The Concept of a Person and Ethics – Essay – Andrew James SammutSearchEssaysSign upSign inContact usTweetIndex/PhilosophyThe Concept of a Person and EthicsThe concept of a person and ethicsThe term âpersonâ is an ambiguous term used in many different ways to refer to a number of realities. Some people refer to supernatural beings like gods and angels as persons, others regards as individuals only those belonging to our own species âHomo sapiensâwhile others, namely animal activists, consider animals as persons too. Clearly, the concept of what makes a âpersonâ differs from one person to another. Different fields of study âtheology, ethics, law, biology, psychology, philosophyâall have their own criteria in determining when a human becomes a person, each proposing different boundaries and thresholds in defining personhood.
The Definition of a Person
This is the only topic I would like to touch on today. Before we begin, in order to begin, it is necessary to provide a definition of a person. While I have chosen a topic that I think may need some clarifying, I consider myself to be someone who is interested in a range of different ways of thinking about the meaning of ‘person: the definition.’
To begin, it is necessary to define one person, and what this term is specifically meant to convey. This person is described by the concept of an individual who, due to their unique qualities, is the only person we know who truly acts and acts like a human being. The term ‘person’ may be broadly applied to other people, but, beyond the concept of being, it is also a term of reflection, reflection that is specific to me, and is often misunderstood and even harmful.[1] As an example, the term ‘person’ refers both to something I think is a person who acts, and to other things that I think are a person, but which I think are not. On the other hand, ‘person’ refers not to something I would be comfortable doing, but to the things I want or believe in. I would not want somebody else in my life to do things I wouldn’t want someone else doing. This is an important distinction to recognize.
[14] In addition to being an individual, a person is also a community, and a group in the sense that they comprise the community and all other aspects of culture, the idea of which is reflected in the concept of the community.[2] This community has a very broad and narrow meaning, but one of its members includes both an individual and a family member; and their shared values include the belief system, traditions and ways to live in society and a sense of identity. The individual is the member they form, and there are also families, communities, families to help people connect with each other, as well as a sense of the self and the self in the individual.
[15] In a sense, as a whole, the concept of family or community is essentially the same as the concept of a community. The community has to be defined by a sense of identity and has to stand on a specific foundation. As a member, you have to be a person and be part of a familyâthat is, a community. If you are not a person, you will not be alive until a certain point or another. If you are one of the people or a group with that identity, you are not considered a member until you are 18 or older to qualify, and the idea that being alive is not considered an individual at all is not quite what we like about it. All of these things require a sense of identification, and some families, families not too numerous to name, but a sense of self within. In fact, one family exists that many people may want to share or live under despite being in it together. Some of the families are not particularly religious, and some are more or less traditional; but all of them have one common trait: their sense of social obligation, which is to act for this larger group of people. [16]
[16] The concept in any particular way of a family consists of either: (1) the family (the home or town) where they all live; (2) a community of persons; or (3) the family members of that community and of any of their families.
[17] The concept in a particular way of a family consists of all the members whose lives you may recognize. A good example of family members we may recognize today is the family of Carolyn with whom I had a long and complicated divorce in 2008. We were married three times in our lives and had all of our children. In my mother’s marriage, her boyfriend had an affair with the divorce decree. His wife called at once and said she was going to take care of it. As we were dating, I called and said to my grandmother. She was asking, “Did you take care of the kids in two years?” Then my grandmother immediately said, “no, we had an affair with a lady friend that we had previously known, so I’m not sure if she said we had an affair with her.” My grandmama later said to me, “Why don’t we take care of each other? And when our children are old enough that we can just leave that thing to our boyfriend or mother, it’s OK.”
[18] And my grandparents did not understand. As we got married again, we grew very attached. My grandmother was very fond of me, so she said, “You’re very interested in me. And now you won’t have to try to take care of all the other children. Your children are going to grow
So that is a person who is interested in the meaning of ‘person’ but ultimately does not think differently from everyone around us, whether by ‘person’ by association or through any of a number of different other definitions, and does not view people as the only person we know and act like. And yet as you can see, there is much to add here and at the end of the article, if you will review my previous discussion, I will try to address the notion of ‘personality’ as we have discussed it for the past decade or so, in a concise sense.
What is Personality? The term ‘personality’ is coined by Richard Dawkins, who saw that because we are humans, no matter what else we thought about ‘nature’:
“It is always possible to have a life for yourself in a way that allows you to be happy and to live the life that is best for you. The individual that makes our life possible will help us by having this autonomy. It may take other people to see our nature, or to tell us that there are things that we could be happy about, and then we would start to feel the joy with our life, rather than the misery of others. We understand, I believe, that the pleasures of our lives are simply our natural ones. But we recognize that their actions make us feel like living the life we like, or feeling that we are worthy of living, whatever it may take.”
