Abstract superclass of the three dimensions of the one fundamental form of reality of the human person. The one fundamental form of reality of human personhood unfolds in three dimensions, which are not three different realities but three aspects of one and the same reality:
- The First Dimension: personhood prior to the awakening of consciousness (zygote, embryo, fetus)
- The Second Dimension: awakened personhood with the actual exercise of personal faculties
- The Third Dimension: the moral-axiological perfection or degradation of the person
The decisive point is this: the three dimensions do not concern the whether of personhood (this is given inalienably from conception onward), but the how of its unfolding (cf. Bexten 2017, pp. 178–210).
Ontological classification:
- Superordinate concept: Fundamental Form of Reality
- Subordinate concepts: First Dimension, Second Dimension, Third Dimension
Chapter assignment: Chapter 4: Personhood
Dimensional Transition
The dimensional transition is the process of passage from one dimension of the fundamental form of reality to the next. It can be gradual—as in the awakening of consciousness, the transition from the First to the Second Dimension. It can also be regressive, for instance in dementia, when a human being returns from the Second Dimension to a state resembling the First Dimension.
The decisive point is this: personhood remains unchanged through every dimensional transition. The dimensional transition concerns the level of the deutera energeia (the acts of operation), not the prote energeia (the act of being). The person remains the same person, regardless of the dimension in which she currently finds herself.
Ontological classification: Superordinate concept: developmental process, process
Dimensional State
The dimensional state is a temporal attribution. It models in which dimension of the fundamental form of reality a person is situated during a given period. Example: “Person Alpha is in the First Dimension during the prenatal phase.”
The dimensional state is an ontological modeling element that formally captures the temporal extension of the dimensions without touching the immutable personhood. As a subclass of temporal attribution, it links a subject (the person), a property (the dimension), and an interval (the life phase).
Ontological classification: Superordinate concept: Temporal Attribution
Normative State
The normative state is a temporal attribution of a normative condition. It models, for example: “Person Alpha is instrumentalized during the interval T.” As a subclass of temporal attribution, the normative state links a subject (the person), a normative state of affairs, and an interval. The normative state makes it possible to record in the ontology when and for how long a person is subjected to a particular normative situation—for instance, a violation of the Personalist Norm or a respect for her dignity. It is a formal modeling element that captures the temporal dimension of ethical attributions.
Ontological classification: Superordinate concept: Temporal Attribution; related: Dimensional State
Sources: Generated by querying the Personhood ontology.
Further sources:
- Aquinas: Summa Theologiae, I, q. 76, a. 1 (unity of the substantial form and the unfolding of personhood)
- Seifert, Josef (1987): Back to ‘Things in Themselves’. A Phenomenological Foundation for Classical Realism. London/New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. (dimensions of being and reality)
See also
Fundamental Form of Reality, First Dimension, Second Dimension, Third Dimension, Personhood, Person, Prote Energeia, Deutera Energeia