What is a person?

In order to define what a ‘person’ is, I would like to draw your attention to the difference between that term and what appear to be its synonyms: ‘human being’, ‘individual’ or ‘man/woman’. It feels like one can use those terms interchangeably without making any mistakes or hinting towards different meanings, but, is that the case? Why do we have so many different words to describe oneself? The difference between man/woman and hu-man being is certainly of great importance and it can be found in this article. However, they denote something of the world of the living, ‘beings’ that are in this present moment. It could be argued that men and human beings are the opposite of ‘fictional entities’ or of the world of the dead, since they are ‘being’ in this present moment.

There is a long list of philosophers who have put a lot of thought into understanding the metaphysics of personhood. Who are we? What makes oneself ‘identifiable’? Identity is something of oneself which is indivisible from within, what brings the idea of individual forward. Does something persist being identifiable in oneself throughout life? Or do we personify different aspects of ourselves depending on whether we are in public or in private, with our friends or with our family? Are we always the same ‘person’?

Let’s now define the term person: 

From Latin persona “human being, person, personage; a part in a drama, assumed character” originally “a mask, a false face”.

From mid-13c. as “one of the persons of the Trinity” a theological use in Church Latin of the classical word. Meanings “one’s physical being, the living body; external appearance” are from late 14c.

In grammar, “one of the relations which a subject may have to a verb” from 1510s.

In legal use, “corporate body or corporation other than the state and having rights and duties before the law”

A person, therefore, is what it appears not what is. In the second definition we find that in a theological sense, there is a clear distinction between the ‘spirit’ and the ‘body’. What one ‘personifies’ with his ‘mask’ or ‘assumed character’ might not be what one really is. Have we identified with our bodies, and by assuming that distinction, we have eliminated what we really are which has to forcibly include our ‘spirit' or 'breath of life’? This is just my hypothesis, but it is nonetheless significant that in grammar and in legalese, the ‘person’ is subject to the verb and to the State respectively. With this last definition we reach an often overlooked but of immense importance conclusion: a legal person is a corporation, it is a ‘corp-oration’, a fictional persona speaking.

"A legally generated 'artificial person' has no substance, no body, no brain, no consciousness, no heart, no energy, no spirit, no soul. It is a mere legal persona in the fictional 'theatre of commerce', which is prescribed imaginary 'roles' played by 'actors' giving a 'performance'" Living in the Private

A person is a legal entity, created by the birth certificate, designed to be a token for you to use like monopoly, not intended to be used as personal identification. Used properly it will protect you from harm, used wrongly it will enslave you.