Philosophy That People And Animals Are Persons

But Not Machines Essay, Research Paper

What Constitutes Being a Person?

What constitutes being a ?person?? The question of the week. No clear cut conclusions have been reached. No argument has been presented without significant loop holes. So, what to think? Well, within this chaos we all seem to have an opinion. Some stronger than others, but in who?s opinion in which they are judged strong or weak decivers the difference. I feel I have a strong case for my opinion.

I am a person. You are a person. That is the easy part. What about animals? Or machines? Or wait? am I a person, are you a person? What is a person? A person is explained in the title of this paper, ?What constitutes being a person?? Being is what makes a person. I am an elaborate combination of atoms which fill space and time, therefore causing me to ?be.? It is not that simple though. I function at specified levels of intelligence, so does an animal and a machine. But does the level at which our intelligence function designate our personhood or not? I believe so. I also believe that a creation of our intelligence, such as a computer does not have any right or justification to be treated as a person. This is because humans and animals create persons through procreation, not through technical advancements. If the world were to view machines as persons than eventually machines would be arguing what a person is. They will argue if humans are person or not because of our differences. They will argue this due to our inherent human flaws and inefficiencies, better known as our emotions, which they do not possess.

Animals on the other hand naturally create persons and function on intelligence levels that have been naturally assigned to them. Humans and animals work a web of inter-relations and similarities. These similarities have not been technically inserted in any of us, but naturally. Animals have as much choice about their complexity, reason, autonomy, and sentience that humans have before creation. None. All is designed to build off of the other, beginning with the dominate being (humans) and flowing down the chain to the most inadequate of being, or species. Yet, the point is that neither had control over the other in whom or what they are. All is natural and is put on earth to complete a specific piece of an extremely intricate and complicated puzzle.

Animals, all animals, are beings and therefore persons.

Machines are not beings of any sort, they our creations of human intelligence and therefore not persons. They are not natural and are not needed to fulfill the puzzle of life and existence. They are a luxury and a triumph of humans. They celebrate what humans are capable of, but by no means are machines equal to humans in the sense of their personhood.

Machines are not persons, and God forbid that they ever are.