What is the Human Being?: Examining the Animal, Social, and Rational
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2013
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Haverford College. Department of Philosophy
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Thesis
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eng
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Open Access
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Abstract
This essay seeks to explain the metaphysical nature of the human being. It does so on three levels: the animal, the social and the rational. To explain the animal nature of a human being I take from Michael Thompson's book Life and Action. Using his theory I motivate the existence of a category of life separate from mere matter. To explain the social nature I adapt Grice's theory of non-natural meaning. Using this I separate out actions that animals take whose meanings are not fixed by their animal nature. This together with an adaptation of Foucault's notion of the power-structure I hypothesize that between a mere animal and our rational selves there could exist a social animal that has not rational powers. Finally using John McDowell's understanding of the Sellersian space of reasons I motivate the nature of rationality as centered around self-consciousness. Self-consciousness I understand as being able to perceive the signs that one performs as objects in of themselves thereby placing them in the space of reasons. This together with theory from Danielle Macbeth will allow me to show how the space of reasons relies on having well-developed social practices. The world that one gets via John McDowell's notion of Bildung will be re-conceptualized as the world that is encompassed by our social practices.