What is a person?


What is man? In the article we will talk about what a person is from the point of view of various sciences: psychology, philosophy, biology. And let’s start with a philosophical approach. What is a person – the definition of philosophy Do you know what is the main stimulus to the development of philosophical thought? I think you already guessed: this, of course, is the desire of man to know himself. “Know thyself” or. (in Greek it is read as gnotochi saauton) – this maxim, carved on the wall of an ancient temple, for a long time does not bother most of the thinking population. And really, how to determine who we are? Only philosophy is interested in the true essence of man, not in particular, related to what a person is from the point of view of medicine and biology (organism), psychology (psyche), sociology (individual in society) and other sciences.

All these are only separate aspects of the human personality, but what is a person in general, there

is no single answer to this question. But in order not to be so sad, I will bring you a real story that happened to one journalist who tried to interview an Buddhist monk. An Incredible Story One journalist was instructed to interview some holy man, asking him about what is happening to the world, and what is most terrible in life. Without thinking twice, he went to a Buddhist monastery.

Walking along the shore of the pond, the journalist noticed one of the monks staring into the water. Having rejoiced, the journalist approached him, greeted him and asked about the problem that interests him, what is the most terrible thing in life. The monk paused for a moment and asked in response: “Who are you?”. The journalist was surprised, but he called his name. Then the monk said: “So you were called by your parents, but who are YOU?” The journalist replied: “I’m a journalist.”

The monk smiled and said: “This is your profession, and who are YOU?”. The journalist replied: “I am a man!” The monk smiled again and said: “This is your biological

species, and now tell me who you are?” The journalist was at a loss and could not find an answer. Then the monk after some silence seriously remarked: “Here! The most terrible thing in life is not knowing who you are.” You can interpret his answer in different ways, but one thing is certain: man is the totality of all that we understand by the word “personality”. This is the name, profession, appearance, and much, much more. But, according to the sages and philosophers, a person is not exhausted by a person, that is, a set of social psychic biological and other roles.

What is a person – the definitions of other sciences Turning to more practical sciences, we will, accordingly, simplify and define. Man from the point of view of psychology is an individual personality, that is, a set of specific psychological traits (temperament, character, etc.). Also a person, according to psychologists, is the highest stage of the evolution of living beings, since people have the ability to think abstractly. But from a biological point of view, a person is just a reasonable mammal, different from the others by a more developed brain and function of speech inherent in all mammals and other living beings only to man.


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What is a person?