To Live Is Not Enough: Integration – The Task of the Authentically Human

Abstract

In today’s world of mechanization, unbridled intellectualism, and a focus on rational knowing, there is a need to recapture the primordial sense of what it means to be human – that is, the worth of the totality of the individual and not just his or her function or role within some complex structure that does not recognize each person’s uniqueness or individuality. This article suggests that the movement toward this rediscovery of the primordial worth of the human individual would be helped by a rediscovery that the human person is called to be alive as a unified whole, a being who needs to be integrated with all aspects of his or her self, and not just those parts which are functional in the interests of a production-oriented culture.