Richard of St. Victor is a medieval theologian who made an important contribution to the discussion of an adequate concept of person. His definition of persona builds on the classical determination of Boethius, yet corrects it on one decisive point: he replaces the term substantia with existentia, thereby emphasizing the person’s own act of existence. This further development was taken up by Thomas Aquinas and integrated into the Thomistic ontology of the person.
His formula reads: intellectualis naturae incommunicabilis existentia — the incommunicable existence of an intellectual nature. In contrast to Boethius’ individua substantia, Richard thereby emphasizes not only the individuality but also the relationality of the person: the person exists as someone who stands within a communio amoris (Bexten 2017, pp. 112–114). The dissertation acknowledges this relational moment as an essential contribution to the substance-ontological determination of the person, insofar as it supplements the mode of being of personhood with the dimension of communio. Richard’s concept of person thus marks a decisive mediation between the substance-ontological heritage of antiquity and the personalist thought of modernity.
Contribution to the Argument from Uniqueness
Richard provides the historical core of the argument from the uniqueness of the person. By replacing substantia with existentia in his definition, he moves the unique act of existence to the center: every person is a unique bringing-forth into being, not a further instance of a kind. Spaemann translated this argument into the present, but its conceptual ground lies with Richard. Together with the arguments nature as ground and primordial in-itself being, uniqueness forms the third pillar of the positive arguments for the substance-ontological concept of person.
Sources: Bexten 2017, pp. 112–114 (Richard’s further development of the Boethian concept of person by the relational moment of the communio amoris).
Further sources:
- De Trinitate, esp. IV, 22–24 (Engl.: Richard of Saint Victor, On the Trinity, trans. Ruben Angelici. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2011) (person as intellectualis naturae incommunicabilis existentia — further development of the Boethian concept of person)
See also
- Uniqueness of the Person
- Nature as Ground
- Primordial In-Itself Being
- Boethius
- Thomas Aquinas
- Alexander of Hales
- Robert Spaemann
- Josef Seifert
- Person
- Concept of Person
- Personhood
- Human Person
- Substance
- Substance-Ontological Concept of Person
- Form of Existence
- Mode of Being
- Dignity
- Someone
- Nature
- Reason
- First Dimension
- Agere sequitur esse
- Personalistic Norm
- Chapter 3: The Concept of Person (German)