First, the instinct or drive
that has something to do with the person’s bodily nature that stimulates a certain reaction
upon dealing with his existence in this world, and an example of that is self-preservation.
The second is the instinct or drive that corresponds in a sexual context that views a
certain discourse of relationship of a human person towards the other person. In other
words, there will be a difference between a human person’s sexual drive and animal
168
75
sexual instinct, in which the sexual drive of the human person was empowered by the will
because the human person is a rational being in nature. While on the animal it is in
accordance to their senses or instinct following their sentient soul.
However, this sexual drive of the human person may have the possibility to be
misinterpreted, which may lead to a wrong disposition that the sexual drive of the human
person. Now if the human person is not still satisfied, it might be possible that the human
person may continue it as long as he strives for that particular delight that leads the
human person to the libidinistic interpretation of sexual drive. It is different from the
religious interpretation which pertains primarily to the valid teaching of the Catholic
Church that the primary aim of the sexual drive is for procreation with the full consent of
human’s freedom and will that God gave when he created the human person in this
world. Also, it is different from the rigoristic interpretation which views that the human
person was being controlled by the Creator by imposing something on the human
person’s freedom and will to inculcate to its mind the act to sustain or endure more
species in this world. Therefore, the intention of sexual drive to procreate is not leading
to authentic love.
76
Chapter Four
Limiting the Libidinistic Interpretation of the Sexual Drive through Karol Wojtyla’s
Concept of Felicity
In the previous chapters, particularly in chapter two, the researcher presented Karol
Wojtyla’s philosophical anthropology and his notion of felicity. In chapter three the
researcher presented Karol Wojtyla’s sexual ethics and his discussion about Libidinistic
Interpretation of Sexual Drive in connection with his sexual ethics. Now, the researcher
would like to present in this chapter how can Karol Wojtyla’s notion of felicity become a
means to limit the libidinistic interpretation of sexual drive. To emphasize that aim, this
chapter will discuss the union aspect of Karol Wojtyla’s philosophical anthropology and
sexual ethics. First, in Karol Wojtyla’s philosophical anthropology, the researcher will re-
evaluate the nature of the human person as a rational being by acts such proper self-
determination and self-fulfillment through the human person’s freedom and will in
actions. Second, in Karol Wojtyla’s sexual ethics, it will consider also the connectivity of
such human actions to human desires, especially in human sexual drive. And lastly, the
union aspect would be the process of how Wojtyla’s notion of felicity can be a means to
limit the libidinistic interpretation of sexual drive.

