Socrates Concept Of Personhood

1.0. Introduction
What does one understand by the word ‘person’ or the concept ‘personhood’? Socrates questioned it and so did Plato and also the later generations of philosophers and thinkers; all have encountered the concept of ‘personhood’ as an existential crisis in the intellectual journey of the human race. The socio-political-philosophical reflection upon the issues such as ‘injustice’, ‘dignity’ and ‘human rights’ in the Slave Narratives makes the question of ‘personhood’ a very prominent existential and intellectual crisis which is still being pondered about in various forms and colours. The struggles of the life of a slave enumerated in such narratives is a reflection of the incoherence regarding the concept of human life, dignity

Thus, in legal terminology a person becomes a legal subject with rights and duties as its attributes. However, the search is still on to realize the meaning of ‘personhood’. The process of such endevours has led to a number of debates in the academic and the philosophical world. One of most initial and instinctive questions in the quest to understand the term would be to ask: when can a being be identified to have the attribute called ‘personhood’ to get itself considered as a ‘person’? The concept of personhood and its inception into a being has been a subject of debate since time immemorial. The debate is: is ‘personhood’ achieved at the time of fertilization or is it acquired gradually on birth? On one hand, while religious traditions have for long strongly hold on its beliefs on this subject, the recent socio-political and legal opinions on the subject have failed to reach a consensus. To begin with the religious view-point, the Catechism 2270 says “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person - among which are the inviolable right of every innocent being to life”, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.” Thus, the notion here is that personhood in a being begins as soon as the being is conceived and the acknowledgment of this quality in the being is not dependent upon its birth. In Hinduism, the idea of ‘personhood’ is closely related to the notion of “Self”. The presence of the “Self” or the “Atman” is the most essential condition for the presence of ‘personhood’ in a being. However, in Buddhism (a non-Vedic tradition that rejects the theory of “Self”), where the five elements, namely, maternity, feeling, perception, mental formation and