Lynne Rudder Baker clarifies her view about what makes us persons. By us she means all humans who live in this earth, and they are called in our contemporary life "persons." She begins her argument by saying that biologists do not have the final say regarding what makes us persons, so the philosophers must be placed in the account as well. Baker explains that neither souls, minds, bodies are what makes us special. The first person perspective is the only standard to be a person. To start, Baker seems to agree that we can be animals, but ontologically unique. The human person is made of human body or organs but these two are not necessarily to be identical. I as a person and my body were made of the same material, but we are not the same.
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A rudimentary first person perspective requires consciousness, intentionality, and the ability to imitate. A robust first person perspective have the same characteristics of rudimentary first person perspective PLUS having the ability to conceive of oneself as oneself, from the inside. In other word, persons have inner lives. In addition, she sees that language gives a privilege to real persons that enables them to use the first person pronouns. Thus, having a conscious as well as psychological processes like believing, fearing and desiring without first person perspective would not make a being person. However, Baker believes if a being develops himself and can conceive of himself from the first person, he then deserves to be a person. Overall, Baker concludes her view by saying "people often know what they are thinking, feeling, and deciding. They can think about the future, wonder how they are going to die, hope for an afterlife, and they can reflect on their own motivations" …show more content…
Well, all these beings would not be persons, because simply they are not similar to human biologically (I mean here they do not look like human). To be more clear, I do believe that first person perspective is an condition of being a person, but this is not the ONLY condition. My point is that not each human could be a person but each person is a human. Therefore, a person is ontologically AND biologically unique. In fact, in the book The Rise and Fall of Soul and Self, Freud emphasizes my idea by adopting biological approaches when he described id which comprises two kinds of biological instincts which Freud called Eros (life instinct) and Thanatos (death instinct) (246). Thus, he believed that each component of this system (id, ego, and superego) exists and has a biological
A rudimentary first person perspective requires consciousness, intentionality, and the ability to imitate. A robust first person perspective have the same characteristics of rudimentary first person perspective PLUS having the ability to conceive of oneself as oneself, from the inside. In other word, persons have inner lives. In addition, she sees that language gives a privilege to real persons that enables them to use the first person pronouns. Thus, having a conscious as well as psychological processes like believing, fearing and desiring without first person perspective would not make a being person. However, Baker believes if a being develops himself and can conceive of himself from the first person, he then deserves to be a person. Overall, Baker concludes her view by saying "people often know what they are thinking, feeling, and deciding. They can think about the future, wonder how they are going to die, hope for an afterlife, and they can reflect on their own motivations" …show more content…
Well, all these beings would not be persons, because simply they are not similar to human biologically (I mean here they do not look like human). To be more clear, I do believe that first person perspective is an condition of being a person, but this is not the ONLY condition. My point is that not each human could be a person but each person is a human. Therefore, a person is ontologically AND biologically unique. In fact, in the book The Rise and Fall of Soul and Self, Freud emphasizes my idea by adopting biological approaches when he described id which comprises two kinds of biological instincts which Freud called Eros (life instinct) and Thanatos (death instinct) (246). Thus, he believed that each component of this system (id, ego, and superego) exists and has a biological