77
A. The Response of a Human Person:
Wojtyla defines the person as somebody that “both the actor and the subject, and he
has the experience of himself both the actor and the subject, though the experience had of
his efficacy is overshadowed by the experience of his subjectiveness.” 169 In that sense,
man can know, can reason out and can critically think about the objective world to
distinguish the object as something, and person as somebody that “must never be treated
as a means to an end.”170 Therefore, to actualize that aim, the human person as a rational
being in nature is obliged to have a proper response to his or her particular actions and
even also in his or her particular bodily desires, that the human person may truly
apprehend the necessary and important and to avoid falsity in his life.
a.1. Proper Interpretation of Human Action
One of the aspects that the human person must give a proper response to is his or her
proper interpretation of human action. For Wojtyla, “action reveals the person, and we
look at the person through his action.” 171 It means that the action is like a performance of
the human person, which is not just about simple action, but it is the action that “…gives
us the best insight into the inherent essence of the person and allows us to understand the
person most fully. Therefore, we experience man as a person, and we are convinced of it
because he performs actions.”172 Therefore, human action for Karol Wojtyla is a kind of
169
170
171
Karol Wojtyla, introduction to the The Acting Person. trans. Andrzej Potocki (Holland: D. Reidel
Publishing Company, 1979), 11.
172
Wojtyla, introduction to the The Acting Person, 11.
78
dynamism and penetration to know the other human beings as a human person in a whole
sense. Moreover, it is already mentioned that for Wojtyla there are two kinds of operation
of the action in man and those are: “‘man-acts’ and ‘something-happens-in-man.’” 173 The
point is, even though we have two kinds of operation of man’s action, whether it is
directly because of human consciousness or it is indirectly because the human
consciousness is absent, it still needs to be actualized by an active agent. That agent is the
human person. As Wojtyla himself said “action presupposes a person.”174
Now if that is the case, the human person must put more response and proper
interpretation to the first distinction of man’s operation of human action which is “man-
acts.” This includes the human consciousness and will while performing and operating
such actions. In that way, man could apply his or her moment of efficacy, which for
Wojtyla means “to be understood as the having experience of being the actor.” 175
Therefore, the action that the human person must be made aware of. Giving such proper
response and interpretation is the first distinction of the man’s operation of the action,
which is the “man-acts”.
Man-acts mean that through the moment of efficacy, man can experience himself
as the one who is the origin and agent of his actions. A man knows that he is the
one who brings the action into existence. In ‘something-happens-in-man,’ there is
no moment of efficacy, which means that the moment of efficacy is present in
acting, and it is absent in happening.176
173
Ibid., 61.
174
Ibid., 11.
175
Ibid., 66.
176
Samuel Nicoloi Reyes, “The Role of Conscience as a Possible Prevention to the Emotionalization of
Consciousness in Karol Wojtyla’s Philosophy of the Human Person” (bachelor’s thesis, Immaculate
Conception Major Seminary, 2020), 30.
79
This means, efficacy helps the human person to understand the personal self, which is
important because in that way the human person would be able to become effective and
responsible for what action he or she may choose. “By experiencing himself as the
efficient cause of the action, ‘man discovers that he is completely immanent in the action
and simultaneously transcends it.”177
a.2. Right Disposition to Sexual Drive
Another aspect that the human person must give a proper response to is his or her right
disposition to the Sexual Drive, because for Wojtyla, “in man, the drive-by nature is
subordinated to the will, and thereby it is subject to the specific dynamic of freedom that
is the disposal of the will.”178 It means that the drive of a particular person is not just
something that is experienced in a natural way as when it is being felt by the human
person. Instead, this drive of the human person includes a special disposition. Wojtyla
elucidated that the sexual drive of the human person is not just ordinary energy when he
gets aroused, it is the drive that corresponds to the will because the human person is a
rational being in nature. This means that “the sexual drive is found in man as a
completely different situation than in animals, where it constitutes a source of instinctive
actions that are subject to nature itself.”179 Nevertheless, there must still be a warning for
the human person that even if the human person is a sexual being and has the capacity to
experience such drive that leads him to urge in a normal context or in a stable way, it
177
178
179
80
must be clear that the sexual drive of the human person is still towards for precreation
and “a certain property of the human being, a property that is reflected in action…”180
A property needs such proper response of disposition, so that it may not lead to a
wrong disposition that violates what is ethical. For Wojtyla, “sexual drive is a universal
human property and a force that acts in every man...” 181 In other words, each human
person has this property of sexual drive, as a property of a rational being in nature that
can reason out and act out what is necessary and ethical.
B. Self Determination and Fulfillment in Human Desire:
