Philosophical Concept Of Personhood

Abstract: This paper aims to attempt a philosophical study of the concept of ‘personhood’ and its evolution (if any) through the epistolary documents in the genre of slave narratives. In spite of the progress that human beings as an intellectual race have made, the struggle for human dignity from the fellow beings has not ended yet. There were innumerable instances in human history when dignity and respect for one’s life and existence had to be demanded and fought for from the fellow beings. Our literature is a witness and often a reflection of such struggles of human life. In his letter to the white power block of America, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s profound statement, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”, a philosophical

While in political conception, this term is associated with concepts such as citizenship, liberty and such others, in legal terminology, the word ‘personhood’ is further linked to concepts such as natural or a ‘legal personality’ capable of having rights, privileges and liabilities. It is important to mention here that there is no universal consensus on the definition of personhood or person either. This concept is often tied with historical, social and political influences. But over the centuries of human being’s intellectual journey, a lot of philosophical thought has been devoted to conceptualize a concrete understanding of the word ‘personhood’. Several philosophers have described ‘person’ in different ways. Boethius chose to define ‘person’ as an individual substance having a rational nature. For some others a ‘person’ is a being which is alive, aware, has emotions, controls its behaviour, has thinking capacities and knows that it is a ‘person’. For the naturalists, a person is a human or a non-human agent who possess continuous consciousness over a period of time and is capable of forming representations about the world. Harry G. Frankfurt gives a beautiful description of the term and

Thus, in legal terminology a person becomes a legal subject with rights and duties as its attributes. However, the search is still on to realize the meaning of ‘personhood’. The process of such endevours has led to a number of debates in the academic and the philosophical world. One of most initial and instinctive questions in the quest to understand the term would be to ask: when can a being be identified to have the attribute called ‘personhood’ to get itself considered as a ‘person’? The concept of personhood and its inception into a being has been a subject of debate since time immemorial. The debate is: is ‘personhood’ achieved at the time of fertilization or is it acquired gradually on birth? On one hand, while religious traditions have for long strongly hold on its beliefs on this subject, the recent socio-political and legal opinions on the subject have failed to reach a consensus. To begin with the religious view-point, the Catechism 2270 says “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person - among which are the inviolable right of every innocent being to life”, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.” Thus, the notion here is that personhood in a