Original language | English |
---|---|
Title of host publication | The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology |
Editors | Hilary Callan |
Place of Publication | United Kingdom |
Publisher | John Wiley & Sons Ltd. |
Pages | 2540-2549 |
Edition | 1st |
ISBN (Print) | 9781118924396 |
Publication status | Published - 2018 |
Abstract
In Western philosophy, psychology, politics, and law there has been an extended debate
about what constitutes a person. Naturalist philosophers have often focused on the human capacity for consciousness over time and the capacity to make models of the
world anô€€ to plan and act on these models. Other philosophers have suggested that
huma􀀃s differ f􀀅o􀀆 nonhuman agents like animals or machines because they attribute meamngs and s1gmficance to things and acts. Western philosophers have often focused
on what they see as the human attributes separating persons from animals such as
"second-order desires": self-conscious awareness and reflective self-evaluation. Some
philos_ophers extend such second-order desires and thus nonhuman personhood to aniÂmals hke great apes and this has been enshrined in laws enacted in some countries.