Before we begin this tour of a person, kindly read and digest those quotes. For this, will inspire you, not motivate you:

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The nearest way to glory is to strive to be what you wish to be thought to be.
— Socrates

Well I am certainly wiser than this man. It is only too likely that neither of us has any knowledge to boast of; but he thinks that he knows something which he does not know, whereas I am quite conscious of my ignorance. At any rate it seems that I am wiser than he is to this small extent, that I do not think that I know what I do not know.
— Socrates

A sense is what has the power of receiving into itself the sensible forms of things without the matter, in the way in which a piece of wax takes on the impress of a signet-ring without the iron or gold.
— Aristotle

Today the doctrine of metaphysical free will appears to us as one of those archaic relics of traditional religion that Epicurus and Lucretius should have done their utmost to combat. Moral freedom and determinism are by no means incompatible. Man is himself a causal agent in nature and is morally responsible when he acts freely, i.e.— Epicurus

You could not step twice into the same rivers; for other waters are ever flowing on to you. — Heraclitus

Mankind censure injustice fearing that they may be the victims of it, and not because they shrink from committing it.
— Plato

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Have you read them with scrutiny😊? When the human feeling in a person isn’t there, what should we describe such a person as? The attributes of a person are to be explained by human beings with the concept of thinking. Hence, this will lead us to the next paragraph.

A PREAMBLE TO THE STRIDE

On August 19,2016 I wrote an article titled “a preface : who is a Person?” which I mentioned dolphins. Kindly see the link to the prima facie of who and what is a person? What are you? Are you a person? Am I a genuine human being? https://purewords.co/2016/08/19/a-preface-who-is-a-person/

THE SECOND JOURNEY OF A PERSON

Indeed, I must ask myself If I am a person, some people have assumed that a person is an intellectual being who is sagacious with an outstanding view in as much as he or she possesses a characteristic called thinking.

If thinking is characterised as a feature of a person coupled with intelligence, how about dolphin which is regarded as an intelligent animal in the world. Yet we must ask again, who is a Person?

On May 31,2016 as reported by C.N.N ( Cable Network News). A nine month old baby named David Enrique Ferreira has microphaly a neurological disorder which is as a result of small brain growth.

Well and truly, one may say he is a person but not all persons are humans and not humans are persons. Should we say that the aforementioned victim is a person? Some people have argued that if a person has disorder he or she can’t be a person. A person is a body acting as a human being. Hence, he’s human, therefore he’s a person.

According to Wotyla, he argued that the concept of a person can be seen in two perspectives : cosmological and personalistic. He purported that man tend to engage himself in viewing the world objectively and seeing things around. He added by saying, that the personalistic view is the subjective aspect that entails individualism. However, his simplistic argument is not valid in defining who a person is.

If X acts or behaves normally, does that mean X is person? What if X is a mad person? Or have you not heard of two minutes insanity? As a matter of fact, to be a human being is to belong to the realm of homo sapiens which has a generic code. It has been expressed and posited that since a person can relate with other species in a unique manner. Hence, a person is an intellectual being.

Yet, If a person is an intellectual being. Haven’t we seen a dog who performs intellectually? If that should be the case, intellectuality is part of the criteria to becoming a person not the main criterion. How about that?

According to New Oxford Dictionary ” a person is an individual”. If it is the case, how can we define who a person is? So, a person can just be an individual without a sense of creativity and intellectuality? Theodore Roosevelt asserted, a man comes to know himself after various circumstances. In other words, what distinguishes a person from other animals is the formative uniqueness, but I am not saying that other creatures are not formative. In this case, ants are also well structured, but there is a significant interaction with mankind which other creatures lack.

As I am writing this article, am I a person? If the characteristic of mankind as a person is writing. We also have chimpanzees who also write. As a matter of fact, Some animals are making it intractable to separate a person from a person and a person from other creatures.

Some have argued that in as much as humans are able to come into this world with a nomenclature called human, then, a person is a human being. But not humans are persons even some animals behave with maturity than some human beings who are described as persons. Yet, we say a person is a being that thinks.

When X was alive he or she was a good and intelligent person. Should We say that the notion of a person belongs to the living? Or if a person is dead he or she no longer carries the emblem of a person? What I am trying to do in this article is to demarcate the concept of a person from other creatures, because some animals can think like a person doesn’t mean they are eligible to be tagged as persons.

Kindly glance at the following scholars in accordance with the concept of a person :

“A person is an individual only to the extent that he is a member of a clan, a community or a family”. (Mboya, 1963).

“The individual can only say: ‘I am, because we are; and since we are, therefore I am’. This is a cardinal point in the understanding of the African view of man”. (Mbiti, 1999).

How plausible are those aforementioned assertions in bold italics?

If a person belongs to a particular group. Does that mean he or she won’t relate with other groups? Or despite belonging to a tribe to some extent he or she would prioritize everybody’s interest including other tribes. Hence, does that connote the meaning of a person?

The second scholar reasoned to some extent,but I am not saying that the first scholar did not make sense, if one is called a scholar why would he or she not be sensible? Afterall he postulated his thesis impeccably. The essence of a person is for such an individual not to live by his or her self only, but to consider other human beings too. Or can a person live all alone with any interruption?

Kindly remember that at the end of this grandiloquent expression the writer must posit his view about who a person is, however, let me close this chapter with my small knowledge about the concept of a person as I put it below :👇👇

OPEYEMI AKINRULIE CONCEPT OF A PERSON

Although intelligence is part of the attributes of a person, which distinguishes an individual from other creatures. For instance, Y is a person and intelligent but Y brutalises people a lot, can we say Y is a person?

“A person is a human being who has an ambition that is greater than creatures (animals). In addition, a person is also a being fighting to create shelter, work for survival and seek for pleasure when necessary. As a matter of fact, no matter how intelligent some animals can be, they can’t be regarded as persons, if animals could be referenced as persons, then, all human beings are in trouble. Hence, don’t act like ‘who’, act like ‘what’.”