Formation of authentic personality and the corporeity in the light of Edith Stein

Abstract

Considering that the theme of authenticity has become an important ethical framework for contemporary society, this study discusses the contributions of Edith Stein to understand the process of authentic personality formation, with special attention to the way that corporeality participates in this dynamic. This is a bibliographical research, in which some texts from Stein are examined, which directly address the theme of structure of people and their formative process, especially, The problem of empathy, Concerning the idea of formation and Potency and act, with originals from the years 1917, 1930 and 1931, respectively. Discussed as a process of personality formation and as a principle of individuation, Stein emphasizes the need to consider the person in act, in order to know their authentic individuality, even though there are limits to this knowledge.