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Native american view of europeans
Native american views
Five criteria for personhood
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Recommended: Native american view of europeans
Key Concept: human, other than human, personhood, participation, moral, common place, animate, expansive, self-reflective, identity , mind
Chapter five: Am Expansive Conception of Persons, focus around constructing and defining the definition of personhood. Within this chapter Thomas M. Norton-Smith uses several different philosophers, both with adjacent and opposing views to construct his argument of personhood. Thomas N. Norton-Smith begins by first defining the parameters of human in terms of the Native American perspective. He looks into the perspective of human and other than humans beings which both can be recognized as categories of persons. The term persons is expansive, meaning that is can be applied to many different agencies. AN example of this would be animals, the Sun, rain, the ocean, mountains, and so forth.
Persons and personhood is not is replacement of human or other than human. Instead persons is the understanding that one can be human without being categorized as person. One can be human without being a person. This is because with the notion of persons and personhood it requires specific categories of which a human of other than human must fall into. If the human does not fall
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within these categories then they are incapable of being a person. Personhood, which is a metaphysical notion, has several different components in order to define it.
In order to be a person, one must be self-reflective. In other words one has to be able to evaluate ones actions and be reflective of those actions that take place around them to create an identity. A person is a participant is a society. A person can only be considered a person if they in habitat the space of a community. Hence if they are part of a community in which they can reflect within the ideas they have for themselves as well as the ideas the surround them. A person has a sense of morality as well. Though the definition of morality may be different as long as it aligns with other persons within a society then they are still considered
persons. Thomas M. Norton-Smith, creates the argument that humans have the possibility of existing without the definition of persons. Therefore there is the ability of other-than humans to inhabit the space of than persons. It states that though all humans are not persons all humans have minds and feelings. The mind as defined by Norton-Smith is was is used to construct the world and the reality around us. In that way ones mind is connected to their animation, in other words the mind is connected to a human’s life force. According to Native American world views an animate being is a person because animation contains moral virtue.
Individualism and conformity--two very commonly used terms to describe anyone in today’s time. In comparison to the article “The Sociology of Leopard Man,” written by Logan Feys, one of the most notable quotes that relates to individualism and conformity is “to be a human is to be an individual human, with individual tastes [...][and]talents [...] that are distinct from those of others. Living in society, we are under constant pressure to surrender our individuality to the will of the majority, the school, the workplace, the family, …” (Feys Par. 6). To be truthful, conformity and nonconformity are used to determine a person’s inner-being, but every person is different, and in this case people will not always agree with each other on how they should live.
The first part of the text involves the analysis of race theory. Taylor opens the book by taking time to clarify human forms in such a way that simplifies the too-often rudimentary things which distinguish race from other notions. Taylor makes a point to thoroughly explain how philosophy, concerning race, “involves studying the consequences of race-talk, the practices of racial identification for which race-talk provides the resources” (p. 11). In other words, Taylor takes up the task of evaluating the meaning assigned to physical bodies by people. He does so by first answering the c...
What does it mean to be human? To most people it means being high on the food chain; or having the ability to make our own choices. People everywhere have a few things in common: We all must obey Natural laws, and we have preconceived ideas, stereotypes, and double standards. Being human is simply conveyed as human nature in “The Cold Equations”, by Tom Godwin, where the author shows the common ground that makes each and every one of us human.
Physically, humans consist of muscle, bones, blood, cells, but how do we really classify what makes a human a human? What if someday a scientific finding occurs and we learn that we can move a person's brain to another person's body, or into an robot. Are they still the same person or even a person? Opposite sides would say no, because the flesh is not the same or even there at all, but those sides are forgetting all the memories that the brain possess.If a person is aware of their conscious and unconscious minds, they are human.
In order to define personhood, one must first define a human. A Human can be thought about in two different senses, a moral human sense and a genetic human sense. In a moral sense, humans can be thought of as a person who is a member of the moral community. In a genetic sense, humans are merely any physical being categorized as a being in the human species. From this one can conclude that a person is a human in the moral sense. Furthermore, characteristics of a person must be defined in order to differentiate moral beings from genetic humans.
