Fundamental option

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Fundamental option or basic decision in philosophy and theology denotes the free choice of an essential human attitude in which the person is confronted with an alternative that affects the center of their existence and which gives them a fundamental life orientation .

Concept history

Sören Kierkegaard helped the concept of the fundamental option to gain initial recognition in philosophy. One of the first to use the term "basic choice" in theology was Pierre Tiberghien (1934), professor at the Catholic Institute in Lille. The Flemish Jesuit Piet Fransen played a key role in establishing and broader implementation of the term "basic decision" in theology . In 1952 he proposed the term "option fondamentale" again and interpreted it in a transcendental philosophical and theological way.

Factual content

In the actual depth of his person , man realizes his basic decision or fundamental option by virtue of an original moral freedom in which he takes a holistic position on his life, i.e. H. to his person, to fellow and environment and to the transcendent dimension of his existence, which in philosophical interpretation refers to the epitome of the true and the good and theologically to God.

In life, it is not only a question of having a good moral attitude towards the goal of life recognized by humans, but also of many individual decisions. The concrete individual decisions are not simply given in spite of all the reliance of the conscience on moral norms , but are recognized in their claim in the unity of insight into conscience and practical life experience and implemented in free decision-making. Here the person realizes that an originally good basic decision (fundamental option) is to be kept in the concrete individual decisions. In the area of ​​human freedom there is no "moral automatism" of the one-for-all, but the moral life has to prove itself anew and concretely, in recognition of universally valid norms, but at the same time in examination of the individual reality of life.

Current state of research

The ethical and moral theological discussion about the connection between basic decision and concrete moral behavior has come to a relative conclusion in recent years. Important clarifications were made by authors such as Karl Rahner , Hans Reiners and Antonio Nello Figa. The essential result is: Being human must be taken seriously both on the inside and on the outside; it must not be split up dualistically. Basic decision is always realized in connection with concrete moral decision and act. This means that a positive or negative basic decision can also be revised by a contradicting concrete decision with corresponding existential weight.

From the point of view of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, in the encyclical " Veritatis Splendor " (No. 65-70) published on August 6, 1993 by Pope John Paul II , a breakthrough succeeded, as it were, in which the subject matter and the concept of the basic decision were made Recognizes importance for moral theology . The subjective and objective areas of morality are understood as a unit. From an integral anthropology perspective, any dissociation of basic decisions and concrete moral behavior is forbidden. Likewise, a "moral of the acts" is overcome, which only considers them in isolation from one another. They find the principle of their unity and internalization in a well-understood fundamental option of the person.

literature

  • Kramer H., The moral preliminary decision. Their function and their meaning in moral theology, Würzburg 1970
  • Kramer H., Irrevocable Decisions in the Christian Life. Your moral anthropological and moral theological prerequisites, Munich-Paderborn-Vienna 1974 (also: Würzburg, Univ., Habil.-Schr.)
  • Maritain J. , La dialectique immanente du premier acte de liberté, in: Nova et Vetera 20 (1945) 218-235; also included in: Raison et raisons, Paris 1947, 131-165
  • Kuźmicki T., Reversal and basic decision: The moral theological optio fundamentalis in recent ecumenical discussions (studies on spirituality and pastoral care), Regensburg 2015
  • Maritain J., La fin dernière et la dialectique immanente du premier acte de liberté. La notion de norm, in: ders., Neuf leçons sur les notions premières de la philosophie morale, Paris 1949, 119-142
  • Metz JB , Decision, in: H. Fries (ed.), Handbuch theologische Grundbegriffe, Vol. 1, Munich 1962, 281-288
  • Metz JB, Freedom as a philosophical-theological border problem, in: JB Metz, W. Kern u. a. (Ed.), God in the world. Festgabe for Karl Rahner, Freiburg-Basel-Vienna 1964, Vol. 1, 287-314
  • Mühlen H. , basic decision (way out of the crisis, 1), Mainz 1983
  • Nello Figa A., Teorema de la opción fundamental. Bases para su adecuada utilización en teología moral (Tesi Gregoriana, series Teologia 1), Roma 1995 (Diss. 1994)
  • Rahner K. , freedom. III. On the theology of freedom, in: SM, Vol. 2, Sp. 95-98
  • Reiners H., Basic Intention and Moral Doing (Quaestiones disputatae, Vol. 30), Freiburg-Basel-Vienna 1966 (dissertation at the Pontificia Universitas Gregoriana, Rome 1965)
  • Schmeiser N., Basic decision for God as the foundation of ecumenical spirituality, in: Yearbook for Salesian Studies 30 (1997) 59-123
  • Spindelböck J. , basic decision and concrete moral behavior. Unity and dissociation of fundamental options and concrete moral decisions in the moral theological discussion (moral theological studies, new series, vol. 4), St. Ottilien 2003