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Baker - The Importance Of Being a Person
(Text as at 18/12/2010 19:58:05)
(For earlier versions of this Note, see the table at the end)
This note controls my detailed review of "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - The Importance Of Being a Person", Chapter 6 of "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Persons and Bodies: A Constitution View". I’ve pirated the Oxford Scholarship Online summaries as a temporary expedient.
OSO Note: - Discusses the importance of personhood. Only persons can be moral agents or rational agents. Persons have many cognitive and practical abilities that beings lacking first-person perspectives lack. Only beings with first-person perspectives can know that they are going to die; only such beings can envisage alternative possibilities for their own futures, or seek self-understanding. Only beings with first-person perspectives can have ideals or can try to change themselves to conform better to their ideals. Human persons are not only the products of evolution, but (unlike any other finite beings) only human persons can deliberately change the course of evolution – not only by artificial breeding, but more directly by genetic engineering.
- Section Headings:-
1. Moral Agency
2. Rational Agency
3. Some Cognitive and Practical Capacities
4. Unity of Consciousness
5. Conclusion
… Further details to be supplied1
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Previous Version of this Note:
Summary of Note Links from this Page
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References & Reading List
Author |
Title |
Medium |
Source |
Read? |
Baker (Lynne Rudder) |
Persons and Bodies: A Constitution View |
Book - Cited  |
Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Persons and Bodies: A Constitution View |
Yes |
Baker (Lynne Rudder) |
The Importance Of Being a Person |
Paper - Cited  |
Baker (Lynne) - Persons and Bodies, Chapter 6 |
Yes |
Text Colour Conventions
- Black: Printable Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2019
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2019