Persons Flashcards
What does it mean to say that personhood is a matter of degree?
Personhood is a sliding scale as opposed to a yes or issue.
Often links to age, as you mature you develop the skills of personhood more and more, and become more of a person as a result.
Small children are thus still counted as persons, but to a lesser degree than a usual adult, and more than a penguin for eg.
What does it mean to say that personhood is a matter of kind?
The idea that it is a binary issue; you either are a person or you are not.
People often appeal to the characteristics of personhood as evidence for this, if you possess them you are a person, if you do not you are not.
Others may appeal to the idea of a soul which only humans possess, thus we are the only beings capable of personhood.
What does it mean to say that human is a biological concept?
The word human and person have different meanings, despite usually overlapping.
Human refers only to the species of primate we are - homeo sapiens.
What does it mean to say that person is a social, moral and psychological concept?
The characteristics of personhood involve all three aspects, and none are isolated from the other.
This means personhood is not purely biological and not unique to humans, a non human could be a person.
Eg sonny in I robot.
What does it mean to say that a characteristic is ‘necessary’ for personhood?
A necessary characteristic of personhood refers to a characteristic or factor that must be present in order to attain personhood, if the characteristic is not present, then personhood is denied, regardless of other characteristics. So for example being a boy is necessary for being a father, along with having a child. It is possible to have a mixture of necessary and sufficient characteristics.
What does it mean to say that a characteristic is ‘sufficient’ for personhood?
A sufficient characteristic is a characteristic that is not required for personhood, but if attained is enough to gain personhood. For example being shot 27 times in the chest is sufficient enough to kill somebody, however is not required to kill somebody, there are numerous other method in which somebody can be killed. If a characteristic of personhood is sufficient, then other characteristics cannot be necessary, they would be part of the sufficient characteristic. For example if autonomy is sufficient, then it would lead you to believe that the remaining characteristics are also attained with autonomy by default, such as rationality, mental characteristics etc.
List/explain in detail all the characteristics that have traditionally been put forward for identifying a ‘person’ (you should identify at least 8).
- Rationality – the ability to use reason to make a decision
- Reflection on experience – being able to remember and learn things from things that have happened to you in the past.
- Network of beliefs - being able to make conclusions from beliefs you hold, e.g. It is hot, hot hurts, I should not hold this.
- Self awareness – being aware of your existence and being capable of imagining yourself as something separate from what you are now.
- Embodiment – having a physical body.
- Language use – being able to communicate either verbally or physically through some means, but communicating specific meanings of words, not merely general communication such as barking.
- Social being – being able to interact with other beings
- Mental characteristics – having a personality which affects how you act in different situations.
What is meant by the phrase ‘potential person’?
A potential person is somebody who is not currently a person; however it is worth taking into account that they have the potential to grow into a person in the future. So for example a baby cannot be classified as a person according to the characteristics of personhood; however there is something that separates a baby from a flower – the fact that in the future the baby will have the ability to grow into a person. Therefore a baby can be described as a potential person.
What is meant by the phrase ‘diminished person’?
A diminished person is essentially somebody in the process of becoming an ex person, due to the fact they are in the process of losing their characteristics of personhood. This is common for many diseases such as dementia, in which elderly people can lost their memory, self awareness, rationality etc. Due to this it is hard to pinpoint whether or not they are a person or not, as the illnesses can be very complex, it is more of a scale and can vary from day to day. For this reason we say they are a diminished person.
What is meant by the phrase ‘ex person’?
An ex person is a potential person in reverse chronological order. An ex person could be somebody who is dead, or has become brain dead. Although they now do not possess any of the characteristics of personhood, thus not allowing them to be a person, it is worth taking into account that in the past they were a person.
What is meant by the phrase ‘simple person’?
A person who possesses the characteristics for personhood to a very limited extent, e.g. a child.
What does it mean to say that there is a problem with ‘counting persons’?
This problem stems from different opinions on what people believe qualifies something as a person, for example somebody who is bi-polar may count as 2 persons to one person, 1 to another, and possibly not a person at all in another’s eyes. Another problem is do potential persons count as a person, for example if there is a pregnant woman, are there two persons in the room or one?
Explain why some philosophers think that not all humans are persons. Explain Singer’s views.
Some humans do not possess the necessary characteristics required for personhood, and being human alone is not sufficient, e.g. a comatose person. Human is a biological term, person is not, if we treat them as the same then we are “speciesist in favour of humans” (Peter Singer).
Explain the meaning of the term ‘chauvinism’, in relation to this topic.
Prejudiced belief in superiority of one’s own group, in this case normally the belief that humans can be persons and machines or animals cannot on the grounds that they are not human.
Explain the meaning of the term ‘anthropomorphism’, in relation to this topic.
“Attribution of human motivation, characteristics, or behaviour to inanimate objects, animals or natural phenomena.”