In a generic understanding, desire is something like an undiscovered thing or person
that a person will continue to search for and when he finds it, could satisfy what that
person is longing for. It is so because desire “proceeds from the fact that the human
person is a limited being, and not self-sufficient, and therefore – speaking most
objectively – he needs other beings.”182 For example, each human person has a particular
desire for food that is something new for him. It can be food that he wants to taste or food
that adds something to themselves. Another example would be a desire for a particular
person, such as a desire of an orphan to find his or her real parents or to be adopted by
certain parents longing for a child. Similarly is the desire of a single man or woman to
have a life partner. Every human person as a rational being in nature has a particular
180
Ibid.
181
Ibid., 34.
182
Ibid., 64.
81
desire in life, which he will search or strive for because there is a constant longingness
within him.
There is nothing wrong to have such desires, but sometimes because of too much
affiliation to desires, dilemmas might happen. To determine properly those desires of the
human person, he or she must need proper self-determination. Wojtyla explained that the
human person is “both the actor and the subject, and he has the experience of himself
both the actor and the subject.”183 It means, the human person is the primary origin of
such actions, in which the human person as the “I” or the self that possesses and governs
because “the self is the agent of his actions, he determines the act and in the process
determines himself.”184 In that sense, the human person as the “I” is the primary agent of
his actions, therefore he needs a proper understanding of his desires.
b.1. Desire for Object
Here in this world, it is common for the human person to encounter such objects that a
human person uses in his ordinary life. It could be an object that serves as personal use
for the human person, an object that serves as a communal use, that or one could satisfy
the intent of the human person. For Wojtyla “the world in which we live consists of many
objects. The word ‘object’ in this case signifies more or less the same as ‘a being’
(byt).”185 It means, in every side and corner of this world a human person can encounter
both human beings and objects. For example, just like now in the post-millennial era,
183
184
Aguas, Person, Action and Love, 83
185
82
where the youth already live in the objective world,186 almost every youth as the human
person experiences fast-paced moments. Popular technologies where the youth become
addicted to are very evident in this generation. This is the face of the objective world
nowadays, full of leisure and desires where the human person can easily get attracted to
and use objects to satisfy his cravings.
However, for Wojtyla “it must be recognized from the beginning that every subject is
at the same time an objective being, that it is an objective something or somebody.”187 In
this sense, Wojtyla emphasizes that the person as the “I” and a subject is called somebody
whose distinction is separated into the objective world. The reason why the subject of
man as somebody is being separated is that in the very first sense the term person, having
a rational soul, is referred to as a rational being who can reason out and act out. That is
why the subject of man is different from the object of thing as something which is
signified whether it is a plant in accordance to its vegetative soul or an animal in
accordance to its sentient soul.
In that sense, self-determination must be observed so that the human person may have
a clear distinction of the objective world between the object as something and subject as
somebody and not be confused about it, but instead may have fulfillment on it.
b.2. Desire for Person
186
The researcher interprets the objective world here as the present world where every being is always
present at hand. In other words, it is the state that the being of a person and the being of an object are being
interpreted simplistically.
187
83
Human person may also have a desire to the other person. In this case Wojtyla
explained that “sex is also a certain limitation, a certain one-sidedness. Thus, a man needs
a woman as if to complement (uzupetnic) his being, and in a similar way she needs man.
This objective, ontic need is manifested through the sexual drive.” 188 To emphasize more
the discussion about the desire for the human person to find fulfillment the researcher
used Karol Wojtyla’s discussion about the first meaning and the second meaning of the
verb “to use” in his book Love and Responsibility.
Wojtyla discussed the first meaning of the verb “to use” as a “means to employ some
object of action as a means to an end, namely to the end for which the acting subject
strives.”189 Wojtyla would like to show that the first meaning of the verb to use classified
the subject as the “subject that is thinking and capable of self-determination,” 190 in which
the action of use is directed to the means of the will of the subject to attain his particular
end. To understand this first meaning of the verb to use, the examples being used to this
scenario are: “the organization of work in a factory, the relation of a commanding officer
to a soldier in an army, or even the relation of parents to a child in a family.” 191 In other
words, this first meaning of the verb to use is based on the mature freedom and will of the
human person, in which the action of use is towards the other person and even the effect
of it.
188
189
Ibid., 7.
190
Ibid., 10.
191
Ibid., 8.
84
The second meaning of the verb “to use”, is the use which is more on “various
