Condizione umana e decisione personale nell'antropologia filosofica di Guardini

The present paper intends to highlight one particular aspect of Romano Guardini’ philosophical anthropology: the presence of strong links with the idea of the Sonderstellung (special position) of man elaborated by Max Scheler, Helmuth Plessner, Arnold Gehlen, and Martin Heidegger. In this approach, the comparison with the animal form of life plays a central role. In Guardini, coherently with the theological roots of his thought, the Sonderstellung has the character of the being-in-relationship with otherness. The discussion of the different historical forms that this basic relationality can assume allows us to highlight a further feature of Guardini’s view of man: the function of personal decision in determining oneself – and, at the same time, the universal human element in us.