Are Persons Just an Illusion?

April 30, 2007

Neuroscientists Martha Farah and Andrea Heberlein, in the January issue of the American Journal of Bioethics (subscription link), wonder if empirical insights from their discipline can naturalize personhood. In other words, they explore the notion that a person is a “natural kind” and “seeks objective and clear-cut biological criteria that correspond reasonably well with most peoples’ intuitions about personhood. (ReasonOnline)