Discussion Summary

Annette Kleinfeld-Wernicke’s account of the personalistic tradition in ethics and its attractiveness as a conceptual framework for linking ethics and economics was generally agreed upon. Though, one Une of personalistic thought, represented by Jacques Maritain, was seen as missing. A crucial forgetfulness because the second characteristic of a person, its being-in-relationship with others — perhaps the central characteristic for developing an attitude of treating the other as a person — could easily lead towards a sociological account of man. The personalistic tradition in the sense of Maritain reacts fearely to this sociological explanation of man because it neglects the transcendental capacity of man which is seen as the essence of man (Mahoney).