Person - Implications of the personhood debate

Person, in the classic sense, refers to a living human being. However, in philosophy, there has been debate over the precise meaning and correct usage of the term, whether the classical definition should be expanded or in some cases reduced, and which constituent elements or criteria must exist to establish personhood. Person - Are all persons human?. Firstly, there is the simple and traditional view that the common usage is the correct one: that "person" does indeed mean "human". However, this runs ...

Including:

• Person - Are all persons human?
• Person - Are all humans persons?
• Person - Possible criteria for personhood
• Person - Personhood theory
• Person - Implications of the personhood debate
• Person - Individual rights and responsibility
• Person - Corporations as persons

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Personhood theory has become a pivotal issue in the interdisciplinary field of bioethics. While historically most humans did not enjoy full legal protection as "persons" (women, children, non-landowners, minorities, slaves, etc.), from the late 18th through the late 20th century being born as a member of the human species gradually became secular grounds for an appeal for basic rights of liberty, freedom from persecution, and humanitarian care. Since modern movements emerged to oppose animal cruelty (and advocate vegetarian or vegan l ...

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Person, Person - Are all persons human?, Person - Are all humans persons?, Person - Possible criteria for personhood, Person - Personhood theory, Person - Implications of the personhood debate, Person - Individual rights and responsibility, Person - Corporations as persons

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Firstly, there is the simple and traditional view that the common usage is the correct one: that "person" does indeed mean "human". However, this runs into the problem that the term "person" has a somewhat loaded meaning - we commonly believe that all and only persons have certain rights, for example, the right to life. Some would go so far as to say that all and only persons are sacred. However, we can imagine the hypothetical alien from another planet, who, despite not being human, nevertheless has every trait that we see as being essentia ...

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Person, Person - Are all persons human?, Person - Are all humans persons?, Person - Possible criteria for personhood, Person - Personhood theory, Person - Implications of the personhood debate, Person - Individual rights and responsibility, Person - Corporations as persons

Read more here: » Person: Encyclopedia II - Person - Are all persons human?

See also legal entity (artificial person) and natural person Largely separate from the discussion of "real" persons are considerations regarding artificial persons such as corporations and states. In Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company the United States Supreme Court ruled that a corporation is considered a person for many legal purposes. Many question the wisdom of this; the philosopher John Ralston Saul said, "If you are a person before the law and Exxon or Ford is also a person, it is clear that the conce ...

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Person, Person - Are all persons human?, Person - Are all humans persons?, Person - Possible criteria for personhood, Person - Personhood theory, Person - Implications of the personhood debate, Person - Individual rights and responsibility, Person - Corporations as persons

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The above points seem to indicate that there may be persons that are not human, and there may be humans that are not persons. For these reasons, many philosophers have tried to give a more precise definition, focusing on some trait or traits that all persons, real and hypothetical, must possess. The most obvious such trait that individuals considered persons usually possess is a conscious mind, typically (but not necessarily) with plans, goals, desires, hopes, fears, and so on. These trai ...

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Person, Person - Are all persons human?, Person - Are all humans persons?, Person - Possible criteria for personhood, Person - Personhood theory, Person - Implications of the personhood debate, Person - Individual rights and responsibility, Person - Corporations as persons

Read more here: » Person: Encyclopedia II - Person - Possible criteria for personhood

According to Boethius: Person is an individual substance of rational nature. As individual it is material, since matter supplies the principle of individuation. The soul is not person, only the composite is. Man alone is among the material beings person, he alone having a rational nature. He is the highest of the material beings, endowed with particular dignity and rights. In recent years a kind of consensus among secular scholars has emerged, which might be referred to as "personhood theory". The criteria a ...

See also:

Person, Person - Are all persons human?, Person - Are all humans persons?, Person - Possible criteria for personhood, Person - Personhood theory, Person - Implications of the personhood debate, Person - Individual rights and responsibility, Person - Corporations as persons

Read more here: » Person: Encyclopedia II - Person - Personhood theory