What is a "person"?

[djeter]

http://payingattentiontothesky.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/thomasaquinas.jpg?w=239&h=332

St. Thomas Aquinas has written: “The person is that which is noblest in the whole of nature.”

We know that the trinity consists of The Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit – three persons.

We know that we are “persons.”

Yet what is a “person?” How is that different from being an “individual?” Why didn’t St. Thomas write “The individual is that which is noblest in the whole of nature.” Are The Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit “individuals”? Sounds kind of weird even to say it.

Jacques Maritain addressed all this in a chapter in Scholasticism and Politics. Written more than 70 years ago in 1940, it speaks just as clearly to us as it did then with a timelessness of a true Catholicism.

It is all here:

payingattentiontothesky.com/2010/03/30/the-human-person-%e2%80%93-jacques-maritain/

dj

 

[Joe_5859]

Exploring the history of the philosophy behind the concept of “person” is a fascinating endeavor. Really, the whole concept of “personhood” arose specifically to articulate the reality of the Trinity.

You might be interested in the book Personalism by Emmanuel Mounier. He was a French philosopher and a Thomist from the first half of the 20th century. His personalist philosophy also had an influential effect on John Paul II.

 

[djeter]

Exploring the history of the philosophy behind the concept of “person” is a fascinating endeavor. Really, the whole concept of “personhood” arose specifically to articulate the reality of the Trinity.

You might be interested in the book Personalism by Emmanuel Mounier. He was a French philosopher and a Thomist from the first half of the 20th century. His personalist philosophy also had an influential effect on John Paul II.

Thanks for the link.

dj