The Mind and the Machine: What It Means to Be Human and Why It Matters
Humans are the highest form of intelligent life on Earth. But what is it that makes us distinctly human? From a purely scientific perspective, what, if anything, sets us apart from other forms of life? Are there other important considerations, apart from the natural sciences, which might be necessary, if we want a complete picture of what it means to be human? In this chapter, we will explore these and other questions related to our humanness. We conclude the chapter by focusing on the question, what can we learn from an android about what it means to be human?
At a 2011 meeting of the Society of Christian Philosophers, N. T. Wright offered four reasons for rejecting the existence of soul. This was surprising, as many Christian philosophers had previously taken Wright's defense of a disembodied intermediate state as a defense of a substance dualist view of the soul. In this paper, I offer responses to each of Wright's objections, demonstrating that Wright's arguments fail to undermine substance dualism. In so doing, I expose how popular arguments against dualism fail, such as (1) dualism is merely an unwarranted influence of Greek culture on Christianity, and (2) substance dualism is merely a soul-of-the-gaps hypothesis. Moreover, I demonstrate that Wright himself has offered a powerful reason for adopting substance dualism in his previous works. In conclusion I offer a view that explains why the human soul needs a resurrected body.
Humans are the highest form of intelligent life on Earth. But what is it that makes us distinctly human? From a purely scientific perspective, what, if anything, sets us apart from other forms of life? Are there other important considerations, apart from the natural sciences, which might be necessary, if we want a complete picture of what it means to be human? In this chapter we will explore these and other questions related to our humanness. We conclude by focusing on the question, what can we learn from an android about what it means to be human?
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