LINK What does it mean to be a "person"? That depends on your culture - Big Think
Ideas often taken for granted in the United States and Europe about what it means to be a person are, quite simply, not shared with other cultures.
Ideas about personhood in U.S. culture are largely a product of Christianity, in which personhood is inextricably tied to the notion of the soul. Only a being who possesses a soul is a person, and personhood is treated as a black-and-white matter: Either a being has a soul or it does not.
1
Enjoy being online again!
Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.Create your free account
2 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Slippery slope.
“In Christian-majority societies, it may not always be apparent to what extent our taken-for-granted notions of personhood derive from a Christian foundation, until they’re compared with other religious traditions. From my perspective, to embed these ideas into law – notably by banning abortion or even allowing its prohibition – is to embed theology into legal principle.”
There’s a bit of a Catch-22 here. In Christian-majority societies, it may not always be apparent to what extent our taken-for-granted notions of morality derive from a Christian foundation, until they’re compared with other religious traditions. The idea of law itself is derived from theology. The only way to remove theology completely would be to abandon law altogether.
skado
Level 9
July 30, 2022
0
@MsKathleen
Exactly.
Enjoy being online again!
Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.Create your free account
Share this post
Categories
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.