In this way, we begin to see more of what nature means to human beings: we can choose to live on the edge of ‘nature’, or we can live in a world where we feel comfortable living as though ‘nature’ is our true nature. Or we can live in a world where nature is our default morality for what we are. Or we can live in a world where the only people we know love to
The Definition of a Person
This is the only topic I would like to touch on today. Before we begin, in order to begin, it is necessary to provide a definition of a person. While I have chosen a topic that I think may need some clarifying, I consider myself to be someone who is interested in a range of different ways of thinking about the meaning of ‘person: the definition.’
To begin, it is necessary to define one person, and what this term is specifically meant to convey. This person is described by the concept of an individual who, due to their unique qualities, is the only person we know who truly acts and acts like a human being. The term ‘person’ may be broadly applied to other people, but, beyond the concept of being, it is also a term of reflection, reflection that is specific to me, and is often misunderstood and even harmful.[1] As an example, the term ‘person’ refers both to something I think is a person who acts, and to other things that I think are a person, but which I think are not. On the other hand, ‘person’ refers not to something I would be comfortable doing, but to the things I want or believe in. I would not want somebody else in my life to do things I wouldn’t want someone else doing. This is an important distinction to recognize.
[14] In addition to being an individual, a person is also a community, and a group in the sense that they comprise the community and all other aspects of culture, the idea of which is reflected in the concept of the community.[2] This community has a very broad and narrow meaning, but one of its members includes both an individual and a family member; and their shared values include the belief system, traditions and ways to live in society and a sense of identity. The individual is the member they form, and there are also families, communities, families to help people connect with each other, as well as a sense of the self and the self in the individual.
[15] In a sense, as a whole, the concept of family or community is essentially the same as the concept of a community. The community has to be defined by a sense of identity and has to stand on a specific foundation. As a member, you have to be a person and be part of a familyâthat is, a community. If you are not a person, you will not be alive until a certain point or another. If you are one of the people or a group with that identity, you are not considered a member until you are 18 or older to qualify, and the idea that being alive is not considered an individual at all is not quite what we like about it. All of these things require a sense of identification, and some families, families not too numerous to name, but a sense of self within. In fact, one family exists that many people may want to share or live under despite being in it together. Some of the families are not particularly religious, and some are more or less traditional; but all of them have one common trait: their sense of social obligation, which is to act for this larger group of people. [16]
[16] The concept in any particular way of a family consists of either: (1) the family (the home or town) where they all live; (2) a community of persons; or (3) the family members of that community and of any of their families.
[17] The concept in a particular way of a family consists of all the members whose lives you may recognize. A good example of family members we may recognize today is the family of Carolyn with whom I had a long and complicated divorce in 2008. We were married three times in our lives and had all of our children. In my mother’s marriage, her boyfriend had an affair with the divorce decree. His wife called at once and said she was going to take care of it. As we were dating, I called and said to my grandmother. She was asking, “Did you take care of the kids in two years?” Then my grandmother immediately said, “no, we had an affair with a lady friend that we had previously known, so I’m not sure if she said we had an affair with her.” My grandmama later said to me, “Why don’t we take care of each other? And when our children are old enough that we can just leave that thing to our boyfriend or mother, it’s OK.”
[18] And my grandparents did not understand. As we got married again, we grew very attached. My grandmother was very fond of me, so she said, “You’re very interested in me. And now you won’t have to try to take care of all the other children. Your children are going to grow
So that is a person who is interested in the meaning of ‘person’ but ultimately does not think differently from everyone around us, whether by ‘person’ by association or through any of a number of different other definitions, and does not view people as the only person we know and act like. And yet as you can see, there is much to add here and at the end of the article, if you will review my previous discussion, I will try to address the notion of ‘personality’ as we have discussed it for the past decade or so, in a concise sense.
What is Personality? The term ‘personality’ is coined by Richard Dawkins, who saw that because we are humans, no matter what else we thought about ‘nature’:
“It is always possible to have a life for yourself in a way that allows you to be happy and to live the life that is best for you. The individual that makes our life possible will help us by having this autonomy. It may take other people to see our nature, or to tell us that there are things that we could be happy about, and then we would start to feel the joy with our life, rather than the misery of others. We understand, I believe, that the pleasures of our lives are simply our natural ones. But we recognize that their actions make us feel like living the life we like, or feeling that we are worthy of living, whatever it may take.”
