{"id":6371,"date":"2009-12-03T06:02:33","date_gmt":"2009-12-03T11:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2009\/12\/03\/science-body-and-soul-3-rjs\/"},"modified":"2012-07-29T08:03:16","modified_gmt":"2012-07-29T13:03:16","slug":"science-body-and-soul-3-rjs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/12\/03\/science-body-and-soul-3-rjs\/","title":{"rendered":"Science, Body, and Soul 3 (RJS)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

We began a couple of weeks ago to look at Kevin Corcoran\u2019s book Rethinking Human Nature: A Christian Materialist Alternative to the Soul<\/a><\/strong><\/em> where he develops a constitution view of human persons.\u00a0 Professor\u00a0 Corcoran<\/a> is a philosopher teaching at Calvin College specializing in philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and philosophy of religion\u00a0 \u2013 a philosopher who tries to connect philosophy with bible, theology, faith, and science.<\/p>\n

If \u201cnothing-but\u201d materialism is inadequate, but dualism also seems troubling, where can we turn? Today I will try to put forth the essential points of Corcoran\u2019s discussion of the Constitution View for discussion. Next Tuesday we will move to some of the implications.<\/p>\n

According to the Constitution View \u201chuman persons are constituted by our bodies without being identical with the bodies that constitute us.<\/em>\u201d (p. 65) Corcoran uses the example of a statue to make his point \u2013 a statute may be constituted by a piece of copper, but is not identical with the piece of copper. After all, the copper statue can be melted down \u2013 and the copper remains, but the statue is gone.<\/p>\n

Human persons are constituted by their bodies such that if the body ceases to exist the human person will cease to exist. But the human person is not identical with the body because the body can exist after the person ceases to exist, and (perhaps) the body existed before the person began to exist.<\/p>\n

This gets to a key question \u2013 and one with ramifications for many kinds of ethical questions today, including the stem cell research question.<\/p>\n

So what makes a human being a person?
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Or to ask a slightly different question, why is Kevin Corcoran (above) a person, while my cat (below) is not?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n


\n\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Corcoran suggests that a human person is a being with a capacity for intentional states. But this is not enough \u2013 my cat certainly has the capacity for intentional states. When he runs into the living room next to the brush, rolls over on his back and looks at me, he definitely has beliefs, desires, and hopes \u2013 and he is quite intentional \u2013 even insistent.<\/p>\n

So added to the capacity for intentional states, the constitutive view considers that a human person is a being with the capacity for a first person perspective. But this needs some elaboration \u2013 what is a first person perspective?<\/p>\n

\n

A first person perspective is the capacity to think of oneself as oneself<\/em> without the need of a description or third-person pronoun. \u2026 When I wonder, for example, whether I will live long enough to see my children graduate from college, I am thinking of myself from a first-person perspective. (p. 68)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Corcoran claims that nonhuman animals seem to lack a first-person perspective, and this disqualifies them from personhood. I\u2019d like to see this developed a bit more \u2013 because It seems to me that it is a different kind of capacity for abstract thought and relationship that disqualifies nonhuman animals (like my cat) from personhood.<\/p>\n

Is this view of personhood attached to first-person perspective enough? <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Christian tradition and Scripture itself, on the other hand, provide suggestive material for thinking that personhood and relationality<\/em> are essentially linked. For example the Christian tradition claims that God exists in three<\/em> persons in intimate Trinitarian relationship. And the creation account of human beings in Genesis 2 is equally suggestive. \u2026 What is not <\/em>good, of course, is that \u201cman\u201d should be alone<\/em> on the earth. \u2026 It is no exaggeration to say, therefore, that human persons are always \u2013 from the beginning of the Christian narrative to its very end \u2013 persons-in-relation, It is plausible to believe that this feature of the biblical narrative is eminently relevant to the issue of personhood. (p. 74)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While the constitutive view (CV) of human persons does not require relationality to define personhood, it is entirely consistent with a relational character of personhood.<\/p>\n

Now for a couple of theological questions <\/strong><\/em>\u2013 how does this view of human persons relate to the Christian concepts of incarnation and imago dei?<\/p>\n

On the topic of incarnation \u2013 well this is a mystery. But it is as much a mystery for a dualist view of human persons as for a constitutive view of human persons. How the person of Jesus was fully human and fully divine is not solved by an immaterial Spirit (God) occupying a material body \u2013 this would not be incarnation. Rather in a dualist view we need an immaterial and material \u201cfully human\u201d Jesus along with a full immaterial divine nature.\u00a0 In a CV of persons \u2013 the incarnation is a both immaterial and material as human and divine.<\/p>\n

Imago dei is another objection \u2013 how can a material object be created in the image of an immaterial God?\u00a0 Corcoran suggests that we image God by caring for creation, in loving relation to other beings, in acts of mercy, hospitality, love and kindness. And here is an interesting idea:<\/p>\n

\n

Finally, we also image God in our suffering.God is love. To love is to open ourselves up to suffering.When we lay down our lives for our friends, and yes, our enemies too, we image God who laid down his life for us in Jesus. (p. 81)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Nothing in this picture of the imago dei is inconsistent with a material view of human persons. We image God not through our material or immaterial nature but through our personhood \u2013 the definition of which goes beyond the CV view, but is consistent with it.<\/p>\n

There are questions that remain \u2013 and we will come to these in the next two posts\u00a0 next week (on The Stem Cell Challenge \u2013 the ethical questions raised, and The Resurrection of the Body and the Life to Come \u2013 how a material view of persons fit with the idea of resurrection).<\/p>\n

For now \u2026<\/p>\n

Does a constitutive view of human persons make sense? Why or why not?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

If you wish to contact me, you may do so at rjs4mail[at]att.net<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We began a couple of weeks ago to look at Kevin Corcoran\u2019s book Rethinking Human Nature: A Christian Materialist Alternative to the Soul where he develops a constitution view of human persons.\u00a0 Professor\u00a0 Corcoran is a philosopher teaching at Calvin College specializing in philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and philosophy of religion\u00a0 \u2013 a philosopher who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[480],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-and-faith"],"yoast_head":"\nScience, Body, and Soul 3 (RJS)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We began a couple of weeks ago to look at Kevin Corcoran's book Rethinking Human Nature: A Christian Materialist Alternative to the Soul where he develops\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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