Conditions and limits of the quality of person

Abstract

The study of the concept of person presents serious problems due to the lack of consensus on its characterization among the different theorists who approach its discussion from the perspective of philosophy and bioethics. Typically, a human being is claimed to be a person when he or she possesses certain cognitive abilities that are assumed to be necessary and sufficient to qualify as such. Within the dissonant voices in this discussion about the conditions that should be fulfilled to be a person, there are three metaphysical limits for its interpretation that could establish the common denominator from which this concept would be characterized. These would be the possession of a mental persistence through time and space, having an autonoetic consciousness, and an extended self-concept in this spatial and temporal dimension. This research backs up the existence of an extended concept of oneself to characterize the concept of person.