emotional-affective moments…”192 Wojtyla would like to show this second meaning of
the verb to use “is connected to pleasure or to the emotional-affective states of the person
which are an integral part of man’s inner life.”193 To understand this first meaning of the
verb to use, the example used in this scenario is the scenario of “using my laptop
definitely gives me pleasure and in the same sense when my laptop bogs down, it causes
me pain. But the pleasure of using a person especially the opposite sex is more intense
than that of a physical object and the pain being used by the another person is definitely
more severe.”194 In other words, this second meaning of the verb to use is based on the
emotional perspective of the human person, in which in the action of use is towards to the
other person, but the effect relies to the person who do the action of use.
C. The Effects of Felicity in Sexual Drive:
192
193
194
Ibid.
85
Going back then to the universal understanding of the term felicity is “happiness… or
appropriate expression or style.”195 But, the researcher noticed that this happiness as a
synonym to the term felicity is not just ordinary happiness, because, for Wojtyla, he gave
a greater emphasis on it. For him, felicity is “…the fulfillment of freedom through the
truth. To fulfill freedom in truthfulness – that is to say, according to the relation to the
truth – is equivalent to the fulfillment of the person. It is the fulfillment that plays the role
of creating the state of felicity of the person.” 196 In other words, the researcher noticed
that felicity or happiness for Wojtyla is not just only a feeling that a human person
acquires in the ordinary circumstances of his life. Instead, this felicity includes a special
role to the human person, because this felicity is a concrete end of the human person after
pursuing such right processes and stages to understand the self, so that actions may be
actualized morally and truthfully.
If that is the case about felicity, therefore it may have significant effects especially in
the sexual drive of the human person. A concise example is to become truly happy, must
be inclined the person to the proper freedom and even proper self-fulfillment, because
“the fulfillment of the person in the action depends on the active and inwardly creative
union of truth with freedom.”197 It may lead the human person to do what is necessary and
important by inculcating the innermost truth that leads man to attain authentic freedom
and transparency, not diffused to such devastating hindrances. With that, the human
person may becomes effective in his or her responsibility to become truthful and
195
Collins English Dictionary and Thesaurus, 4th ed., s.v. “Felicity.”
196
197
Ibid.
86
transparent at all times. “A man who is untrue to others or tells lies to others is not only
responsible for misleading others, he is also neglecting his obligation to truthfulness.
Hence the person-agent is responsible for the truthfulness of his action.”198
c.1. Proper Apprehension of Sexual Drive
Human person must have a proper apprehension of the sexual drive, because for
Wojtyla “every man is by nature a sexual being, that is from birth belonging to one of the
two sexes.”199 It may be considered that every human person born in this world is already
categorized in what sexual category he or she is included in. In that sense, every human
person is a sexual being involved in the reality of having such particular sexual category
or orientation. Therefore it is normal that the human person may have such experiences
or drive towards the person of another sex.
Furthermore, the effects of felicity leads the human person to properly apprehend that
“the sexual drive in the human person is always by nature turned toward another human
person – such is its normal formation.” 200 In addition, the human person will also have a
clear disposition that sexual drive towards the same sex that is wrong because for
Wojtyla, “the natural direction of the sexual drive indicates a human being of the other
sex and not the ‘other sex’ alone.”201
198
199
200
Ibid., 32.
201
Wojtyla, Love and Responsibility, 33
.
87
c.2. Proper Contentment in Sexual Desire
Human person must also have a proper contentment in sexual desire, even if this
desire “proceeds from the fact that the human person is a limited being, and not self-
sufficient, and therefore – speaking most objectively – he needs other beings.” 202 Still the
human person must have that proper contentment in sexual desire. It would become
possible if the human person can have a clear distinction of the objective world between
the object as something and subject as somebody and not be confused about it, through
the help of proper self-determination.
Wojtyla “explains that self-determination is the ability of the person to move from the
‘I can’ and ‘I need not’ to ‘I want,’ or I will.’”203 It means that the human person is the
primary origin of his such actions, in which the human person as the “I” or the self that
possesses and governs because “the self is the agent of his actions, he determines the act
and in the process determines himself.”204 In that sense, the human person as the “I” the
primary agent of his actions. And because of the effects of felicity, the human person is
led to a proper contentment to his sexaul desire by becoming a loving subject, in which
“the loving subject is conscious of its presence and knows that it is in a sense in his
disposal, but if he works on his love for the other person, he does not allow desire to
alone prevail, he prevents it from overpowering all that is above it and belongs to his
love.”205
202
Ibid., 64.
203
204
Ibid., 83.
205
88
D. Limiting the Libidinistic Interpretation of the Sexual Drive through Felicity

