Everything about Person totally explained
The term
person is used informally to mean
human. But in the fields of
law,
philosophy,
medicine, and others, it means the presence of certain characteristics that grant a certain legal, ethical, or moral standing.
For example, in many jurisdictions, the law allows a group of human beings to act together as a single composite entity called a
corporation, and the corporation is considered a
legal person with standing to sue or be sued in court. In philosophy and medicine,
person may mean only humans who are capable of certain kinds of thought, and thus exclude embryos, early fetuses, or adult humans with certain types of brain damage.
Overview
Discussion of what constitutes a person can occur on several different levels:
- Analytic: definitions in a formal system, such as in legal theory;
- Normative: arguments about what "should be the case" on a moral level;
- Conceptual: philosophical inquiry into the fundamental nature, limitations, and scope of personhood, especially as it relates to living organisms in general or intelligences other than human;
- Metaphysical: religious or spiritual descriptions of personhood, or mystical views and beliefs believed outside ordinary human experience;
- Artistic: literary, rhetorical, or allegorical devices to convey personhood, especially as it relates to fantasy and science fiction
Discourse on personhood may combine different elements of the previous categories. For example, a legal scholar and economist might define a person as "any being with the neurological prerequisites to understand moral consequences and take his life morally seriously." (Markovits)
The principle of
absolutism is often combined with an analytic definition of persons as co-equal participants in a given society, based on
citizenship,
nationality, or common humanity. This combination is common in such instruments as the
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Analytic definitions
A person can have recognition, existence, and
legal capacity under the law (
legal personhood). There are various operative definitions for legal personhood, but they all rely on formal, prescriptive definitions that are
falsifiable. Most such definitions form the basis of specific
rights that may be exercised or enforced (such as
human rights,
custody rights,
conservatorship rights, and
voting rights). Such definitions may also impose obligations or duties that carry a penalty if they're breached.
Some legally operative definitions of
person go beyond the scope of establishing rights and obligations for individual human beings. For example, in many jurisdictions, any artificial legal entity (such as a school, business, or non-profit organization) is considered a
legal person. As another example, the
United States Constitution has historically applied different definitions of
person for the purpose of
allotting seats in the House of Representatives.
Normative views
Personhood goes to the heart of many debates over the rights and treatment to which various types of living beings are entitled. Discussion often revolves around the assumption that the qualities of intelligence or self-awareness grant certain rights. Historically, beings believed not to have these qualities, or to have them in lesser amounts, are considered non-persons and are
exploited. Such exploitation has taken the form of
slavery or
medical torture for humans, and
cruelty and
vivisection for animals. A contrasting philosophical view is
utilitarianism, which ultimately bases moral decision-making on the ability of a being to perceive pain or pleasure, rather than cognitive qualities
per se.
Conceptual views
Human beings represent the most prevalent conceptual definition of
person. Some philosophers, such as
Peter Singer of
Princeton University, regard certain types of
animals with high cognitive abilities and a degree of societal development as persons, and argue that some human beings — for example, those with certain types of
brain damage — are not. Should other
intelligent life ever be discovered beyond those known to science, similar questions would be relevant in establishing personhood.
Metaphysical views
Personhood is held by some to be an attribute of more than just human beings. Some religions specify deities as occupying the place of personhood in many different forms. It isn't uncommon for spiritual and archetypal roles to be depicted as
persons.
For example, in the
Book of Proverbs the attribute
Wisdom is personified:
Divine Nature as made manifest in the form of a distinct 'person'.
Artistic depictions
Personhood is frequently examined through any of several artistic modalities, especially in literary works. In
fictional works, fantasy and science fiction often explore the question of personhood by relaxing one or more of the common characteristics associated with it, and then exploring the ramifications and possible consequences. For example,
Isaac Asimov introduced the
three laws of robotics by relaxing the assumption that personhood is restricted to biological organisms. As another example,
David Brin explored the attributes of personhood — especially identity, autonomy, and agency — by depicting a world in which
characters could copy themselves, in the novel
Kiln People. and
Laurence Tribe of
Harvard Law School, On May 9, 2008,
Columbia University Press will publish
Animals as Persons: Essays on the Abolition of Animal Exploitation
by Prof.
Gary L. Francione of
Rutgers University School of Law, a collection of writings that summarizes his work to date and makes the case for non-human animals as persons.
There are also hypothetical persons, sentient non-human persons such as sentient extraterrestrial life and self aware machines. A popular Novel and loosely based animated series called
Ghost in the Shell frequently touches on the potential of inorganic sentience, while classical works of fiction and fantasy regarding extraterrestrials have challenged people to reconsider long held traditional definitions.
Further Information
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