What is a "person?"
This question is relevant to the issue of dementia...
(I’ll explain below why I chose a photo of myself with one of my bicycles…)
The word “person” is derived from the Latin personae, meaning “a mask, worn by an actor, a character in a play,” as well as “individual, human being”
This seems odd, given the ordinary use of “person” in English now
The Latin designated a feature of theater (originating in ancient Athens) where the “characters” were all “stock” figures; so the mask worn by the actor showed which of these traditional figures was being portrayed
Christian theology, by the 12th c., adopted the phrase “person of the Trinity” to indicate the individuating aspects of the divine
So the meanings of “character playing a part” & “individual” developed together over the history of English; we have long since tended to emphasize the latter sense
But we still use “person” in the sense of “one who plays a part:” for example, whenever an individual changes we ask: “What happened to the person…” who used to play a role in my life?
I note this particularly often when an individual develops the “short-term” memory loss & other early characteristics of dementia
(“Alzheimer’s” is bit more general diagnosis, named for the German psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer [1864-1915] who noted memory loss & other changes in a patient in 1901
Dementia names a cluster of changes (or “losses”) largely in the pre-frontal cortex (the brain-region unique to humans) where short-term memory, decision-making, “problem-solving,” social interaction, expression, & “personality” are expressed
Hence the sense many experience: the “person” manifest in all these respects becomes “absent”
That is, we notice that the dementia-afflicted are no longer able to participate in the life they have led (which is the life they have led with you and others)
So a “person” really is largely a role: a part (actually, many parts) I play in the numerous forms of interaction we call “life:” child, parent, partner, employee…and so on
Of course there are hundreds of features of my life, in addition to the roles I play in all the interactions with others that fill out living
Being the person I am is primarily a quality of my interactions with others
But that, of course, is the first thing to be missed by just those others amongst whom I live, work, play, and love
NOTE: I’m 89 & moved to Tucson in 2013 for the year-’round cycling; cycling is now one of the primary expressions of the person I’ve now become; I have also been a parent, grandparent, teacher, etc. So the photo is to make this point…