ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to explore the inherent duality between ‘private’ and ‘public’ in the notion of person and to argue that ‘person’ is a term of moral and social significance only. The distinction between the ‘private’ and ‘public’ aspects of personal existence originates in the difference between identifying responsible agents and describing and assessing certain relations among responsible agents. The concept of person is not, then, part of the subject-matter of philosophical psychology but of ethical and social philosophy. The chapter also aims to make the case by examining the general thesis of the contractual nature of society and Locke’s theory of personal identity.
