The Nature of Human Personhood

Martin Heidegger ( $1962$ , $149-153$ ) distinguishes between two ways of understanding the human person:
Metaphysical Approach: Focuses on the "what" (substances, materials, and capacities) that makes a person.
Existential Approach: Focuses on the "who" (the unique life or mode of existence) of the person.
Example: Tarzan has the "what" of a human person but the "who" of an ape.

Claims the human person has no non-bodily component ( $no\,soul,\,spirit,\,or\,mind$ ).
Mind-brain identity theory ( $JJC\,Smart\,1991$ ): The mind is the brain, and mental states are identical by type to neural states.
Behaviorism ( $Ryle\,1965$ ): Mental states refer to inclinations or tendencies to exhibit certain behaviors (e.g., pain is the inclination to cry).

Asserts the spirit (mind/soul) and body are distinct substances; the spirit can survive without the body.
Plato: The soul is immortal and non-composite; knowledge is recollection of truths known before union with the body.
Rene Descartes (Meditationes de Prima Philosophia): Reality consists of two substances:
Mind: Nonphysical, conscious, not extended in space, and free.
Matter: Physical, extended in space, non-conscious, and determined by nature's laws.
Descartes' Classifications:
Matter: Plants, animals, human bodies, nature.
Mind: Imperfect minds of humans and the perfect mind of God.

Asserts the human person is a unity of body and spirit that cannot exist independently.
Aristotle: The soul is the "cause of life" and the formal aspect ( $form$ ) of a person, while the body is the material aspect ( $matter$ ).
Aristotle's Hierarchy of Souls:
Nutritive Soul: All plants.
Sentient Soul: All animals.
Appetitive/Locomotive Souls: Some animals.
Rational Soul: Humans only.
St. Thomas Aquinas: Agrees with Aristotle but argues the rational soul has a dual nature; its vegetative/sensitive functions depend on the body, but its rational part is immortal.

Questions from Meditations:
How was the experience of reading Meditations on First Philosophy?
What did Rene Descartes mean by "Once the foundations of a building have been undermined, the rest collapses of its own accord"?
What reasons did he give for doubting the senses, and what does this mean for empirical truths?
How did he come to question the existence of his own body?
When he said, "All this is starting to give me a better understanding of what I am," did he mean only himself?
What is he/what are we?
Do you question whether you are your body or your mind?
Lesson 7 Reflection Questions:
Do you find Plato’s arguments for the immortality of the soul convincing?
Do you agree with Aristotle that even plants and animals have souls?
Do you agree with Descartes that animals do not have minds or are not conscious?
Group Activity 4: Includes performing $10-20\,mins$ of Yoga or Walking meditation and discussing if the exercise confirms the unspirited body, disembodied spirit, or embodied spirit view.