Francesco Pardi

The article identifies a paradox in the concept of person and in its use. Modernity, and the liberation from the logic of status, should have brought about the ultimate consolidation of the idea of personal value. On the contrary it caused such a drastic functional differentiation within society that the individual has come to be defined by his/her function (citizen, economic actor, etc.) rather than as the single bearer of different roles. The concept of person has thus become an expression to identify only the communicative aspect of social life. That is the reason why in our complex society the concept of person cannot find a proper location and comes to the fore only when the other codes fail.