The Human in Philosophy

Paper Summary:

This paper considers the question whether the human person is more correctly identified with the body, the mind, the soul (or spirit), the self, or some combination thereof. The paper analyzes several philosophical viewpoints on the subject, including Homer, Heroclitus and Plato, as well as Jewish and Christian tradition. It concludes that a person is best identified with a combination of all four, on the grounds that none of these concepts are independent: without all four of these, a human person cannot exist.

From the Paper:

"Heraclitus? concept of process and the original Jewish tradition about the resurrection of the dead reinforce one another. It is very difficult for us to conceive of an immortal soul as an immaterial consciousness, a mind without a brain. But it is not hard at all to think of each person's pattern being stored in God's memory, and of God printing out a new hardcopy at the appropriate time. In that sense the original Jewish concept seems far more sensible, far easier to believe, to a modern mind; if one can believe in God's power to do it, then such resurrection does not present any logical paradoxes."

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