What is ‘artificial intelligence’? What is the key problem/question for calling AI ‘persons’?
If a computer or machine has AI it has been programmed to be able to carry out tasks which we could consider require “human intelligence”. An example of this is a computerized opponent in a game show who would imitate a person.
Artificial intelligence refers to machines such as robots, that we as humans create, and often have vast understanding or knowledge of many things, however there is a dilemma whether classifying them as persons or not. Although they can have most of the characteristics of personhood, eg rationality, embodiment, social etc. AI are at the moment incapable of having any form mental states. This leads to the idea that they do not actually understand what they are conveying, much like a calculator doesn’t understand the maths that it calculates - it is just a code.
Explain the meaning of the term ‘qualia’.
Qualia are regarded as one of the things that are necessary in order to possess mental characteristics. Qualia are the “raw feels” of the sensory experiences that we encounter throughout life; they are the way things seem to us. Clearly this is different for every person, nobody can experience everything in the world exactly the same, and therefore they make up our subjective experience of the world. This can include things such as the stinging of a pain, and even if a robot was programmed to say “ouch” when appropriate due to a pressure plate, it was lack the understanding or qualitative experience of the heat in order for it to have a mental state.
Explain the meaning of the term ‘intentionality’.
Intentionality is regarded as the other thing required for a mental state, and is what allows mental states to have a relevance or purpose to the agent. The property of “being directed at” or “being about” objects in the world. Many would say that robots and computers execute no functions that can be called intentional. This is because they simply follow out a programme rather than think about something directly for their own purpose. The Chinese room experiment demonstrates this well.
Explain what the Turing Test is, and what it is trying to show.
The Turing Test was introduced in 1950 by Alan Turing in which player C has to try and correctly identify the computer and human between players A and B. Some see that if the machine can be functionally equivalent to persons then in essence they may as well be persons. In order to pass the computer must have built in errors as to not appear too intelligent, indeed the idea is that the machine merely imitates persons in order to convince player C that it is one. Some say however that this does not demonstrate any level of understanding or intelligence, merely human behaviour, and there is a distinct difference.
Explain Searle’s Chinese Room example, and what it is trying to show.
The Chinese room involves an experiment in which somebody sits inside a small room with two holes, one going in, one going out, numerous Chinese symbols, and a manual in their language about how to arrange the symbols. They are then passed in symbols, unknown to them this is a question in Chinese, and using the manual they can create a response also in Chinese. To anybody outside the box this appears to be a Chinese man inside the box communicating with them, however the man in the box clearly has no understanding of what he has just done, and this can be compared to how machines appear to respond to questions they are given, however they merely follow a “manual” or programme and deliver a response that we have programmed them to say with no underlying understanding.
What is a ‘non-human animal’? What is the key problem/question for calling them ‘persons’?
A non-human animal is any animal that is not of the homeosapien species, for example a whale or a cockroach. The problem arises for referring to them as persons as we do not truly know or understand about their mental characteristics, it is accepted that most animals are sentient beings at least, for example a dog displays happiness or pain, as well as some form of rationality. However the dispute is about the extent to which these characteristics are displayed, and to whether or not they should be granted personhood. A characteristic such as rationality is difficult to pinpoint, when is a being rational compared to irrational. Most would say a dog is not self-aware or capable of making largely intelligent decisions, however it does make some form of rational decisions, even if it just based on the natural instincts of the dog.
Explain Descartes’ and Kant’s attitude to animals.
Kant: While both animals and humans have desires to can compel them to action, only human beings are capable of standing back from their desires and choosing which course of action to take. This ability is manifested by our wills. Since animals lack this ability, they lack a will, and therefore are not autonomous. According to Kant, the only thing with any intrinsic value is a god wills, since animals have no wills at all, they cannot have good will’s; they therefore do not have any intrinsic value.
Descartes: Descartes believed that all of animal behaviour could be explained in purely mechanistic terms, and that no reference to conscious episodes was required for such an explanation.
Explain Hume and Singer’s attitude to animals.
Hume: “no truth appears to me more evident than that beasts are endowed with thought and reason as well as men.” Hume thinks that animals are just as capable as thought and reason as humans, suggesting that they too can be persons.
Singer: Peter Singer sees no reason why humans are special, and animals are not equal to us, he claims that to believe otherwise is “speciesism” in favour of ourselves.
Explain the Red Dot test in relation to animal intelligence.
The red dot test or mirror test is a means of measuring the self-awareness of an animal. The animals are left in a call with a full length mirror and their behaviour is recorded, the most self-aware animals began using the mirror to groom themselves and to show them places that they cannot see. After this an odourless spot of red dye is put on the animal. Their behaviour is monitored again and the most self-aware animals began turning to examine the dot in the mirror, or even poking it. It is thought that the animals which reacted to the red dot test would have an aspect of self-awareness as it meant that they identified themselves as the thing in the mirror and therefore identified themselves as a self.
