Abstract
The paper presents a semiotic interpretation of the phenomenological debate on the notion of person, focusing in particular on Edmund Husserl, Max Scheler, and Edith Stein. The semiotic interpretation lets us identify the categories that orient the debate: collective/individual and subject/object. As we will see, the phenomenological analysis of the relation between person and social units such as the community, the association, and the mass shows similarities to contemporary socio-semiotic models. The difference between community, association, and mass provides an explanation for the establishment of legal systems. The notion of person we inherit from phenomenology can also be useful in facing juridical problems raised by the use of non-human decision-makers such as machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence applications.
Highlights
The phenomenological definition of “person” was proposed by Max Scheler [1] in the framework of a scientific study of ethics aimed at going beyond the limit of Kant’s formalistic point of view on morals, thanks to the phenomenological methods proposed by Edmund Husserl [2]
Alan Dershowitz provided a good review of different unsatisfactory philosophical approaches [3]. His solution, according to which legal systems empirically emerge from our collective experience of injustice, only postpones the problem: is there such a thing as “collective experience”? As we will see, on the basis of Max Scheler’s personalism, Edith Stein was to advance a phenomenological analysis of this subject, which is relevant from a semiotic point of view because it involves technical notions, such as collective actor and modal value, which allow us to glimpse a strong connection between formation of law and meaning
On the basis of the semiotic interpretation of the phenomenological notion of person in Max Scheler and Edith Stein presented above, we can define the person as an individual, anthropomorphic actor who embodies the actantial function of a qualified subject
Summary
The phenomenological definition of “person” was proposed by Max Scheler [1] in the framework of a scientific study of ethics aimed at going beyond the limit of Kant’s formalistic point of view on morals, thanks to the phenomenological methods proposed by Edmund Husserl [2]. Alan Dershowitz provided a good review of different unsatisfactory philosophical approaches [3] His solution, according to which legal systems empirically emerge from our collective experience of injustice, only postpones the problem: is there such a thing as “collective experience”? It will become apparent that the person in Scheler’s definition cannot be identified with other kinds of actor individuated by Greimas’ typology
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
