Person and Gift According to Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II

This paper examines the meaning of what Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II calls "The Law of the Gift," namely, "Man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, can fully find himself only through a sincere gift of himself" After explaining what it means to be "willed for itself," I consider how "finding oneself only through a gift of self" is justified. I then argue that in his theory of self-gift, Wojtyla/John Paul II espouses an "embodied" altruism. Two objections to Wojtyla/John Paul ifs account are also addressed: (1) the idea that finding fulfillment (moral goodness) through self-giving is incompatible with altruism and (2) that reciprocal self-giving is incompatible with altruism. I defend Wojtyla/John Paul II's notion of self-giving against these objections in several ways, but focus on evidence for the compatibility of subjective enrichment and altruism.