Vis-à-vis some Traditional Ways:
In this present study, the researcher used felicity as a means to limit the libidnistic
interpretation of the sexual drive by putting a perimeter to avoid the wrong tendency of
the libidinistic interpretation of the sexual drive by attributing the claim of Karol Wojtyla
that “man possesses reason, that he is a rational being.” 206 Through felicity, the human
person may be led to move away from the practice of going with the flow, to have a
proper distinction between persons and things and to critically think about the objective
world enabling them distinguish the object as something and a person as somebody. In
other words, the human person may limit the libidinistic interpretation of the sexual drive
alongside some traditional ways like chastity and celibacy that can lead to felicity.
d.1. Chastity
In a generic understanding, chastity is derived from the word chaste which mean
“abstaining from sex outside marriage…”207 Upon looking on the deeper meaning of it,
chastity means “the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the
inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being.”208 In other words, chastity may lead
the human person to his integrity or truthfulness within the bound of his sexual actions,
just like in the context of before committing marriage or matrimony, so that the human
206
207
Collins English Dictionary and Thesaurus, 4th ed., s.v. “Chaste.”
208
89
person may still value of sanctity of marriage towards procreation. It is because “chastity
includes an apprenticeship in self-mastery which is a training in human freedom. The
alternative is clear: either man governs his passions and find peace, or he lets himself be
dominated by them and becomes unhappy.”209 For Wojtyla, chastity must be presented
“in a manner that shows appreciation and love for it is a ‘virtue that develops a person’s
authentic maturity and makes him or her capable of respecting and fostering the ‘nuptial
meaning’ of the body.”210 In short, the libidinistic interpretation of the sexual drive can be
limited through chastity by the maturity and the integrity of the human person in regards
to his actions towards truthfulness that may lead him to felicity or happiness.
d.2. Celibacy
In a generic understanding, celibacy is derived from the word celibate which means
“unmarried or abstaining from sex, especially because of a religious vow of chastity.” 211
Upon looking on the deeper meaning of it, celibacy means “a sign of this new life to the
service of which the Church’s minister is consecrated; accepted with a joyous heart
celibacy radiantly proclaims the reign of God.”212 Therefore, just like in the chastity,
celibacy may lead the human person to his integrity or truthfulness within the bound of
his sexual actions. The difference is that it is within the aspect of a religious vow of being
209
CCC 2339.
210
Apostolic Exhortation Familia Consortio (22 November 1981), 37: loc. cit., 128, quoted in Pope John
Paul II, Pastores Dabo Vobis: Encyclical Letter of Pope John Paul II (March 25, 1992), 44. Henceforth it
will be abbreviated as PDV.
211
Collins English Dictionary and Thesaurus, 4th ed., s.v. “Celibate.”
212
90
committed before God. That’s why for Wojtyla, “the candidate, who is called to celibacy,
will find in affective maturity a firm support to live chastity in faithfulness and joy.” 213 In
short, limiting the libidinistic interpretation of the sexual drive through celibacy can be
done by maturity and the integrity of the human person regarding to his actions towards
to truthfulness to his committed religious vow before God as the real source of felicity or
happiness for him.
Synthesis
In this chapter, the researcher discussed the union aspect of Karol Wojtyla’s
philosophical anthropology and sexual ethics by looking at how felicity can be a means to
limit the libidinistic interpretation of sexual drive. To limit the libidnistic interpretation of
sexual drive through Karol Wojtyla’s concept of felicity means that first the human
person must have a proper response to his actions because the subject of a person as
somebody is a rational being who can reason out or can act out. That is why the person is
different from other beings which can be signified like a plant to its vegetative soul or an
animal to its sentient soul. In that sense, the human person may truly apprehend the
necessary and important and avoid falsity in a human’s life. One of the responses is the
proper interpretation of human action in which it is a kind of dynamism and penetration
to know the other human beings as a human person in a whole sense.
Also, the human person must have a response regarding his or her right disposition to
sexual drive, the drive of a particular person, in which it is not just a something that may
be experienced in a natural way as when it is felt by the human person, but instead this
213
Propositio 21, quoted in Pope John Paul II, Pastores Dabo Vobis: Encyclical Letter of Pope John
Paul II (March 25, 1992), 44. Henceforth it will be abbreviated as PDV.
91
drive of the human person includes a special disposition. The second thing is that the
human person must have the proper self-determination in which the he as the “I”, or the
primary agent of his actions, needs a proper understanding about his desire on such
objects and even persons. In that sense, the human person would be able to have
fulfillment in his or her desires, which also includes the desire for a person which is
sometimes treated as an object to be used for a certain benefit, but in a real sense, the
person must not be a means of a particular person towards a particular end. In that sense,
the human person may truly or truthfully apprehend the effects of felicity particularly to
the sexual drive of the human person, just like to become happy internally by inclining
the person to the proper freedom and even proper self-fulfillment. Furthermore, limiting
the libidinistic interpretation of the sexual drive through felicity can be realte also to
some traditional view. Just like in the chastity that the maturity and the integrity of the
human person regarding to his actions towards to truthfulness that may lead him to
felicity or happiness. Also in celibacy that like with the chastity in which through
maturity and the integrity of the human person regarding to his actions towards to
truthfulness to his committed religious vow before God as the real source of felicity or
happiness for him.
Chapter Five
Summary, Conclusion, and Recommendation
A. Summary:
92
With the rise of the generation Z or the Post –Millenial era, many people especially the
youth are experiencing a fast-paced lifestyle in a very addictive manner, because of
leisure where people can easily get attracted and use objects to satisfy their cravings.
Therefore, because of leisure in which the human person is affected or fascinated with
those contemporary things it leads them to the practice of going with the flow, in which
the youth are not able to classify or to experience a proper distinction between persons
