Eine Person sein

Abstract

What is a human person? What are its peculiar characteristics? And how is it different from a mere living being? Medieval writers addressed these questions with great perspicacity by focusing on three dimensions of a person. They started with the metaphysical dimension by defining a person as an individual substance with a rational nature. This led them to examine that very substance in more detail: its essential components, its unity and its identity over time. But they also dealt with the psychological dimension by analysing the capacity for reflection as the decisive mental capacity of a person. They also considered the act-theoretical dimension, noting that a person, unlike a mere living being, is distinguished by its capacity to produce actions. They went so far to emphasize that a person is free to choose actions and is therefore responsible for them. This book, which focuses on theories of the 13th and 14th centuries, reconstructs the debates on all three dimensions in their historical context, systematically evaluates them, and in doing so also relates to early modern and contemporary discussions. It illustrates that the foundations for a philosophical anthropology were laid in the Middle Ages.