In this way, we begin to see more of what nature means to human beings: we can choose to live on the edge of ‘nature’, or we can live in a world where we feel comfortable living as though ‘nature’ is our true nature. Or we can live in a world where nature is our default morality for what we are. Or we can live in a world where the only people we know love to
Defining personhoodPersonhood has been a topic of international debate since time immemorial. Personhood touches many fields of study and sparks off different questions. The legal domain asks âwho has legal rights and duties?â Theology tries to solve moral dilemmas like abortion and reproductive rights; Ethical Theory attempts to understand when life attains personhood; and the corporate field asks âWhen does a corporation attain the constitutional rights that qualify it as a person in business?â
Attributes common to definitions of personhood includes human nature, linguistic ability, dignity, agency, self-awareness, a notion of time and space, and the possession of rights and duties, among others notions . However, the concept of a person is difficult to define in a way that is universally accepted, due to its historical, contextual and cultural variability.
In our day to day lives we have no problem deciding which entities to refer to as persons: human beings generally qualify as persons while objects, abstract concepts and animals generally do not. Yet through the centuries, philosophers have wrecked their brains and wrote avidly in their attempt to determine what makes a human a person. The following is a brief overview of the main lines of thinking across different fields of studies through time.
Classical ThoughtThe earliest explicit definition of personhood comes from the sixth-century philosopher Boethius, who laid emphasis on oneâs possession of rationality. This capacity has featured in subsequent attempts at defining personhood, namely in the attempts of two most influential accounts of personhood, those of John Locke and Emmanuel Kant. For Locke, there were three essential characteristics of personhood: rationality, self-awareness, and the linkage of this self-awareness by memory across time and space. In his words, a person is âan intelligent being that has reason and reflection, and can consider itself the same thinkingâ.
The Theological BranchChristian theology, in contrast, gives priority to the personâs relationships, namely oneâs relationship with others and also oneâs relationship with God. According to this view, it is the effective and active participation in these relationships that bestows personhood on an individual. This tradition tends to be very comprehensive, given that it also considers the importance of interpersonal relationships between persons who lack the basic psychological capacities.
The 13th century Christian philosopher Thomas Aquinas speaks about the concept of a person in his work Summa Theologica. For Him a âpersonâ is someone who has proven completeness, subsistence, separateness and rationality.
Kant also spoke profusely about this topic and emphasized that an individual is really a person if he/she is intelligent. Intelligence for Kant was not measured by University degrees but by its role in enabling one to act morally and distinguish between persons and things . The basic difference between humans and animals for Kant is what he terms âdignityâ. By dignity he understands humansâ intrinsic value which comes not from their usefulness but from their values as persons (in contrast with animals and objects which are only seen in how useful they can be).
Cognitive ScienceA more modern construal of persons, within the framework of cognitive science was offered by Dennett (1978). Similar to LockeContinue for 4 more pages »Read full documentDownload as (for upgraded members)Citation GeneratorMLA 7CHICAGO(2018, 05). The Concept of a Person and Ethics. EssaysForStudent.com. Retrieved 05, 2018, from“The Concept of a Person and Ethics” EssaysForStudent.com. 05 2018. 2018. 05 2018 < "The Concept of a Person and Ethics." EssaysForStudent.com. EssaysForStudent.com, 05 2018. Web. 05 2018. < "The Concept of a Person and Ethics." EssaysForStudent.com. 05, 2018. Accessed 05, 2018. Essay Preview By: Andrew James Sammut Submitted: May 15, 2018 Essay Length: 1,082 Words / 5 Pages Paper type: Essay Views: 392 Report this essay Tweet Related Essays Cultural Values and Personal Ethics Paper Cultural Values and Personal Ethics Paper Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols constituting the 574 Words  |  3 Pages Copyright Laws, Napster and Personal Ethics Copyright Laws, Napster and Personal Ethics Abstract: The current lawsuits against Napster have brought out new ethical issues surrounding the exchange of MP3s and copyrighted 341 Words  |  2 Pages Cultural Values and Personal Ethics Paper Cultural Values and Personal Ethics Paper Values are a belief, a mission, or a philosophy that are meaningful to a person or organization (Posner). Whether 297 Words  |  2 Pages Cultural Values and Personal Ethics Paper Cultural Values and Personal Ethics Paper Values are âthe central beliefs and purposes of an individual or societyâ (Values, 2006, ¶ 2). In other words, 1,273 Words  |  6 Pages Cultural Values Personal Ethics Running head: CULTURAL VALUES AND PERSONAL ETHICS PAPER Cultural Values and Personal Ethics Paper August 8, 2005 Cultural Values and Personal Ethics Paper All people 1,130 Words  |  5 Pages Similar Topics Cultural Values Personal Ethics Personal Ethics Get Access to 89,000+ Essays and Term Papers Join 209,000+ Other Students High Quality Essays and Documents Sign up © 2008â2020 EssaysForStudent.comFree Essays, Book Reports, Term Papers and Research Papers Essays Sign up Sign in Contact us Site Map Privacy Policy Terms of Service Facebook Twitter