and things. Therefore, the youth can easily get confused in determining which is right and
applicable. The result is that the people are being treated now as objects and being used
for personal satisfaction. This leads them to consider a person as one’s object to achieve
enjoyment, which is connected to the libidinistic interpretation of sexual drive in which
the human person may easily tend to his sexual desires for him to be delighted or to enjoy
that particular desire. Hence, it is still an alarming situation that the misuse of sexual
pleasure and desire causes the maltreatment of a person. Therefore the researcher
presents that felicity can be a means to limit the libidinistic interpretation of sexual drive
according to the philosophy of Karol Wojtyla.
In chapter two the researcher discussed Karol Wojtyla’s notion of felicity by rooting it
to his philosophical anthropology upon viewing what is the human person for Wojtyla.
This chapter also highlighted the influence of the Aristotelian-Thomistic notion of the
human person to Wojtyla. Through that influence the human person for Wojtyla has a
special role to reason out and act out, a special role that categorized the human person as
different from the other beings like plant and animals and that is the role of being a
rational being in nature. Therefore, for Wojtyla, the person as a rational being and a being
distinct from the other beings, could not be put to another being that could exist.
93
Furthermore, if a man is a rational being and possesses reason, man has the intellectual
capacity, to actualize his freedom and will that enables him to understand what kind of
desire that he encounters in this world, just like in apprehending human action. Action
which in the first side the human person is the doer, because of human consciousness and
will, while on the second side it is the action that naturally happened to the human person
in an indirect manner way because the human consciousness and will are absent.
Moreover, for Wojtyla human action is a kind of dynamism and penetration to know the
other human beings as a human person. It is not just a simple human person only, but a
human person in a whole sense.
Aside from the human action, the human person must have to understand also that
aspect of efficacy in which efficacy helps the human person to know the personal self as
the primary source of action, which is important because in that way the human person
would be able to become effective and responsible to what action he or she will do.
Therefore, through the help of efficacy, the human person may now have proper self-
determination, in which it helps the human person as the “I” as the cause of action, to
have a proper willingness to decide fruitfully and maturely on what actions he wanted to
be performed. Moreover, through self-determination, it enables also the human person to
have a proper self-possession, in which it is an opportunity for the human person to learn
how to assure or confirm such actions proper to man and connected to his freedom and
will. Also, through self-determination, it enables the human person to have a proper self-
governance being focused thoroughly on his innermost self, which concentrates him to
the way on how the human person will use his respective will and freedom.
94
Through those aspects, the human person may transcend to know and transcend not
just on the ordinariness of the things, but instead direct himself for the truth. The truth
that is being functioned by the conscience of the human person by judging which is
righteous or not, or what is necessary or not. In that sense, the human person may now be
able to attain self-fulfillment, in which it encapsulates such demands or duty to grasp the
fulfillment and enables the human person may associate the morality in his or her
particular actions. After those aspects, the human person may arrive now to the end of
self-fulfillment. An end of self-fulfillment in which the human person may have the
feeling of happiness is called by Wojtyla as felicity because felicity is the stronger term
to be used because it contains a very important manner that is directly connected to the
human person that corresponds to the will and freedom of the human person. While the
term happiness only bears a lesser impact that talks about only the feelings or expressions
of the human person.
Furthermore, in chapter three the researcher discussed how did Wojtyla explain the
libidinistic interpretation of sexual drive? By rooting it out in Wojtyla’s discussion of
sexual ethics. In this chapter, it highlighted that there is a difference between the Human
person’s sexual drive and animal sexual instinct. For the human person’s sexual drive,
Wojtyla stated that the sexual drive of the human person is not just ordinary energy when
they get aroused, but instead, it was being powered by the will because the human person
is a rational being in nature, while for the animal sexual instinct is just being based on
their sentient soul.
Moreover, the human person’s sexual drive includes a special duty because the human
person as a rational being in nature, in which the human person should not just rely
95
thoroughly on what is pleasurable only, but instead through the means of the will, the
human must look beyond it, assessing whether it is necessary and important what are the
objects and who is the person of another sex. Furthermore, the libidinistic interpretation
was highlighted also in this chapter, wherein Wojtyla showed a scenario that, if the
person will feel some desire or drive in external aspect, therefore the human person may
easily tend his sexual desires for him to be delighted or to enjoy that particular desire.
Now if the human person is not still satisfied, it might be possible that the human person
may continue striving it as long as he strives for that particular delight, and it affects the
human person’s sexual drive because it may easily inculcate to the human person to insist
on what is most favorable for him in his sexual drive to be delighted. Therefore, the
human person’s sexual relationship to another person is affected also, because of the false
attribution of the desire of man, especially to its sexual drive.
In that sense, the libidinistic interpretation of sexual drive became different from other
interpretations because in the libidinistic interpretation of sexual drive the human person
may continue it as long as he strives for that particular delight. Therefore the aspect of
procreation has no love at all and it is only for secondary purposes. While in the religious
interpretation of sexual drive, the aspect of the procreation is the primary concern of the
human person because of the love involved in it. The sexual drive of the human person
here truthfully corresponds to the ethical teachings of the Catholic Church. In the
rigoristic interpretation, there is the aspect of procreation. But the primary concern of the
human person is for the self-preservation in which the love being included here is
intended only for secondary purposes.

