If a person is defined as the first subject of prediction, then that which is owned is owned by the person as the first subject. For example, the person called Peter owns his hands, arms, legs, and entire body. Peter as the first subject is then the owner of all things biological. The person is consequently not a biological reality, based in the body alone. For if the person was only a biological part of Peter's body, the reality of the person would be ontologically self-contradictory as demonstrated through the logically circular definition of person. For if the person is part of the biological body, Peter owns his body, would mean part of Peter's body owns Peter's body. But Peter own's his body, and then the part of the body that is the person of Peter is then both 1) the owner of all biology within Perter's body, and 2) owned by part of Peter's biological body.
If the person is part of the biological body, the person is then both the owner and owned. But what is the owner has all things subject to it. Therefore in Peter's body, the person is ontologically superior to Peter's body. But what is owned is subject to another. Therefore in Peter's body, part of the body is ontologically superior to Peter's body. The part of Peter's body that is the person is then both ontologically superior to the body and inferior to the body. And what is both ontologically superior and inferior to itself is greater and lesser than itself, which is impossible. Therefore the person of Peter as the first subject of predication is not a part of Peter's biological body, as a biological reality of itself.
The person of Peter as the first subject is then something that exists and thereby has being. But the person of Peter is not biological, but must in some manner reside within a biological body. The person as the first subject is a being united to the biological body as the owner of the body. But furthermore, as man is composed of body and soul, the person as the owner of all of the man, is also the owner of the soul of the man, as well as the body. The person must then also in some manner reside within the soul of the body of the man. The person is an ontological reality within man, that is -
1) Superior to all parts of man.
2) In some manner resides within man, and thereby has a relationship of the subject as the owner in relation to the owned as subordinated parts of man.
3) Is not of the same nature of any part of man, but integrated into the nature of man. For if the first subject was of the same nature as any part of the man, the person would be ontologically self-contradictory as shown above with regard to the person as a biological part of Peter.
4) Is something that exists in man and thereby has being.
5) Cannot be caused by any of the parts of man, for the ontological inferior parts cannot cause the first subject which is ontologically superior to the parts and the sum of the parts.
6) Is an ontological reality in man that is an order of being other than the parts of man. The order of being is that which is according to before and after relative to some principle. The principle of the first subject is the principle of ownership of all the man's body-soul composite. The body-soul parts of men then always according to the principle of the owned, and are then always subject to the person acting as principle of all human acts.
7) Is an ontological reality that fundamentally resides in the superior part of man as the man's spiritual soul. For that which is superior is proportional to the superior and less proportional to the inferior. The superior then tends to more closely associate with the superior than the inferior. Therefore the person of man resides firstly in the spiritual soul of man, for the spirit is superior to the physical body, then secondarily resides in the body.
8) Is a spiritual reality, that is fundamentally not physical, but the owner of both the spiritual soul and body of man as two incomplete parts of man that exist together as a complete compound.
Accordingly, the person as the first subject is not a product of the biological causes of generation. For no parents of the child can act to cause that being within the child which is ontologically superior to any and all biological causes. The metaphysical reality of the person of the child must be accounted for as through a cause other than the parents. That cause must itself be proportional to the effect as a person. And what is proportional to the effect is itself a person who causes the production of the human person in the child. The person who is that cause of human personhood is itself being, for only being can proportionately cause being. And a person that is itself being is God. Therefore whenever a child is generated, the person of the child is caused by God who acts with the parents and the biology within the child to cause the person of the child.
Conclusion - whenever a child is born, God has acted within the created order to produce the person of the child within the child's body. Such an act of divine power is a preparation for the gospel, for all men born of parents are generated as from God who makes all men. As men are made by God, it is natural for men to return to God as the beginning and end of their own existence.
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