A pessoa humana enquanto consciência liberdade em Tomás de Aquino

The main objective of this article is to demonstrate the meaning of the human person according to Thomas Aquinas, to understand it as evidence of consciousness and freedom as unique characteristics of the human being. The human being is the meeting point and the synthesis of the intelligible world and the sensible world. Consciousness and freedom, this is what, according to St. Thomas, characterizes the person, that raises it above other beings, justifying that, to this privileged being, in which a rational nature is realized, a special name should be given: "person". We will present three arguments: (i) man is not only soul and not only body, but soul and body; (ii) consciousness itself is not a power but an act that implies the relation of knowledge to something; (iii) free will, whether identified with freedom or not, denotes man's own and exclusive property as master of his own acts and therefore responsible for his own actions.