A person is a being, such as a human, that has certain capacities or attributes constituting personhood, which in turn is defined differently by different authors in different disciplines, and by different cultures in different times and places.
In ancient Rome, the word "persona" (Latin) or "prosopon" (πρόσωπον: Greek) originally referred to the masks worn by actors on stage. The various masks represented the various "personae" in the stage play. The concept of a "person" was further developed during the Trinitarian and Christological debates of the first through sixth centuries. Since then, a number of important changes to the word's meaning and use have taken place, and attempts have been made to redefine the word with varying degrees of adoption and influence.
In addition to the question of personhood, of what makes a being count as a person to begin with, there are further questions about personal identity: both about what makes any particular person that particular person instead of another, and about what makes a person at one time the same person as he or she was or will be at another time despite any intervening changes.
The common plural of "person", "people", is often used to refer to an entire nation or ethnic group (as in "a people"), so the plural "persons" is often used in contexts which require precision such as philosophical and legal writing.
Read more about Person: Personhood, Personal Identity
Other articles related to "person":
... of lactose that can therefore be tolerated, varies from person to person ... Since lactose intolerance poses no further threat to a person's health, the condition is managed by minimizing the occurrence and severity of symptoms ...
... In relevant part, section 43(a) states the following "Any person who, on or in connection with any goods or services, or any container for goods, uses in commerce any word, term, name, symbol, or device ...
... An oath of fealty, from the Latin fidelitas (faithfulness), is a pledge of allegiance of one person to another ... In medieval Europe, fealty was sworn between two people, the obliged person (vassal) and a person of rank (lord) ...
... Animal training, a person who trains animals for obedience, tricks, and work Horse trainer, a person responsible for preparing a horse for horse racing Personal trainer, a person who guides another ...
... A person may perform the obligation on behalf of another sane adult person provided it is with their permission ... A person is required to make a separate sacrifice on behalf of himself and for others that he may sacrifice for ... A person owns 613.35g silver (19.71 troy ounces silver) and/ or 87.48g of gold or its value in cash or kind Is resident in his home town and not on journey ...
Famous quotes containing the word person:
“We commonly do not remember that it is, after all, always the first person that is speaking.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A person taking stock in middle age is like an artist or composer looking at an unfinished work; but whereas the composer and the painter can erase some of their past efforts, we cannot. We are stuck with what we have lived through. The trick is to finish it with a sense of design and a flourish rather than to patch up the holes or merely to add new patches to it.”
—Harry S. Broudy (b. 1905)
“Intellectual life is international. Only a period of discouragement, an age that has given up on itself, that wants to “preserve,” that has been driven onto the defensive, can be intellectually nationalist. Such a period is essentially “conservative.” A person who has progress in his heart is international.”
—Robert Musil (1880–1942)