The concept of the person, which is central to ethical reflection, has been critiqued and seriously
challenged on multiple grounds in contemporary philosophy. The phenomenological approach,
as distinct from an anthropological perspective, understands personalism not as a doctrine
but rather as an attitude. Accessing the person via the phenomenological route leads to
the emergence of a pluralist and open personalistic perspective, both in terms of determining
who or what may be defined as a person (a human being, an animal, or persons of a higher
order), and at the ethical level, where it suggests a non-formal and anti-hierarchical ethics. In
light of these considerations, the phenomenological approach and specifically the line of inquiry
developed by Husserl offer the contemporary ethical debate scope for appealing to the concept
of the person, while making a minimum or residual use of it that is not weighed down by excessively
demanding anthropological or metaphysical assumptions.
