HPS 0613 Lecture 4: Lecture 4

• School: Pitt
• Department: History and Philosophy of Science
• Course: HPS 0613
• Professor: Keith Bremer

Document Summary

Fletcher, (cid:862)cognitive criterion of personhood(cid:863: what (cid:373)akes life valua(cid:271)le is (cid:374)ot people"s (cid:271)iologi(cid:272)al for(cid:373) (cid:271)ut their (cid:373)e(cid:374)tal (cid:272)apa(cid:272)ities, human = biological form, person = human with mental capacities & right to life. Positive human criteria indicators of humanhood: self-consciousness requirement. Fetuses & infants lack this requirement: capability to relate to others. Potentiality for human relationships: minimal intelligence or cerebral function, neocortical function (higher level thinking) This trait is necessary to all of the other traits for humanhood. 1st-order requirement and key to definition of human being. Medically determinable: biological criteria: we are human by virtue of what we are (our species), not by virtue of what we achieve/do.