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BobHurt · 01-17-2006, 02:18 AM

The being you call "I" challenges others to identify him, to differentiate him from a T-bone steak. How shall we achieve such differentiation? Perhaps through his personality.

I notice characteristics in persons that I do not notice in insects, fish, birds, and non-human animals:

Self-awareness (awareness of awareness)
Ability to make moral decisions
Ability to love (to desire to do good to others)
Ability to communicate thoughts, ideas, and ideals to other persons
Craving and ability to know God

He who says "I" must have the above characteristics to warrant calling him a person. Practically speaking, "I" equals personhood.

Although we cannot equate personality to identity, personality seems to organize energy and matter in such a way as to produce identity of an energy-matter system.

A person can exist, as can a non-person, but only a person actually persists. In other words, when a person dies, the person does not necessarily die. In even further words, humans, as personal being, can go to heaven, but our four-legged furry buddies, non-persons, cannot.

Thus, you might say that only only persons can exist indefinitely, up to the point of meeting God face-to-face, perhaps, and even way beyond that.

Naturally, persons think. Obiously, both animals and humans possess mind, but unlike humans, animals do not possess the mental capacity for true wisdom (the realm of philosophy), morality, or truth achievement and recognition (the realm religion, the quest for and devotion to supreme values).

How can you characterize the process of thinking? Does it amount to the contemplation of possible actions and consequences, the rights and wrongs of those choices, calculations and reasoning, and so on? Or does it merely consist of dredging pictures up from memory, looking at them, and fitting them together, as in a puzzle? To what extent might animals engage in thinking, and how do animal thoughts differ from human thoughts?

How about babies? Do their memories contain pictures and words, or actions and consequences at birth? Can they think without pictures and words in their memories? When do they start thinking? Do they possess personhood? When do they become persons - before or after birth?

Now if animals do think, do they exist, even though their thoughts differ in nature from human thoughts? Do they exist in some everalasting sense as humans might? Or do they not really exist at all?

01-17-2006, 02:18 AM	#4 (permalink)
BobHurt Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 3	Who ARE You? Describe your beingness... The being you call "I" challenges others to identify him, to differentiate him from a T-bone steak. How shall we achieve such differentiation? Perhaps through his personality. I notice characteristics in persons that I do not notice in insects, fish, birds, and non-human animals: Self-awareness (awareness of awareness) Ability to make moral decisions Ability to love (to desire to do good to others) Ability to communicate thoughts, ideas, and ideals to other persons Craving and ability to know God He who says "I" must have the above characteristics to warrant calling him a person. Practically speaking, "I" equals personhood. Although we cannot equate personality to identity, personality seems to organize energy and matter in such a way as to produce identity of an energy-matter system. A person can exist, as can a non-person, but only a person actually persists. In other words, when a person dies, the person does not necessarily die. In even further words, humans, as personal being, can go to heaven, but our four-legged furry buddies, non-persons, cannot. Thus, you might say that only only persons can exist indefinitely, up to the point of meeting God face-to-face, perhaps, and even way beyond that. Naturally, persons think. Obiously, both animals and humans possess mind, but unlike humans, animals do not possess the mental capacity for true wisdom (the realm of philosophy), morality, or truth achievement and recognition (the realm religion, the quest for and devotion to supreme values). How can you characterize the process of thinking? Does it amount to the contemplation of possible actions and consequences, the rights and wrongs of those choices, calculations and reasoning, and so on? Or does it merely consist of dredging pictures up from memory, looking at them, and fitting them together, as in a puzzle? To what extent might animals engage in thinking, and how do animal thoughts differ from human thoughts? How about babies? Do their memories contain pictures and words, or actions and consequences at birth? Can they think without pictures and words in their memories? When do they start thinking? Do they possess personhood? When do they become persons - before or after birth? Now if animals do think, do they exist, even though their thoughts differ in nature from human thoughts? Do they exist in some everalasting sense as humans might? Or do they not really exist at all?