The Selfhood Of The Human Person Analysis

John F. Crosby in his work, The Selfhood of the Human Person, attempts to provide an advancement in the understanding of the human person. Persons are conscious beings who think and know they are thinking. He claims persons are not merely replaceable objects, but characters who cannot be substituted or owned. Crosby describes personhood as standing in yourself, being an end to yourself, and being anchored in yourself. A feature of personhood is that persons can be conscious of everything in the universe while the universe acts on them. Additionally, personhood means persons exist for their own sake and not for the sake of others. However, persons who are centered in themselves often give of themselves. Persons are incommunicable unlike any other piece of creation. A quality of the incommunicability of persons is action. Aquinas explains person are not acted on but act through themselves.

Crosby explained only in acting through themselves and living freely do persons come alive subjectively. Subjectivity is the relation of person to themselves as subject, which establishes the interiority of the person’s existence. He split subjectivity into two fundamentals: self-presence and self-determinism. Self-presence is knowing one is conscious and intentionally being conscious of some external object(s). The more self-presence one has equates to a greater ability to enter the object outside of oneself. Others help one find their self-presence. One can also discover more of their self-presence by objectifying or looking at themselves as others see them. Self-determination is experiencing oneself because of their own free choices/decisions. One’s conscience admonishes them when they are making choices which metaphorically “derail them.” Persons determine who they are and what they want to become from their innermost center. Immediate self-determinism says what one does has an immediate effect on them