ABSTRACT
This chapter sets the philosophical scene for the turn to the other through Mounier’s analysis of personalism and existentialism and their relationship with more traditional philosophy. Linking into Mounier’s experience of the profound disability of his daughter, the chapter considers the concept of the person in theology and philosophy. Mounier warns of the problem of separating out the person from the human being, and this has resonance with the conversations had by Harriet McBryde Johnson and Eva Kittay with Peter Singer. The chapter explores Mounier’s interest in building up just societies and makes connection with the social model of disability as well as the person’s inner life and other-personness.
