Cultural individualism in the context of marriage and family

Abstract

In the considerations contained primarily in the book “Person and Act,” Karol Wojtyła analyses the good of the individual in terms of two extreme attitudes: individualism and totalism. Cultural behaviours occurring within the marriage and the family as well as cultural lifestyles adopted in accordance with the above attitudes can be understood through the prism of one or the other. At the same time, the effects of globalization and the mixing of cultures are increasingly affecting the importance of marriage and the family and their functioning and tasks, even though the Polish point of view would seem to be strongly influenced by the legal culture of Christianity. Changes in the culture of everyday life show that moral norms arising from religion and shaping customary law, cultural models and finally legislation are less and less abided by.