Pope Francis' speech at Pázmány Péter Catholic University and its Philosophical Background

Abstract

This essay is about a speech, which was presented by Pope Francis at Pázmány Péter Catholic University. In this study, I was interested in the philosophical side of the speech. The main arguments of the speech were about self-knowledge, contemplation, the different types of knowledge, and the problems of communities, which are mostly traditional philosophical questions. So I tried to explain the similarities between the speech of the Pope and the statements of very well-known philosophers, for example, Aristotle, Augustinus, Martin Heidegger, and Byung-Chul Han. I also tried to show that the Pope's statements do not require the acceptance of Christian teachings, we are talking about more general teachings here. I will also briefly touch on the importance of universities, which Pope Francis attached great importance to in his speech. In addition to these, it is important to analyse and understand the advice left to us by our Holy Father, which raises the question of what it means to know oneself. The question of self-knowledge was an unavoidable element of his speech at Pázmány, which is why it will be important in my study to deal in detail with the philosophical aspects of this question.