The heart of the person in the sense of Dietrich von Hildebrand (Das Herz, 1977) is the proper center of the person alongside intellect and will. It is the seat of the deep affective value-responses — the place where the person is inwardly touched and transformed by objective values. Hildebrand opposes the rationalistic degradation of affectivity and shows that the heart is no mere organ of feeling but a genuine organ of cognition for values. The deepest personal acts — love, contrition, reverence, gratitude — have their seat in the heart, not in the mere intellect (cf. Bexten 2017, pp. 150–155).
The Heart as Center of Individuality
The heart is at the same time the center of individuality: in it the unrepeatable distinctiveness of each person is expressed most deeply. Hildebrand: the heart is “the most individual part of the human being.” Whereas the intellect is directed at universal truths and the will at the good as such, the heart manifests each person’s own distinctive way of responding to values, of loving, and of giving themselves. The ordo amoris — the order of love — has its seat in the heart: “Whoever has the ordo amoris of a human being has the human being” (Scheler).
Center of the Heart
Hildebrand distinguishes between the surface of the heart — fleeting emotions, moods — and the innermost core, the center of the heart. Only in this deep center is the full depth of love, of contrition, and of self-surrender attained. The center of the heart is the “true self” of the person, from which the deepest stances and value-responses proceed. It is the place where the person is engaged in their ultimate seriousness.
The Supernatural Heart
The depth-stratum of the heart transformed by grace. Hildebrand shows that the natural heart, through supernatural action, receives a new, qualitatively higher receptivity — for the values of the holy, the love of God, and supernatural joy. The supernatural heart is not the destruction but the completion of the natural heart: gratia perficit naturam.
Heart and Affectivity
The heart presupposes affectivity — the fundamental capacity of the person to be affectively touched. Whereas affectivity names the faculty as such, the heart designates the personal center in which this faculty finds its deepest expression. Affectivity is the “heart” of the person — and the heart is the center of affectivity.
Ontological classification:
- Superordinate concept: Essential Characteristic, Archphenomenon
- Subordinate concepts: Center of the Heart, Supernatural Heart
Ontological relations:
- presupposes: Affectivity, Reverence, Order of Love, Personal Love
- is expressed in: Individuality
- is grounded in: Spiritual Being
- is seat of: Value-Response, Intentional Feeling
- is captured by: Substance-Ontological-Relational Concept of Person
Chapter assignment: Chapter 4: What is human personhood? (esp. 4.6)
Sources: Generated by querying the Personhood ontology.
Further sources:
- Hildebrand, Dietrich von (1967): Über das Herz. Zur menschlichen und gottmenschlichen Affektivität. Regensburg: Habbel. (German)
- Scheler, Max (~1916/1933): Ordo Amoris. In: Schriften aus dem Nachlass vol. 1. Bouvier. (German)
See also
- Art — the heart as key to art
- Objective Value
- Uniqueness
- Rationality
- Free Will
- Person
- Personhood
- I
- Consciousness
- Someone