Ontology and Freedom in Jacques Maritain's Philosophy of the Person

Abstract

This paper situates Jacques Maritain’s philosophy of the person within the framework of his metaphysics of being.
Firstly, the author emphasises that Maritain based the ontology of the person on subsistence, combining the classical tradition’s legacy with the modern focus on subjectivity. Maritain’s wellknown distinction between individuality and personality plays a central role within this framework, enabling him to articulate the relationship between the material dimension and spiritual vocation. This demonstrates that the person, characterised by interiority and openness to others, cannot be reduced to social functions or mere empirical determinations. Secondly, the
focus shifts to freedom, which Maritain conceives as a dynamism ranging from free will to the ultimate freedom of autonomy and self-giving. This concept is inseparable from the fulfilment of the person. Ordered directly towards God as its ultimate end, the person transcends every created common good, establishing a theocentric vision of humanism and offering criteria with which to critique naturalistic, socio-political, and post-metaphysical reductionisms.