Karol Wojtyla's "Reflections on the Nature of Man" represent the earliest draft of his personalist anthropology. With this work, he not only formulated a philosophical contribution of remarkable originality but also profoundly shaped the church's teaching as Pope John Paul II at the threshold of the third millennium. Wojtyla's reflections stem from lectures he gave in the early 1950s as a chaplain in the Krakow parish of St. Florian to young students, providing them with answers regarding the meaning and direction of human life. Created in the intellectual climate of communist Poland and in response to a materialistic view of humanity, his considerations seem to have lost none of their relevance—especially since they are guided by the fundamental impulse of all philosophy, as already articulated by Socrates.