Selfhood

Normative Modalities

This instrument defines specific modalities of human agency and fundamental freedoms. The RDF properties and SHACL shapes parsed below codify these rights as affirmable undertakings binding upon actors.

Note: We strictly map these rights to the natural person, prioritizing self-determination and autonomy. Institutional constructs (such as corporate personhood) are explicitly disjoint from these human-centric dignity classifications within the SHACL constraints.

Contextual Data Structures (CML & nquins)

The underlying structure of this schema utilizes nquins and Context Markup Language (CML) to provide deep, context-aware semantic mapping.

This architecture ensures that whenever multiple cryptography-supported identifiers are utilized to manage state or attribute assertions, they remain entirely enumerated and compartmentalized. This prevents the blending of distinct agent presence modalities and secures the structural integrity of the Human-Centric system against opaque institutional tracking.

@prefix rdf:    <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> .
@prefix rdfs:   <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix sh:     <http://www.w3.org/ns/shacl#> .
@prefix owl:    <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix dc:     <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> .
@prefix values: <https://ns.webcivics.net/values/> .
@prefix self:   <https://ns.webcivics.net/self/> .

# ===========================================================================
# selfhood.n3 — the FOUNDATIONAL ontology of the natural person (PLAN.md §12).
# Grounds values:NaturalPerson in the conscious, living human with inherent
# dignity — NOT in "agent that acts" (FOAF) and NOT in owl:Thing ("human not
# thing"). Carries forward the WebCivics personhood model (ns.thecharter.eco,
# github.com/WebCivics/ontologies, c.2018) RE-EXPRESSED in RDFS + SHACL.
# The root frame is moral, not thing-based.
# ===========================================================================
self: dc:source <https://github.com/WebCivics/ontologies> ;
    rdfs:comment "Foundational selfhood/personhood layer; carries forward WebCivics personhood.ttl, re-expressed RDFS+SHACL (not OWL). Root is a moral frame; a human is not an owl:Thing." .

# --- The root is a MORAL FRAME, not a thing (the WebCivics 'MoralGrammar') ---
self:MoralFrame a rdfs:Class ;
    rdfs:label "Moral frame" ;
    rdfs:comment "The foundational frame. NOT rdfs:subClassOf owl:Thing — persons are not things." .

self:Dignity a rdfs:Class ; rdfs:subClassOf self:MoralFrame ;
    rdfs:label "Dignity" ;
    rdfs:comment "Inherent worth — worthy of honour and respect (UDHR Art 1). NOT contingent on capacity, utility, productivity, or legal recognition." .

# --- Biosphere grounding: a human is a living, conscious being situated in nature ---
self:Biosphere a rdfs:Class ; rdfs:subClassOf self:MoralFrame ; rdfs:label "Biosphere / natural world" .
self:Living    a rdfs:Class ; rdfs:subClassOf self:Biosphere ; rdfs:label "Living being" .
self:Conscious a rdfs:Class ; rdfs:subClassOf self:Living ; rdfs:label "Conscious being" .

self:HumanBeing a rdfs:Class ; rdfs:subClassOf self:Conscious ;
    rdfs:label "Human being (homo sapiens)" ;
    rdfs:comment "The conscious, living human — endowed with reason and conscience (UDHR Art 1), possessing agency, and bearing inherent self:Dignity. The irreducible core beneath every legal/role facet." .

# Inherent attributes (UDHR Art 1: 'endowed with reason and conscience') ---
self:hasDignity  a rdf:Property ; rdfs:domain self:HumanBeing ; rdfs:range self:Dignity .
self:reason      a rdf:Property ; rdfs:domain self:HumanBeing .
self:conscience  a rdf:Property ; rdfs:domain self:HumanBeing .
self:agency      a rdf:Property ; rdfs:domain self:HumanBeing ; rdfs:comment "Human agency (WebCivics :humanAgency)." .

# --- Selfhood interior: the first-person / felt dimension (the 'qualia' of QualiaDB) ---
self:Selfhood a rdfs:Class ; rdfs:subClassOf self:MoralFrame ;
    rdfs:comment "The first-person interior of a human being." .
self:Affect a rdfs:Class ; rdfs:subClassOf self:Selfhood ;
    rdfs:comment "Felt/experiential states (the WebCivics emotion taxonomy — Admiration, Awe, Anxiety… — extends here)." .
self:experiences a rdf:Property ; rdfs:domain self:HumanBeing ; rdfs:range self:Affect .

# ===========================================================================
# GROUNDING the values lattice: a natural person IS a human being.
# values:NaturalPerson is the human being CONSIDERED AS a rights/duty bearer;
# legal personhood (values:JuridicalCapacity, values:LegalPerson) is a FACET on
# top of the human, never the human itself.
# ===========================================================================
values:NaturalPerson rdfs:subClassOf self:HumanBeing .

# --- Facets: roles/aspects attached to a human, which must NOT redefine it ---
self:Facet a rdfs:Class ;
    rdfs:comment "A role/aspect of a human (legal, biomedical, economic…) attached via self:hasFacet. A facet must NOT be substituted for, or redefine, the HumanBeing." .
self:hasFacet a rdf:Property ; rdfs:domain self:HumanBeing ; rdfs:range self:Facet .
self:BiomedicalFacet a rdfs:Class ; rdfs:subClassOf self:Facet ;
    rdfs:comment "The body/health aspect — extension point for SNOMED CT / FHIR / HPO / FMA. A human is not a medical record." .
self:EconomicFacet a rdfs:Class ; rdfs:subClassOf self:Facet ;
    rdfs:comment "The livelihood/exchange aspect — extension point for GoodRelations / ValueFlows / schema.org. A human is not a consumer/asset." .

# ===========================================================================
# SHACL — 'human not thing': reassert the guard at the foundational layer
# (mirrors crates/qualia-core-db/shapes/qualia-agency.shacl.ttl).
# ===========================================================================
self:HumanNotThingShape a sh:NodeShape ;
    sh:targetClass self:HumanBeing ;
    sh:not [ sh:class owl:Thing ] ;
    sh:message "A human being is not an owl:Thing, an asset, a resource, or a record — dignity is inherent, not conferred by a facet." .