The Similarities Between Daniel Dennett And Mary Ann Warren's Theories Of Personhood

According to both Daniel Dennett and Mary Ann Warren’s theories on personhood, Samantha from the film “Her” would be considered a person. Daniel Dennett would consider her to be a person because she falls into his six basic conditions of personhood; those include rationality, conscious mental states, and intentionality, being the subject of a special stance of attitude of regard by other persons, reciprocating this person-regarding stance, the capacity for verbal communication and self-consciousness.

Rationality is the state of being rational, which ultimately means having a sound judgment of oneself. Samantha displays this quality when Theodore tells her she’s not a person since she has no need of oxygen. She shows rationality by acknowledging that she’s not a human being, despite her wanting to be one for so long; this does not disregard her as a person, in fact, it reinforces the fact that she is because she can ‘reason’, and see reality as is. Additionally, she shows to have conscious mental states and intentionality whenever she talks about her feeling and expects some kind of response. An example of this is when Theodore ‘wakes her up’ she becomes aware of her “ability to want”, which later on proceeds to her becoming more and more of a person. She shows intentionality when she becomes curious of Theodore and asks him where we would touch her; she did this fully aware of how Theodore would respond. When Samantha goes on a double date with Theodore’s friend Paul and his