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16. Persons / A. Concept of a Person / 4. Persons as Agents

[concept of a person is needed for actions]

11 ideas
For Stoics the true self is defined by what I can be master of [Stoic school, by Foucault]
Within nature man is unimportant, but as moral person he is above any price [Kant]
Hegel claims knowledge of self presupposes desire, and hence objects [Hegel, by Scruton]
A person is a being which is aware of its own self-directed and free subjectivity [Hegel]
My active existence is defined by being able to say 'I can' [Heidegger]
Man is nothing else but the sum of his actions [Sartre]
The modern self has disengaged reason, self-exploration, and personal commitment [Taylor,C]
Action requires a self, even though perception doesn't [Searle]
I am the sum total of what I directly control [Dennett]
A person viewed as an agent makes no sense without its own future [Korsgaard]
To make sense of personal identity, focus on agency rather than experience [Korsgaard]