person

We explain what a person is and what is the etymology of this word. Philosophical, psychological and legal meaning of "person."

When we speak of a person we refer to a human being or a fictitious person.

What is a person?

When we speak of a person, we generally mean an individual, that is, a human being any, which are normally ignored data singular like his name, his identity or its history. To say "a person" is to say "anyone" or "someone", as opposed to the global set of species.

However, the term has acquired numerous meanings since its origin, attributed to Latin, the language of the Romans:person, probably an elaboration of the Etruscan wordphersu and this one maybe from the Greek termprosôpon. This last word means "mask", and is made up ofpros, "Forward", andopposition, "Face": that which is placed in front of the face, generally in theatrical performances that were so important in ancient Greek culture and later in Roman.

From its etymology, it is clear why the term person is linked tocharacter, that is, a fictitious person. What is unknown is when it went from designating an accessory or disguise to designating the human being properly. However, the concept of person currently has different philosophical, ethical and legal meanings, which have allowed the existence of “legal persons"And even from"non-human persons”.

Philosophical meaning of person

The philosopher Boethius defined the person as the individual substance of rational nature.

The term person acquires from early times of the humanity a meaning linked to uniqueness. The Roman philosopher and statesman Boecio (480-525) defined it as the "individual substance of rational nature", emphasizing the three ideas of substantiality, individuality and rationality.

This concept would serve as the basis for those elaborated by the religious culture that Christianity would sustain until the end of the medieval, in which the "three divine persons" or "Holy Trinity" would appear: The father (God), the son (Christ) and the Holy Spirit.

With the advent of modernity, the concept of person would turn towards the psychology and it would give importance in the philosophical discourse to the "I", since modernity made the human being the center of the rational universe. Hence, Kant defines a person as "that being that is an end in itself", which speaks of the newly acquired autonomy of the human being, once the empire of God has been overcome.

Psychological meaning of person

In psychology we speak of a person to refer to a specific being, encompassing both its psychic and emotional aspects, as well as its physical aspects, all considered as singular and unique.

A person is a summation of communicable characteristics: a personality, a spirit, a way of acting and feeling. Hence, in psychology and psychoanalysis, the person is not a finished and perennial entity, but in continuous evolution and change, in movement and contradiction until the day of its existence. death.

Legal meaning of person

A person is a bearer of rights and obligations.

In legal language there are two types of people: natural (equivalent to human beings) and legal (equivalent to their legal constructions: Business, organizations, etc.). This points to a use of the term "person" more similar to the original one of antiquity, since a person is a subject bearer of rights and obligations, that is, a person is an entity capable of acting legally, and not necessarily an individual of the species. It is, let's say, a kind of legal character.

In fact, various animal protection movements, which defend the existence of animal rights, propose the term "non-human person" to refer to non-human living beings, that is, to animals (at least the superior ones): these would be carriers of Rights, but not for that reason they would become human beings, obviously.

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