What makes you a person?

Question

"include personal identity, self-awareness, individuality, and a sense of self that persists through time"


so a person who is brain dead and in a coma, or ..even a new born baby isnt a person?

(I can think and feel, or think or feel)

what if your paralized or in a coma. ur not a human anymore?

Answer 1

the flesh

Answer 2

A person is an entity having a distinct identity with certain distinguishable and persistent characteristics. In the most common sense, a person is "a human being regarded as an individual." Beyond the general definition, however, remains a wide and varying range of alternative defining characteristics; some of which have evolved historically, and continue to shift with time and social context. Some other characteristics used to define a 'person' include personal identity, self-awareness, individuality, and a sense of self that persists through time. Other views centre around the degree to which properties such as agency (both human agency and moral agency) and rights are recognized and acknowledged in society or enforcable by law. The recognition of status as a person is known as individuality.

Answer 3

You are right when you say what make you a person is your uniqueness, self-awareness, etc.

In the case of a newborn baby, of course he is a person, although he hasn't developed advanced thought system, and you maybe do not see his uniqueness. But he has the seed deep inside his heart. This is why there are no two same persons in this world. Even identical twins, brought up by same parents in the same house and same schools develop different personalities.

In the case of a brain-dead person, he has shown his personality for years before he is bedridden. This personality may become unseen when he is unconscious, but the seed is still there. When he get recovered, he will show his personality to everbody.

Answer 4

Memories, and also the abilities to create them.

Kind of absurd, this definition coming from someone who tries to forget her past and tries to have the least memories possible.

I have had to give up a child, because having kept it would have put me in a disastrous financial situation. Still the memory of it having been there, makes it a person for me. Now, technically that means I'm an accomplice to murder - but that's not the point of the matter. Technically, a baby only becomes conscious and aware of its surroundings when it's past 3 months old, in the tummy, like. And this one wasn't - still it is a person to me.

Anyway, bad example... But I still stand by it; memories is what makes a person. We all have memories, although some - like myself - try to forget them. Other people have memories of us as well, memories can't be completely wiped out, so that's what makes someone a person. Imagine if you would live a life and have no memory, around people who have no memory either.

Answer 5

Interesting question, and your further explanations or inquisitions fit like jigsaw puzzles to give a perspective for an answer.

A person is not a snapshot in time, although we all often judge people as we perceive them in a snapshot.

A person is a complex product of his or her past, physical characteristics, and potentials. One can only be judged if the observer knows every possible aspect to reach that moment of judgement. That is why being judgemental can often be inaccurate.

Appearance, fitness, money, power . . . etc. do not add value to an individual. What you have or have not does not describe what you are. It is rather what you do at critical circumstances that reveal your identity.

If one can criticise one's own deeds honestly, then one may get to know himself or herself. Even such a seemingly trivial task is almost impossible in practise. Then how can one get to know other persons ?

History tends to regard those with care and ingenuity better than those with power, money, and cruelty. And amazingly, those with power, money, and cruelty eventually die, which shows how wrong the values we are bombarded by the media are !

I have not provided you an answer, rather I have extended your quest !

Answer 6

I'm going to answer this from an angle that deals with relationships/friendships with others.

What makes me a person is what I offer to others. We each offer something to everyone that is singular, not found within anyone else. And I believe that even though we'll never get to met everyone on the planet, we still have gifts that can be given for free. I inspire and add joy to people I know in my lifetime, people I know for a short while, and people I meet in passing. We all have this influence on others, and that is what makes us people.

So for your second question, I'd say a brain-dead person who's on life support is truly dead, since I believe that our cognitive brain activity creates the gifts we offer. And yes, I believe in spirits that uses our brains to communicate and that without one, we are no longer on the earth.

Answer 7

Another person's empathy is what makes a person a person. You can look it as simple as that. A child, or even and unborn child, or even someone brain dead in a coma is still a person so long as we other people perceive them to be a person. Why is that one mother can abort her unborn child while another mother who looses her unborn (but wanted) child will suffer more? One mother thought of her child as a person the other did not. Why would parents go and visit their brain dead son everyday day of his life when there is no chance of recovery?.. because they believe he is still a person and so he is.

Answer 8

I like your quote, however you're making a wrong assumption that your body is you. You are not your body. You are you, persistent through time. When the body is in a coma, "it" is knocked out. "You" are still there. There are ways to snapping out of a coma as well, but that's another topic.

Answer 9

It is the POTENTIAL for rational thought and self-reflection that makes you a person. So babies and people in comas still are people. But if a person is permanantly brain dead, even if their heart is kept beating they are more or less dead.

Answer 10

In my opinion, a person is an individual human-being who is unique in their own way. They have their own identity and have different views and opinions. But, i think the biggest thing that sets us apart from other species is our emotions and our ability to feel. Humans also have superior intelligence than other species.

Answer 11

Bein' here and livin' makes me a person. a soal or spirit on earth with a body makes me a person. but one who has died, their spirit aint here anymore. so they WERE a person. a person who is in a coma or a vegitable or somthing is still a person 'cause they breathe and are simply here. But their spirit is not a vegitable and it still ives, it is a normal heathy life force that returns to its normal state when they die. But I don't wanna get all religous if you feel uncomfortable.