Are Persons Just an Illusion? - Neuroscience and philosophy clash.

Reason ^ | April 27, 2007 | Ronald Bailey

[Ken H]

But if you're dreaming, aren't you still a person?

And how would the observer know when it was "ethical" to strike the blow?

A certain amount of guesswork is involved:)

[Grizzled Bear]

Isn’t the plural of person, people?

---

Not if you spend most of your time stoned off your *SS!

[latina4dubya]

I think I am, therefore I am.

you beat me to it! good thing i checked first... good ol' Rene Descartes...

[KrisKrinkle]

"Are Persons Just an Illusion?"

"...there is a great deal of agreement on what constitutes personhood. These include attributes such as rationality, memory, ability to self-reflect, intelligence, and a concept of self."

I dunno about "Persons," but "rationality, memory, ability to self-reflect and intelligence" often seem illusory.

[Unknowing]

I think this is best understood as neurobiologists’ attempt at Grand Unification Theory. Or maybe not.

[dynachrome]

"I freep, therefore I am"

;)

[A. Pole]

How do we know that “Neuroscientists Martha Farah and Andrea Heberlein” have personalities or souls?

Maybe they are just biochemical machines?

[EternalVigilance]

Another attempted hammer stroke against the foundation stone of our American republic: The infinite value of the human individual and the self-evident truth that each and every individual was created by God and is endowed with certain unalienable rights...the rights to life, liberty and private property.

We’re not all a bunch of animals...

[EternalVigilance]

THAT is funny!

[GSlob]

"I think I am, therefore I think I am.". Now better.

[Oberon]

"I freep, therefore I am"

Seems to me you're putting Descartes before the horse.

[NicknamedBob]

"Every night when I go to sleep I become a non-person. I guess that would be the ethical time to kill me."

Also, every day when I leave to go to work, I become homeless. Maybe I should ask people for change.

[dynachrome]

“putting Descartes before the horse”
My other thought was to put the authors of this piece in the box with Schroedinger’s cat.

[TN4Liberty]

Every night when I go to sleep I become a non-person. I guess that would be the ethical time to kill me.

I had the exact same thought, so I hope that means we are both brilliant. :)

This from the article: This personhood network is triggered by stimuli such as human-like faces, bodies, or contingent behaviors. (Contingent behavior is activity that looks like it is responsive to the outside environment and purposeful.)

I remember seeing a picture of an unborn just a few weeks after conception sucking his thumb. Certainly seems purposeful to me.

[B-Chan]

The Enemy’s latest strategy: if you can’t wipe the race of Adam out physically, annihilate them psychologically. Keep telling them that they have no souls, that they aren’t human, and some will begin to believe it. Despair is the next step, followed by nihilism, followed by extinction. The Big Lie strikes again.

Well, not this cowboy. I know I exist, because I experience myself existing directly, without recourse to the senses. I do not “feel” myself — I am myself. And short of death or permanent coma, nothing can cause me to doubt that.

[Graymatter]

*sniff* ... *sniff* ... *sniffsniffsniff*

[Reaganesque]

One evening Rene Descartes went to relax at a local tavern. The tender approached and said, "Ah, good evening Monsieur Descartes! Shall I serve you the usual drink?".

Descartes replied, "I think not.", and promptly vanished.

[UnChained]

phenomenalism not phenomenology

[omnivore]

"...there is a great deal of agreement on what constitutes personhood. These include attributes such as rationality, memory, ability to self-reflect, intelligence, and a concept of self."

Actually this definition of what "constitutes personhood" seems a lot like what "Kill Terry Schiavo" people claimed, that something that appears to be a living person needs this big laundry list (made up by them) of "abilities" in order to count as a "real person."

[Socratic]

Do dogs dream? Are they people?