ABSTRACT
Though often overlooked, miaphysite theology formed a significant thought world in the early Byzantine period that engaged in important ways with the notions of personhood and individuality. The thought of Severus of Antioch and John Philoponus are discussed in turn, each in relation to the ontology of the Cappadocian Fathers that preceded. It is suggested that Severus’s “inversion” of Cappadocian ontology led him to an unprecedented emphasis on the unity and individuality of the hypostasis as the unique existential expression of being (physis). Individual human nature appears as the bearer of rational and volitional activity, and thus the foundation of personality. Philoponus, in his desire to emphasize the particular over the universal, goes further than Severus in denying that individuated, “particular natures” are universal. Whatever one makes of their positions, they are undoubtedly of importance for their increased investment in notions of individuality and indeed personality.
