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Single Idea 9263

[filed under theme 16. Persons / B. Nature of the Self / 7. Self and Body / a. Self needs body ]

Full Idea

What I mean by the concept of a person is the concept of a type of entity such that both predicates ascribing states of consciousness and predicates ascribing corporeal characteristics are equally applicable to a single individual of that single type.

Gist of Idea

A person is an entity to which we can ascribe predicates of consciousness and corporeality

Source

Peter F. Strawson (Individuals:Essay in Descript Metaphysics [1959], 3.4)

Book Ref

Strawson,Peter F.: 'Individuals: Essay in Descriptive Metaphysics' [Methuen University 1974], p.101


A Reaction

As Frankfurt points out, merely requiring the entity to be 'conscious' is a grossly inadequate definition of what we mean by a person, which is typically a being that is self-aware and capable of rational decisions between alternatives.


The 15 ideas with the same theme [a body is necessary for a sef]:

The mind only knows itself by means of ideas of the modification of the body [Spinoza]
We need an account of the self based on rational principles, to avoid materialism [Kant]
The powerful self behind your thoughts and feelings is your body [Nietzsche]
Certainty that I will die is more basic to my existence than the Cogito [Heidegger]
What is sacred is not a person, but the whole physical human being [Weil]
Bodily identity and memory work together to establish personal identity [Ayer]
People own conscious states because they are causally related to the identifying body [Ayer]
Two experiences belong to one self if their contents belong with one body [Ayer]
Empiricists can define personal identity as bodily identity, which consists of sense-contents [Ayer]
A person is an entity to which we can ascribe predicates of consciousness and corporeality [Strawson,P]
If we have a pain, we are strongly aware of the bodily self [Cassam]
Maybe our persistence conditions concern bodies, rather than persons [Olson, by Hawley]
For 'animalism', I exist before I became a person, and can continue after it, so I am not a person [Olson, by Lowe]
The self is founded on bodily awareness centred in the brain stem [Edelman/Tononi]
You hold a child in your arms, so it is not mental substance, or mental state, or software [Merricks]