module 4A terminology

• Who am I?


  Indicates the name, the aspect of uniqueness (in contrast to "what am I?" which indicates the common essence of all human beings)
• Person


  An individual substance of a rational nature (Boethius' definition)
• Individual/Individuality


  Means "undivided," one part from the rest (Latin "individuus" meaning indivisible)
• One/Unity in General


  Having the property of undividedness, it is not another
• Identity


  Philosophically, a criterion by which we can locate a person essentially and existentially
• Personality


  A psychological concept referring to the entirety of habits forged by personal decisions and education
• Non-Identity Aspect


  Each person's identity is something that is in the making because while he knows who he is now, he does not yet know all that he can still become
• Rational/Rationality


  The thinking and willing capacities of man
• Nature


  The essence as the origin/principle of certain kinds of activities
• Absolute


  The person is absolute only in the sense that he alone can set goals for himself, not unlimited like God
• Relative


  The person is relative only in the sense that he is limited by human nature he has received and did not create
• Absolute-Relative Being


  The person is absolute because he is an end in himself, but relative because he does not give his own being to himself but receives it from another source
• A Person is an 'End in Himself'


  S/he can never be means to an end, not an object to be used for something else
• Principles of Individuation


  Origins or factors that explain a person's being his unique individual self
• Punctual I


  The "I" as it is present/lived at every point in time by an individual person during his entire lifetime (from conception to the present)
• Time


  The measurement of movement, the change with respect to before and after (Aristotle)
• Movement


  The passage or change from potentiality/potency to actuality/act
• Culture/Environment


  As a factor of individuation, culture means in a general sense and in opposition to the biological, everything that human beings create and express that is not attributable to the psychological; the environment surrounding a person will also influence his individual uniqueness
• Free Action


  As a factor of individuation, free action means that a person is who he is because of the free decisions and actions he has taken
• Bodily Organism/Temperament


  As a factor of individuation, the person is a unique individual because of his genes, his innate temperament, the changes his body undergoes through time
• Passive Synthesis


  Everything that a person receives and which has influenced him, spanning from his entire past until his present, all contributing to who he is at present
• Self-Realization


  A process in which a person improves himself through time
• Self-Perfection


  The goal towards which self-realization is directed, achieved only gradually and imperfectly within a person's temporal life, not perfection like God's