A Hierarchical Character of Common Good as Seen by Representatives of the Lublin School

Abstract

A human person, that is by its nature a social entity, calls into being various types of communities, societies, which become a new reality as subjects of actions. A person, by the fact that it is part of a whole does not lose his existential sovereignty. He still remains a person and joins the process of realising goods that are necessary for perfecting himself. However, when a given society proves to be unable to realise a defined category of goods that are necessary for a man and for this little society so that they can develop, other ones are called into being, higher and bigger, able to perform the task. They are a whole in which societies of a lower rank function as its parts. Smaller and lower societies, however, do not lose their autonomy within the range of the functions they fulfil and the aims they achieve. This process is closed when such a society appears that unites functionally differentiated societies of lower ranks. An example may be here the state society and, in a further perspective, the universal society. Hierarchy that exists in social life is expressed in the multitude and multistage character of human societies. The hierarchical character of common good in turn implies pluralism of common good.