The Question for the Truth in Edith Stein and Karol Wojtyła: Modern Without Fear of Tradition

The following paper, starting from the centrality of the question of truth in the terms understood by J. Ratzinger (truth as the original—das Ursprüngliche—and not as the archaic– das Uralte), addresses the importance of Thomas Aquinas’s thought in the philosophy of Edith Stein (1891–1942) and Karol Wojtyła (1920–2005). Thus, the relevance of the metaphysical and anthropological aspect of truth in both of them is highlighted, especially in order to establish a realist epistemology (Stein) and ethics (Wojtyła). In Stein’s case, Aquinas’s influence is reflected particularly in two key aspects: her response to Husserl’s idealistic phenomenology and her dialogue with Max Scheler’s theory of values. Regarding Woytyła, the connections with the Dominican centre on four points: the inseparable relationship between ethical acts and ethical experience; perfectionism as a defining feature of any ethics in its proper sense; the characterisation of humans as beings, not merely as consciousness; and the relationship between truth and goodness. These four aspects will form Wojtyła’s response to Scheler’s philosophy of values and to the question of the authenticity of the individual. The article ends with a modest but clear conclusion: it is possible to be modern in philosophy without breaking with philosophical tradition.