Persons

Persons is a module in the AQA AS Unit 1 Philosophy course.

Course Outline

You and I are people. What else is and why? Is a person a type of creature - a human being? Or should we count some animals (e.g. chimpanzees) as people? Might a computer be a person one day? Is it right to say that all humans are people? Some say no. A person has to have certain mental capacities, such as the ability to reason, to be able to make moral judgements and to use language. So, babies and those who suffer from a loss of mental function are not people even if they are human beings.

We treat people and non-people very differently. A vet can put down a dog but a doctor cannot put down a man. The dog is not a person; the man is. A dog who attacks a child may be tied up or re-trained or even destroyed. A person who attacks a child may be imprisoned and their re-training will take quite a different form. This is a good example of where a metaphysical topic has clear 'real-world' relevance. In the course, you will consider and assess different views on what makes something a person.

Issues to be covered

Persons
- What are the characteristics of personhood?
  - The characteristics associated with personhood, such as: rationality; being reflective about one's experiences, feelings and motives as well as those of others; possessing a network of beliefs; self-awareness and awareness of oneself as a continuing subject of experience; creativity, autonomy and/or individuality, one who shapes themselves through choices, goals, actions and reactions and is responsible, accountable and possesses rights in virtue of this; one who is embodied, one to whom we ascribe mental and physical characteristics; a language user, able to communicate meanings; a social being, one whose sense of self emerges in and is created through relationships with others.
  - The concept of a person as a natural phenomenon and as primitive. We generally identify persons before applying the above criteria. Yet these characteristics are possessed as a matter of degree: we have the concepts of complex and diminished persons; potential and ex-persons.
- What is a person?
  - The notion that not all humans are persons and, perhaps, that some non-humans are persons.
  - To what extent do some non-human animals and some machines possess at least some characteristics associated with personhood and to a sufficient degree for personhood?
- What secures our personal identity through time?
  - Whether either physical or psychological continuity through time are necessary or sufficient conditions of identity.
  - Whether our survival, rather than identity, through time is a more appropriate concept; the implications of cloning, brain damage, body alterations, etc.

Resources For Downloading

Persons - An Introduction

The Minds of Beasts and Personhood

Turing and the Imitation Game

SN The Turing Test

SN The Turing Test - Further Worries

Persons and Personal Identity (shorter)

Searle and the Chinese Room.doc

The Chinese Nation.doc

Minds and Computers.doc

Other Resources

A short animated video on ontology.