«Blind Spot» and the Phenomenon of Self-Givenness

Article

Abstract

[In English]

One of the fundamental intuitions that plays the central role in
the theological and philosophical reflections of John Paul II consists
in the recognition of the gift character of person’s existence.
Not only the world is given and entrusted to a person but also a
person himself/herslef «who is the only creature on earth which
God willed for itself» (Gaudium et Spes, 24) is given to himself/
herself as a gift. John Paul II explicitly writes in the Centesimus
Annus: «Not only has God given the earth to man, who must use
it with respect to the original good purpose for which it was given
to him, but man too is God’s gift to man» (Centesimus Annus, 38).
Whether and how the gift dimension of one’s own existence may
be discovered by a person is an important philosophical question.
To answer it one would have to investigate the phenomenon of
person’s receptivity as well as to explore the ways in which the reality
including the reality of one’s own being presents or gives itself
to the person. In this essay I will critically examine some claims
made by Thomas Nagel in his The View From Nowhere which if
proven to be irrefutable will make it impossible for a person to
ever perceive and realize one’s own being as a gift given to him/
her. In presenting Nagel’s views I will indicate certain fundamental
weaknesses in his position as well as outline the direction in which
the subjectivity and self-givenness of man may reveal their true
essence.