Human uniqueness and human dignity: persons in nature and the nature of persons
Date
2008
Authors
Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author
President's Council on Bioethics, publisher
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract
The gulf separating humans from all other species can sensitize us to our potential for dignity. Only humans have linguistic capacities capable of sustaining cumulative transmissible cultures. Ideas pass from mind to mind. Our ideas and deliberated practices re-configure our brain structures. The human brain, the most complex thing known in the universe, can generate ideals. Humans become existential and ethical persons, embodied "spirit."
Description
Includes bibliographical references (pages 151-153).
Also published in: Pellegrino, Edmund D., Adam Schulman, and Thomas W. Merrill, eds. Human Dignity and Bioethics, 129-153. Norte Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2009.
Also published in: Pellegrino, Edmund D., Adam Schulman, and Thomas W. Merrill, eds. Human Dignity and Bioethics, 129-153. Norte Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2009.
Rights Access
Subject
culture
teaching
learning
morals
humanity
dignity
personal identity
uniqueness
nature