Short notes on the concept of person in St. Thomas Aquinas - DOI: 10.4025/actascihumansoc.v30i1.1943

Abstract

Short considerations on the concept of person in St. Thomas Aquinas are provided. The discussion of the issue brings to the foreground the idea of the human being in the 13th century. Thomas Aquinas defined the human person as a rational and free individual, or rather, an individual substance of a rational nature and, consequently, the most perfect in created nature. Since the person is free, he or she acknowledges his or her own existence and attributes to himself/herself his/her own acts in a state of self-possession. In fact, he/she knows that himself/herself as an autonomous and accountable being. A human person implies not merely his/her proper existence to and for himself/herself, but also a dominion of himself/herself. Consequently, the term person is proper only to the human person among the beings of the visible world, since he or she represents his or her role in society.