The Person as Transcendence
Wednesday, January 21, 2026
The Seton Hall University's Catholic Studies Program proudly presents, a lecture by Reverend Grzegorz Hołub, Ph.D., "The Person as Transcendence at Seton Hall University," at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, February 4, 2026, in the Chancellor Suite in the University
Center.
About the Event:
Debates on the human person are very complex and advanced in contemporary philosophy.
One of the interesting approaches to personhood is offered by Karol Wojtyła within
his Thomistic and phenomenological personalism. Wojtyła assumes an experiential starting-point
in investigating the person, and one of his particularly interesting lines of reasoning
starts from grasping the phenomenon of transcendence of the person. The article focuses
on one aspect of the transcendence of the person, namely the so-called inner and structural
transcendence. There is an attempt to solve a dilemma whether higher animals and particularly
artificial systems as AI, can be characterized by the prism of that inner and structural
transcendence. Although the final answer is negative, the article proposes an idea
of a supporting subject, which can be attributed to highly developed artificial systems.
In this way, the uniqueness of the human person is guaranteed and further research
into AI is open and encouraged.
About the Speaker:
Reverend Grzegorz Hołub, Ph.D., philosophy professor at the Department of Philosophy
of the Pontifical University of John Paul II, Krakow, Poland. His area of research
includes bioethics, philosophy of the human person, and philosophy of Karol Wojtyła.
He holds the chair of Karol Wojtyła at the Department. His latest book in English:
Understanding the Person. Essay on the Personalism of Karol Wojtyła, Peter Lang, Berlin 2021.
Categories: Faith and Service
