The Relation Between the Individual and Common Good in the Context of Metaphysics of Person

By nature, every being aspires after his/her purpose, as after his/her individual good. The achievement of each individual good, reached on this path, perfects this being. Man, thus, equally aspires after his/her individual good, which perfects him/her. Yet, by his/her very same nature, man is also a social being, which means that he/she also aspires after the common good. It is frequently the case that these two goods, the individual and the common, are in conflict. In order that the common good be attained, it must be above the individual good. Are individuals threatened by society because of this? How can this ethical dilemma – which individual people face in relation to every society, and in particular in relation to democratic society - be solved? Furthermore, during the course of its development, philosophy has arrived at clear understandings that man is also a person - which makes him/her a special being in the universe - who, because of his/her dignity, must never be the means to some other end. This paper intends to investigate whether the above mentioned dilemma can be solved if man is perceived, above all, as a person in his/her relation to society. The author aims to demonstrate that the relations between the individual, the common and personal good can be complementarily brought into harmony, which is facilitated by a democratic system of society, but only if personalistic ethical norms are accepted