3 Criteria for Personhood

There are many theories on what “makes a person.” I have narrowed it down to 3 criteria for personhood. The first principle of personhood is taken from the well-known philosopher, Descartes. He states that in order to be a thinking being you must be a “thinking thing.” In order to think, you must be aware or conscious. This doesn’t only include using rational thought but also, Doubts, understands, affirms, denies, and wills, refuses and other mental processes. We conducted a written test to see whether or not the person has thinking persons qualities. (See appendix 1) Another philosopher, Bernd Wursig, wrote an interesting piece called, “Is A Dolphin a Person?” He believes that being a human is simply a biological concept but being a “person” is philosophical. To be a person you must be, “alive, aware, feel positive and negative sensations, have a sense of self, control your own behavior, recognize other persons, capable of analytical thought, can solve complicated problems, has capacity for communication, able to learn, retain and recall information.” Following Wursig’s theory, it is possible to be a human and not a person. To test this theory out, there was a survey conducted with 30 people asking if they had all of wursig’s criteria for a person. All participates passes and would be considered a person except for 1, a newborn baby. The baby could not answer the survey at all, moreover even understand what I was asking. A newborn baby, coma patient, or someone who was brain dead are still human beings, but considered non-persons. In contrast, an ant, chimpanzee, “mother earth”, and a human child would be.

-1 more criteria with philosophers

-1 more tests

-Apposing philosopher

-What challenges did you face while conducting these...

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...m. If you do badly in school, your parents will punish you, most teachers will lecture you, and you’ll have to deal with the possibility of negative consequences. However, if you do well, your teachers will congratulate you, you will get closer to getting on the honor roll, and your parents might even get you a reward for your hard work! As a result, you’re conditioned to try your best in school. Another example of social conditioning is from a young age, females see magazines and billboards advertising size 0 models, who are tall and photo shopped. This socially conditions girls to want to be like these models by becoming thinner, wearing high heels, and wear more make up, in order to fit in with their cultures influences. Some people are biologically determined to be tall and skinny because it is in their genes.

Works Cited

http://www.bodymeasurements.org