• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• v.137
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• pp.249-276
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• 2016

The thought of Emmanuel Mounier addresses the most important problems in human life. In this research we try to analyze the three ontological characteristics of 'Person'. First the person has an indefinable character and is not substitutable since he is the true self which is the inner and spiritual being constituting the self-consciousness of an individual. The person has his individuality precisely because he is an individual and his being sovereign in having his own world. Next, the person's individuality has an ontological solitude from his own perspective. Nevertheless, having essentially an existential openness since it receives the elements that compose his own world by relationship and communication between men, and being connected unremittedly, the person is paradoxical. Finally, the person appears as a dynamic thing that continues to create the new self-consciousness. And this dynamism of the person wants to proclaim its self identity while at the same time, aim for a "personification of society" based on the love of humanity. Because of this we can say that the thought of Emmanuel Mounier on the person may be a new type of "humanism" that can give light to the misery of modern society.