The concept of a 'person'

[Name of the Institute]

The concept of a 'person'

Introduction

The word 'person' is one of the most controversial words that exist. It has a different meaning in every field of study and can be used in several contexts, depending on the nature of the conversation. The origin of the word actually dates back to Roman times when the Latin word 'Persona' was used for 'wearing a mask'. In philosophy/psychology, the same meaning of the word person can be held true as every person wears a 'mask' that gives him an identity and the face that people get to look at. Further along the Roman history, the word 'Persona' was also used for actors playing roles and characters. Even in life, people play different roles and it not necessary that a person may always display his true characteristics to others. It is possible that he/she may be a different 'person' on the inside and wear a different 'persona' on the outside.

In this paper, we discuss the four factors that constitute the word 'person'. Those factors are emotional, intellectual, physical and spiritual. In psychology, it is the composition of these four factors that define someone as a person. To be a person, it is necessary to be able to feel and connect, have a mind that can function on its own, exist physically and have some sort of spirituality. If any of these factors is missing, the subject cannot qualify as a 'person'.

Overview

In this paper, we discuss the four factors that are necessary to define the word 'person' and analyze how the absence of any one or more factors prevents the subject from qualifying as 'person'. The thesis derived for this paper studies the four factors and also applies them on an animal (a dog) to test the hypothesis and validity of the theory. Throughout the paper, we discuss the arguments proposing that an animal cannot be considered as a person due to the lack of spirituality and emotions and also consider the counterarguments that can be presented in this regard. Although a dog (the animal being considered for the paper) has physical presence and a mind that can function on its own, it lacks most of the emotional states and spirituality that can be achieved. The paper also relates the core idea to a real-life scenario and emphasizes on how the proposed theory applies in the real world.

Definition

As discussed earlier, the word 'Person' is one of the most controversial words that exist. Some studies claim that it applies to every entity that can function on it's own whereas psychology and philosophy suggests that to be a person, one must have a mind of his/her own that can function independently, there should be an essence of spirituality in the subject, physical attributes should be there and the subject should be capable of feeling and expressing emotions. According to most laws, especially the ones applying to taxations, the definition of the word 'person' is entirely different.

Thesis Statement

This paper revolves around the word ...