PHL 550 Study Guide - Final Guide: Chauvinism, Molecular Machine, Moral Treatment

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHL 550
• Professor: David Checkland

Document Summary

Some people believe there is a clash between regarding persons as purely physical, and regarding them as worthy of the special moral status they have We might capture their reasoning as follows: If materialism is true, then persons are only complex organisms- complicated biological machines made of flesh and blood - differing from cattle, rats and spiders only in their degree of physical complexity. If persons are only complex biological machines, then they are not things of special moral value- they are not worthy of the sort of love, respect, and praise we bestow upon them. They will lack that special human dignity or worth that makes them deserving of moral respect and moral treatment. But persons are worthy of love and respect, and they do have the special dignity or worth that requires us to treat them with moral respect. So, persons are not merely complex biological mechanisms, and the materialist theory of mind must be false.