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What is a person?
Murray, Donal
Murray, Donal
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whatisaperson.pdf
Adobe PDF, 124.41 KB
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Abstract
"There is a huge gap in understanding between those who see the very beginnings of human life as worthy of the same respect and protection as human life at any other stage of its existence, and those who cannot understand how people can get so worked up about what they see as ‘a microscopic collection of cells’, without sensations or feelings or selfawareness of any kind. The root of the problem lies in two different understandings of a human being or a human person. We tend to think of those concepts very much in psychological terms: a human person is a being who can think and love and laugh and cry and interact with other human beings. When we think of a person we think in terms of someone who does, or at least is capable of doing, the things that we see as personal activity. The idea that a human being is one who has certain kinds of awareness, abilities and characteristic activities seems obvious nowadays. We pick it up from the air we breathe. But it is an idea which is not as selfevident as it might seem." (p. 1)
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2008
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With permission of the license/copyright holder