The individual - a person?

Since the ancient times, the best minds of philosophers is the theme of man's place in life and society.With the acceleration of scientific progress, it has become even more urgent, especially in our time, when everyone becomes inevitably dependent on man-made factors.

So, what is a person, and how it differs from the rest of the animal world?

creature called man, belonging to the mammals, which in addition to the biological beginning, is also the essence of the spiritual, social and moral.

problem of defining identity is one of the most important in the humanities.Personality can not fully know the outside, it requires mechanisms of self-knowledge.In philosophy, there is a section dealing with issues of her research - the so-called "personalism."

individual and personality - a concept totally different, though related to the same category.Yet they are sometimes confused with each other.

individual - the definition of which has several meanings.In particular, it includes any individual representative of the human race, regardless of his personal qualities and experience.Thus, the individual - this is not always a person.He may not have the necessary knowledge, experience and skills.

On the other hand, sometimes the individual is considered on a par with the individual.After all, from the point of view of jurisprudence, the person - is any person, even a newborn.

But a professional psychologist, educator and philosopher in a different look at this definition.For them, the newborn - are only the potency of the future personality, it still needs to reach that level.

From the above, you can easily understand that every discipline has its own interpretation of this concept.

One should not confuse the concept of "individual" with the term "personality".In general, personality is the set of characteristics that distinguish people from one another.However, this term may refer to the man, different from the others by any character, emphasizes his originality and uniqueness.And the individual - is, as already mentioned, any given person, excluding its qualities.

personality - a much narrower concept than the two mentioned above.Personality is a person with consciousness, having the ability to know the world and the possibility of converting, building relationships with the community and individuals.From the point of view of philosophy and psychology, not every individual can be considered a person.This must be preceded by the development process, and it is impossible without education of the individual in society as a man - biosocial creature.

Thus, the term "individual" is not equivalent to the concept of "personality".You can prove it by the following example.

There were times when people grew up outside of society - for example, lost their parents in infancy, found and nurtured by wild beasts.In this case, he remained only biological needs.And, as the basis for the development of personality are laid at an early age, in his maturity could not learn to speak.

However, those "skills" that he had vaccinated animals (meowing, hissing, barking, climbing trees and so forth.), Stayed with him for life.Hence, such an individual - is not a person, because he has not passed the socialization process, and he has no consciousness.