96
Now, how it will become possible for felicity to become a means to limit the
libidinistic interpretation in sexual drive in Karol Wojtyla’s philosophy? In chapter four
the researcher discussed the union aspect of Karol Wojtyla’s philosophical anthropology
and sexual ethics. First, the human person must have a proper response because the
human person has a rational soul being referred to as a rational being who can reason out
or can act out. Giving a proper response especially to the proper interpretation to human
action, in which even though we have two kinds of operation of man’s action, whether it
is directly because of human consciousness or it is indirectly because the human
consciousness is absent, it still needs to be actualized by an active agent and that is the
human person. Giving a proper response is also important especially to the right
disposition to the sexual drive because Wojtyla elucidated that the sexual drive of the
human person is not just ordinary energy when they get aroused. Instead, it is being
powered by the will because the human person is a rational being in nature.
The second aspect to make it possible for felicity to become a means to limit the
libidinistic interpretation in sexual drive in Karol Wojtyla’s philosophy is that the human
person must have a better acquisition of self-determination. Through proper self-
determination, it enables the human person as the primary agent of his actions to have a
proper understanding of his desire for such objects and even persons. Therefore, because
of the proper understanding of self-determination, it may lead the human person to a
concrete fulfillment, in which the end of that fulfillment is felicity. Felicity in which
includes such effects.
In that sense, the third aspect to make it possible for felicity to become a means to
limit the libidinistic interpretation of sexual drive in Karol Wojtyla’s philosophy is that
97
the human person must become truthful in apprehending the effects of felicity to become
happy internally and by being transparent which is doing what is necessary and important
on his actions by inculcating the innermost truth that leads man to attain authentic
freedom and transparency, not diffused to such devastating hindrances. In that way, the
human person will have a proper apprehension to sexual drive by having that the human
person may have a normal experience or drive towards to the person of another sex. The
effects of felicity, may also help the human person to have proper contentment in bodily
desire, by having a clear distinction of the objective world between the object as
something and subject as somebody and not be confused about it.
B. Conclusion:
Felicity can be a means to limit the libidinistic interpretation of the sexual drive
according to the philosophy of Karol Wojtyla, when the human person as a rational being
in nature will look and capture deeply his existence as a human person, by reconsidering
not just the external aspects, but also the internal aspects, in which it includes the actions,
will and freedom of the other human person. Action is a kind of dynamism and
penetration to know the other human beings as a human person. In this sense, the human
person must have efficacy on which helps the human person to know the personal self as
the primary source of action, which is important because in that way the human person
would be able to become effective and responsible to what action he or she will do. In
that sense, after the human person has known that he is the primary source of action, he
or she must have proper self-determination, because the human person as the “I” or the
agent of action, must have a proper willingness to decide fruitfully and maturely what
98
actions he or she wants to perform that could lead the human person to experience
freedom. Freedom, which is not just having the autonomy to the self. It is derived from
the power of the human person to rationalize, to choose and to verify what is wrong and
right, what is good or evil, what the human person wills is still in accordance to the truth.
In that way, it leads man to go beyond the hindrances and boundaries of life for him to
have proper self-fulfillment, that may lead the human person to have felicity.
Felicity is not just about the state of simple happiness or something that pleasures us.
Instead, it is a concrete product of the self-fulfillment of the human person after pursuing
the right processes and stages of self-determination, self-possession, and self-governance
to such actions to understand the other person by actualizing there actions morally and
truthfully. Therefore, felicity may put such effects just like to become happy internally
and being transparent also in doing what is necessary and important actions by
inculcating the innermost truth that leads man to attain authentic freedom and
transparency while not being affected to such devastating hindrances.
Through those effects of felicity, it may lead the human person especially the youth of
Generation Z or the post-millennial era to move away from the practice of going with the
flow, to have a proper distinction between persons and things. Moreover, through those
effects of felicity, it may lead the human person to have the right disposition and even
contentment to their bodily desires and sexual drive. It could be by limiting the act of
objectifying the human person for a personal end. In that sense, the dignity of a human
person, as a rational being is reconsidered.
Nevertheless, the researcher would like to stress that felicity will not remove the
sexual drive of the human person even the interpretations being involved on it, but limit
99
only because every human person is a sexual being involved in the reality of having such
particular sexual category or orientation. Therefore it is normal that the human person
may have such experiences or drive towards to the person of another sex. In other words,
felicity here can be a means to limit the tendency of the human person for a wrong
disposition to sexual drive, by apprehending that felicity is a concrete product of the self-
fulfillment of the human person after pursuing right processes and stages of self-
determination, self-possession, and self-governance to such actions towards morally and
truthfully.
C. Recommendation:
The researcher would like to recommend to the readers of this present study as a
future researcher also, to explore and have a great journey to develop thoroughly the
philosophy of Karol Wojtyla. Just like in his philosophical anthropology, particularly in
his notions of self-determination, efficacy, integration of the person in action, and his
concept of participation. Furthermore, the readers of this present study as a future
researcher may also explore and have a great journey to develop thoroughly the
philosophy of Karol Wojtyla. Just like in his sexual ethics, particularly in his notions of
religious interpretation of sexual drive, rigoristic interpretation of sexual drive,
rehabilitation of chastity, and metaphysics of shame.
Moreover, the researcher would like to encourage also the readers of this present study
as a future researcher, to do such further effort in reconsidering also the philosophers who
influenced Karol Wojtyla like St. Thomas Aquinas and Max Scheler by doing a
comparative study on it to establish a better understanding and argument to the

