Work in the eyes of the ethicist. The personalistic perspective

Abstract

After a preliminary definition of work as employment for profit, a more profound sense of work is investigated, one that is personalistic, i.e. broader than Christian. The following questions are asked: Can work strengthen a person and uphold them in their personalistic humanness, and if so, how? Or, how can it belittle a person, blocking their personal development? Answers are sought in the Bible and in John Paul II’s anthropology of work. The ideal personalistic model of human work is recalled, one found in the Book of Genesis, with its four truth-postulates: (i) the permission to “subdue” the earth, i.e. to continue the act of creation, must not lead to the earth’s degradation; (ii) the cultivation of Eden must involve a harmonious coexistence of technology and nature; (iii) the mission of ruling the world must contribute to the development of humans; (iv) work must strengthen human relations.

The second part of the article is devoted to selected contemporary problems and challenges connected with the ethos of work: a tendency to reduce the value of work to its mere economic effects (the error of capitalist economism, perservering now in globalization); unemployment, caused by technological development and a greater use of automata, which may lead to unacceptable exclusion of the unemployed from human communities.