Persons: The Difference between `Someone' and `Something'

by Robert Spaemann, Oliver O'Donovan

Overview

An examination and defense of the concept of personality, long central to Western moral culture but now increasingly under attack, by a leading European philosopher. Persons takes issue with major contemporary philosophers, especially in the English-speaking world (such as Parfit and Singer), who have contributed to the eclipse of the idea, and traces the debate back to the foundations of modern philosophy in Descartes and Locke. Robert Spaemann offers extended discussions of the sources of the idea in Christian theology and its development in Western philosophy. He also provides a number of pointed discussions of pressing practical questions—for example, our treatment of the severely disabled human and the moral status of intelligent non-human animals. The book covers a great deal of ground before coming to a focused conclusion: all human beings are persons.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199281817
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/08/2007
Series:	Oxford Studies in Theological Ethics
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	8.70(w) x 5.86(h) x 0.83(d)

About the Author

Robert Spaemann is Emeritus Professor at the University of Munich and Honorary Professor of the University of Salzburg. His research focuses on Christian ethics with particular attention to bioethics, ecology, and human rights.

Oliver O'Donovan is Professor Emeritus of Christian Ethics and Practical Theology at the University of Edinburgh. He is the Series Editor of the Oxford Studies in Theological Ethics series and a past President of the Society for the Study of Christian Ethics. His publications include The Desire of the Nations (Cambridge University Press, 1996), Common Objects of Love (Eerdmans, 2002), and The Ways of Judgment (2005).

Table of Contents

Introduction1. Why we Speak of Persons2. Why we call Persons ‘Persons'3. How we Identify Persons4. The Negative5. Intentionality6. Transcendence7. Fiction8. Religion9. Time10. Death and the Future Perfect Tense11. Independence of Context12. Subjects13. Souls14. Conscience15. Recognition16. Freedom17. Promise and Forgiveness18. Are All Human Beings Persons?

Editorial Reviews

""It is to be hoped that Spaemann will find many readers.... [Spaemann] provides a deeper foundation and a perspective that could also liberate this discourse from being locked into potentially sterile quandaries."—Anselm Ramelow, The Thomist

From the Publisher