Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Characteristics of Personhood
- Reason and Reflection
- Autonomy, the ability to act
upon chioces. Ability to reflect
on motives
- main dividing
factor in the debate
about animals as
persons
- MIll: 'it is better to
be a human being
dissatisfied than a
pig satisfied'
- Self Creation
- Satre's Existentialism: 'Man first of all
exists, encounters himself, surges up in
the world - and defines himself
afterwards... he will be what he makes
himself'
- a person is a 'free and
responsible agent' who
shapes himself through
acts of will.
- Language
- Glover argues that when you speak in
a foreign language you present a
'simplified version of yourself
- the ability to
understand/communicate
ideas effectively (which is
provided by language) is
important for self
awareness and self
creation
- Self Awareness
- ability to concieve of the
concept of personhood, to
concieve of the SELF as a
person at different times and
places
- concept of the personhood
is LOGICALLY PRIMITIVE -
Strawson
- Arose from criticism
of the cogito
- Descartes takes
advantage of our
knowledge of 'I'
rather than a 'self'
- Being Social
- John Donne: 'No man
is an island, entire of
itself; every man is a
piece of the continent,
a part of the main'
- reaction/interaction with others
is key for reaching full potential
in self creation, reason and
reflection and self awareness
- Degrees of Personhood
- Person
- An animal or human being
possessing the necessay
characteristics and capabilities of
personhood
- Non-person
- an animal or human being that
is not capable of one or more
necessary characteristics of
personhood
- Ex-Person
- A human being or animal that
was once capable of rational
thought, self awareness and/or
communication but has lost
those abilities/characteristics
- a human in a vegetative
comatose state, a corpse
- Diminished Person
- a human/animal that is less
capable/characteristic of
personhood than most other
persons or than it used to be itself
- a person with a degenerative
nervous/mental illness or a
human who has been severely
disabled from birth
- a diminished person may
be able to perform all of
these functions just to a
lesser degree.
- Potential Person
- an animal/human that could
one day develop or regain the
necessary characteristics of
personhood
- a foetus or young baby,
a person in a comatose
state
- Necessary
- a condition/characteristic which is
necessary for something to be - for
example in order for something to be
a triangle it MUST have 3 sides
- Sufficient
- a condition/characteristic
which is enough or sufficient
for something to be.for
example youdon't have to
give birth in order to be
considered a female.