Persons are understood as free unifications of responsibility rather than as substances

Evidence

Reflecting on it, we can see that in putting the question “what is man?” what we mean is: what can man become? That is, can man dominate his own destiny, can he “make himself”, can he create his own life? We maintain therefore that man is a process, and, more exactly, the process of his actions. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1256 (#expands, via linked claim)

Cf. the sixth of Marx’s Theses on Feuerbach : “The human essence is no abstraction inherent in each single individual. In its reality it is the ensemble of social relations… .” — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2517 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The person is defined as a free relation to oneself; The human race is constituted by free individual choices, not vice versa — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1222; The for-itself’s responsibility extends to the whole peopled world — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1293 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Human beings are processes of their own actions, not fixed essences #expands (0.85) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1256
• Humans are constituted by their social relations rather than an intrinsic essence #expands (0.82) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2517