100
philosophy of Karol Wojtyla by knowing also the real origin of his idea. To that end, the
researcher would like to recommend the following topics that may improve and deepen
more about Karol Wojtyla’s Philosophy:
1. Self-determination as a Means to Limit the Problem of Shamelessness in Karol
Wojtyla’s Philosophy.
2. Alleviating the Rigoristic Interpretation of Sexual Drive in Karol Wojtyla’s Ethical
Analysis of Love.
3. The Significance of Efficacy to Rehabilitate Chastity in Karol Wojtyla’s Philosophy.
4. Understanding the Significance of Horizontal and Vertical Transcendence of the
Human Person in Attaining Self-fulfillment in Karol Wojtyla’s Philosophy of the Human
Person.

A. Background of The Study

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A. Background of The Study

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A. Background of the Study:

One of the most concrete manifestations of this in today’s generation is pre-marital

called fornication, which according to the teaching of the Catholic Church:

Fornication is a carnal union between an unmarried man and an unmarried

satisfaction…”7 This is connected to Karol Wojtyla’s libidinistic interpretation of sexual

which signified whether it is a plant in accordance to its vegetative soul or it is an animal

in accordance to its sentient soul as well.

B. Statement of the Problem:

it, the researcher would like to answer the following problems.

light of Karol Wojtyla’s philosophy?

1. What is Karol Wojtyla’s notion of felicity?

Wojtyla’s concept of felicity?

C. Significance of the Study:

contribution of Karol Wojtyla’s philosophy, particularly to understand the human

The theoretical significance of this work is to contribute to another study, as to

rediscover the true dignity of the human person.

seminarians considered as a youth of the post-millennial generation who also experience

Institutionis Sacerdotalis states, that seminarians must "focus on the constitution of a

stable personality, characterized by emotional balance, self-control and a well-integrated

relating correctly to men and women.”14

D. Review of Related Literature:

thoughts that may guide this philosophical study.

Acosta, Miguel, and Adrian J. Reimers. Karol Wojtyla’s Personalist Philosophy:

Upon concretizing the discussion of Karol Wojtyla’s Philosophical Anthropology,

presented comprehensively the discussion of Wojtyla’s philosophical anthropology.

sexuality in various contexts of their philosophy: from Cosmology to Cosmopolitanism,

understanding of our gender and sexuality so that we might avoid some

attract the other human or the affection of man and woman.

as a sign of maturity to human's gender and sexuality. By that maturity to a human's

discussion of sexual drive on the libidinistic interpretation. In which, through felicity it

the stoic viewpoint.

illustrated in different terms.

goodness in order for him to attain fulfillment towards felicity.

concept of anthropology and how it is interconnected with and influenced Karol

Wojtyla’s concept of anthropology.

Wojtyla’s philosophical anthropology, because in that particular chapter, the author

in relationship.”25 From that simple statement it evolved because of some contributions of

consistently used the term “sexual urge.”

objectifying the human person.

with the other human person.

Cordero, Jr., Dalmacito A. “A Community-Based Sexual Ethics for Teens:

the teaching of the Church.

author presented the socio-theological approach where there is “correspondence between

the sociological, philosophical, and religious an alternative to a monochromatic approach

Franks, Angela. “End-less and Self-Referential Desire: Toward an Understanding of

This article focused on understanding contemporary sexuality which tackles the

Ends, Sex: Endless or Ordered, and The Necessity of Virtue.

approach highlights the negative aspects of sex, centering in particular on dynamics of

desire the good.

misinterpreted in the post-millennial era or the generation Z in which the libidinistc

interpretation of the sexual drive became prominent.

libidinistc interpretation of the sexual drive became prominent.

discussion of causes of human action regarding Karol Wojtyla’s Efficacy.

fulfillment and felicity.

existence is complex and rich. Particularly, he proves how the internal experience is

experiences in this world as a sign of right consciousness in apprehending the difference

between a human and an object.

fulfillment and felicity.

already inscribed to us because we were born through them.

its emotions, attitudes and distinction.

parents. Thus, effeminacy and homosexual tendencies become permanent to man.