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2008 | 13 | 2 | 267-282

Article title

Being a Person and Acting as a Person

Authors

Selected contents from this journal

Title variants

Languages of publication

EN

Abstracts

EN
The article is primarily concerned with the ambiguities which surround the concept of the person. According to the philosophical tradition taking its roots from Locke's definition, personhood depends on consciousness. Therefore, “personhood” can be ascribed to different entities, and only these entities acquire a moral standing. This can entail that a human being may or may not be considered as a person, as well as higher animals and even artificial machines. Everything depends on manifest personal characteristics. In order to sort out different meanings ascribed to “person,” I distinguish between being a person and acting as a person. Then, I show that a human being is a paradigm of the person and his being always precedes his acting.

Keywords

Year

Volume

13

Issue

2

Pages

267-282

Physical description

Dates

published
2008

Contributors

  • Pontifical Academy of Theology, Cracow

References

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  • Devine, Philip E. “The Species Principle and the Potentiality Principle.”In Bioethics. Readings & Cases, edited by Baruch A. Brody and H. Tristram Engelhardt, 136–141. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1987.
  • Dolby, R. G. A., 2006, “The Possibility of Computers becoming Persons.” In The Person: Readings in Human Nature. William O. Stephens, 352–364.Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006.
  • Gómez, Juan Carlos. “Are Apes Persons? The Case for Primate Intersubjectivity.” In The Animal Ethics Reader, edited by Susan J. Armstrong and Richard George Botzler, 138–143. London: Routledge, 2003.
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  • Kuhse, Helga, and Peter Singer. “Should All Seriously Disabled Infants Live?” In Peter. Singer, Unsanctifying Human Life. Essays on Ethics, edited by Helga Kuhse, 233–245.. Oxford; Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2002.
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  • Spaemann, Robert. Persons. The Difference between “Someone” and “Something.” Translated by Oliver O'Donovan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
  • Stephens, William O. The Person: Readings in Human Nature. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006.
  • Thomas Aquinas. Commentary on Aristotle’s De Anima. Translated by Kenelm Foster and Silvester Humphries. London: Kegan Paul, 1951.
  • Warren, Mary Anne. Moral Status: Obligations to Persons and Other Living Things. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997.

Document Type

Publication order reference

Identifiers

URI
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=36814877&lang=pl&site=ehost-live
URI
http://www.pdcnet.org/pdc/bvdb.nsf/purchase?openform&fp=forphil&id=forphil_2008_0013_0002_0261_0276

YADDA identifier

bwmeta1.element.desklight-1d1db103-0845-49b1-a830-694289f6c96b
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