Le personnalisme, une notion récente dans le domaine philosophique, n’est selon Emmanuel Mounier, ni un système ni une doctrine. Cette pensée est tel toute philosophie de la personne, inspirée de la tradition Chrétienne et se fonde sur cette tradition et culture. Ce courant d'idées, est pour beaucoup de chercheurs, une troisième voie humaniste entre le capitalisme libéral et le marxisme communiste, ces deux régimes sociopolitiques matérialistes qui dominaient le monde au XXème siècle. Cette philosophie, faisait face aux courants qui privaient l'homme d'accéder a sa valeur fondamentale de devenir une personne, et le traitaient d'un simple individu un nombre dévalorisé. Mounier part de la personne et l'univers de la personne étant l'univers de l'homme. Au sens moderne, la notion de personne est d'origine chrétienne, il résulte de spéculations théologiques sur la Trinité et le Christ. Il s'ensuit que la personne est d'un côté un être caractérisé par l’identité, l’autonomie, la liberté, l’affirmation de soi, et d'autre part, un être de relation, de communication, d’échanges... Ces deux pôles sont restés juxtaposés avec un accent clair accordé au pôle "substance". Pour lui, la personne est définit par l'articulation claire de ces deux pôles: l'un et l'autre ne se font que par et avec l'autre. La pensée de Mounier n'est pas qualifié comme une doctrine qui est un système de raisons suivantes un sens préconçu, mais un processus de discernement dans lequel l'homme est invité à comprendre et à comprendre sa vocation d'engagement.
Non-entity because, any 'collective' or group is only a number of individuals. But here, being an individual is to be selfless, voiceless, righteous, slave of any heed, claim or demand asserted by others. Under collectivism, it is imperative to repress one's critical faculty and hold it as one's guilt. Doubt, not confidence, is man's moral-state; self-distrust, not self-reliance, is a virtue; fear, not self-confidence is the mark of perfection; guilt, not p...
In a notable defense of this position, philosopher Mary Anne Warren has proposed the following criteria for "person-hood": 1) consciousness (of objects and events external and or internal to the being), and in particular the capacity to feel pain. 2) reasoning (the developed capacity to solve new and relatively complex problems) 3) self-motivated activity (activity which is relatively independent of either genetic or direct external control) 4) the capacity to communicate, by whatever means, messages of an indefinite variety of possible contents, but on indefinitely many possible topics. 5) the presence of self-concepts, and self-awareness, either individual or social, or both. (Taking Sides -Volume 3).
The definition of a person is an aspect of the abortion issue which raises some very difficult questions. Is an unborn baby a person? When does the unborn baby become a person? This is a difficult question because in order for one to answer it, he must define the essence of a person. When describing the essence of something, one needs to describe the necessary and sufficient conditions of that thing. So how does one define the essence of a person? Kant describes a person as a rational being. Some people define the essence of a person from more of a biological standpoint. Nevertheless, defining the essence of a person is a very difficult thing for a group of people to agree on. One’s own definition of a person would most likely greatly impact his opinion on whether abortion is morally justified ...
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.
Today plenty of people think about what it means to be human, some people think that it is unimportant. As human beings with limited time on this earth we must focus on bettering the lives of the individual and the lives of others, the most important question is definitely not what makes us human. Culture may be seen as something that tears us apart. The fear of death is much more universal than thought and something that may rip us from our time with those that still alive. Some may even go as far to say that the ability to empathize with other people is neglectable. The only thing that makes us human is the ability to ask that question, or at least that is what some would say who have not put much thought into the
Each philosopher gathers differing views on the theory of personhood. The legal concept of a person initially tries to follow the moral concept of a person. In philosophy, “the genetic definition of personhood precludes the possibility of a person remaining the same person after death. If who you are is made up of a genetic code, then that genetic code dies when the person dies” (Moon Lecture 8). Many of these philosophers believe that each person attains an immortal soul which presumes the possibility of an afterlife.
It is apparent that we are personified entities, but also, that we embrace “more” than just our bodies. “Human persons are physical, embodied beings and an important feature of God’s intended design for human life” (Cortez, 70). But, “human persons have an ‘inner’ dimension that is just as important as the ‘outer’ embodiment” (Cortez, 71). The “inner” element cannot be wholly explained by the “outer” embodiment, but it does give rise to inimitable facets of the human mental life such as human dignity and personal identity.
In session one of this class one of the things that was discussed in our reading material in "The Bedford Guide for College Readers" was writing an opening. The Bedford Guide suggests to "Begin with a story" it advises that "Often a simple anecdote can capture your readers’ interest and thus serve as a good beginning" (2011 pg 429). The story of Aaron is very powerful; as a parent it tugs on my heartstrings and immediately drew me into the rest of the story.
Webster's dictionary defines human as 'human 1. Of or characteristic of man || being a person || of people as limited creatures, human failings || resembling man 2. A person'; Of course there is more to being human than that. A concise yet broad definition of human would be any man, woman, child, etc. on this earth.