What makes something a person? [Spirituality & Religion]

@Picklebobble2

I disagree entirely.
I know people often conflate human and person but it seems to me that, that is the result of not having thought it through.

Would an intelligent alien race be a person? If you could digitally map a human's brain onto a computer chip and transfer their mind into a robot body would that be a person?

Don't you think there's more to being a person than just having human genetic material? Like self-awareness, personality, thoughts, feelings, motivations etc?

@Pikachu No. Humans are ultimately defined as a living species. A person is a human. By definition !
Chimpanzee DNA alters from human by less than 1%. But a Chimpanzee will never be human.
Aliens are aliens.
Robots are robots
all animals probably have self-awareness; personality; thoughts; feelings; motivations etc. Unlikely to be uniquely Human trait

@Picklebobble2

[quote]Aliens are aliens...Robots are robots[/quote]

Would Spock be considered a person? He isn't human but he has every single one of the characteristics besides that which would be attributed to a person.
So human brain and all the qualities therein that make that human a person, mapped onto a synthetic brain is no longer a person?

I find that to be absurdly reductive.
"A person is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, or legal responsibility."

Does that not sound like a more accurate description of a person than "is a human"?
Name me 5 characteristics of personhood (not counting human).

@ladycae



I have read your answer. I truly don't understand it. I gave you a specific hypothetical scenario: is a non-human alien from star trek a person or not? and i honestly don't know why you can't give an answer based on that scenario. I really don't. It's not like it goes on your permanent record or anything lol
But i did ask you another question there in an effort to move the conversation along.

[quote] i don't speculate on things i know nothing about.[/quote]

Well that's not true. That's [i]exactly[/i] what you just did in our conversation about the soul. You speculated that the soul is housed in the brain or that brain damage hampers a brains ability to express a soul or that the soul is actually present in the whole body.

yes was an alien like the humanoids from a tv series and the situation was the same then yes. i didn't speculate anything about the soul i simply answered your idea that the attributes we give the soul are in the brain. might i remind you that you replied that a severely developmentally disabed child was not a person..i know about what the soul is and told you where i felt it perhaps resided but admitted i really didn't know. so no you really read my answers you just used them to once again try to trap me.

@ladycae

Thanks for giving me a straight answer🙂 So then you agree that being human is not a necessary quality of personhood?

[quote]might i remind you that you replied that a severely developmentally disabed child was not a person[/quote]

lol yes, you might. To what point and purpose, i don't know.

[quote]i didn't speculate anything about the soul i simply answered your idea that the attributes we give the soul are in the brain[/quote]

Speculation: 1) the forming of a theory or conjecture without firm evidence.

I said that the qualities traditionally attributed to the soul are functions of the brain.
You um...suggested that maybe the soul resides in the brain. You then went on to suggest other possibilities about the soul and its relationship to the brain. You floated possibilities to a question for which you did not have an answer nor any particular knowledge on the subject. How is that NOT speculation?

This is "counter indications" all over again lol. I am NOT trying to trap you. I'm pointing out to you when you contradict yourself. And it's absurd that you accuse me of playing word games when you seem so willing to play them yourself as long as you don't have to admit that you made a mistake.
A mistake is not a crime.

lol this is ridiculous. Is this how it's always going to be? If i catch you out then you're going to accuse me of trying to trap you?

@SpaceCreature So most humans aren't even people. Its all so clear now.

@VolpeTredici self reflecting is a rare ability that only a few have.

Biology is the science of cells not matter. There are many branches if biology, humans and plants are not part of the same branch

@Daintybeast but they are still all products of biology. plus we share our DNA with all living things. 60% of our DNA is found in bananas and a quarter of our DNA is found in rice plants not to mention our DNA being in works and files, especially those pesky little fruit flies.

I stand corrected 😞

but can he sing ?

@SW-User yup

he is almost human/a person

@Columbianpoppies what about people with no family or friends and is depressed?