Persons and Bodies: A Constitution View

by Lynne Rudder Baker

• ISBN13: 9780521597197
• ISBN10: 0521597196
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-01-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

What is a human person, and what is the relation between a person and his or her body? In her third book on the philosophy of mind, Lynne Rudder Baker investigates what she terms the person/body problem and offers a detailed account of the relation between human persons and their bodies. Baker's argument is based on the "Constitution View" of persons and bodies, which aims to show what distinguishes persons from all other beings and to show how we can be fully material beings without being identical to our bodies. This book will be of interest to professional philosophers and graduate students, and will also appeal to psychologists and cognitive scientists interested in the philosophy of mind.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Part One The Metaphysical Background	1	(88)
Persons in the Material World	3	(24)
Three Questions	4	(8)
Beyond Biology	12	(8)
An Overview	20	(2)
A Philosophical Stance	22	(5)
The Very Idea of Constitution	27	(32)
A Description of Constitution	29	(6)
The Road to Essentialism	35	(4)
A Definition of `Constitution'	39	(7)
Having Properties Derivatively	46	(12)
Conclusion	58	(1)
The First-Person Perspective	59	(30)
First-Person Phenomena	60	(9)
Features of the First-Person perspective	69	(7)
Indispensability of the First-Person Perspective	76	(3)
A Look at Other Views	79	(9)
Conclusion	88	(1)
Part Two The Constitution View Explained	89	(76)
The Constitution View of Human Persons	91	(27)
What a Human Person Is	91	(10)
Mental Properties	101	(4)
Theses About Human persons	105	(5)
My Body/Myself	110	(6)
Conclusion	116	(2)
Personal Identity over Time	118	(29)
Other Views of Personal Identity over Time	119	(13)
The Constitution View of Personal Identity over Time	132	(9)
Is Bodily Transfer Impossible?	141	(5)
Conclusion	146	(1)
The Importance of Being a Person	147	(18)
Moral Agency	148	(10)
Rational Agency	158	(1)
Some Cognitive and Practical Capacities	159	(2)
Unity of Consciousness	161	(2)
Conclusion	163	(2)
Part Three The Constitution View Defended	165	(66)
The Coherence of the idea of material Constitution	167	(24)
Constitution and Incoherence	169	(10)
Constitution and Mereology	179	(6)
Constitution and Supervenience	185	(4)
Conclusion	189	(2)
The Coherence of the Constitution View of Human Persons	191	(22)
Constitution Is Not Mere `Coincidence'	191	(6)
The ``How Many'' Problem and Linguistic Incoherence	197	(7)
Is There a ``Fetus Problem''?	204	(4)
A Counterexample on Offer	208	(4)
Conclusion	212	(1)
In Favor of the Constitution View	213	(18)
Yes, Materialism	213	(3)
Dualism and Its Desiderata	216	(2)
Taking Persons Seriously	218	(4)
Materialistic Competitors	222	(6)
Conclusion	228	(3)
Index	231