What is the Structure of a Human Individual?
July 6th, 2008, search relatedRelated posts :: ‘Who Am I’ vs ‘What Am I’ :: An Unprejudiced Inquiry into The Question of Being :: Oddly Enough :: What Makes Heidegger a Transcendentalist?
GEVANS613 at aol.com wrote:
>jPolanik@nc.rr.com writes:
>WHAT AM I?
>Jud: Something NEVER just *is* - it always *IS something particular.
>Joe: this may be true. speaking in the first person (as dasein must),
>I would say ‘I am; and, I know *that* I am something particular’.
>however, it does not follow that I know *what* type of particular I am.
>Jud: Then you are the only person in the world (apart from the
>traumatised and brain dead etc.) who does not know what type of
>particular he is. For your information - and I am sure you are simply
>dying to know - you are a human - like the rest of us.
‘human’ is just a name we give to our species. it doesn’t tell us
anything about the *structure* of a human individual. in particular, it
doesn’t tell us whether the human individual is more than a human body
or not. so, ‘human’ doesn’t answer the ‘what am I?’ question.
>Jud: Are you seriously contesting the fact that humans do not know who
>they are unaware of the fact that they are humans?
I contest the claim that knowing the name of our species tells us
whether the human individual is more than a human body.
>Joe: I conclude from this that, while many individuals have opinions
>as to the structure of a human, no one can prove (except to his or her
>own satisfaction) that their opinion is true. hence, in that sense, no
>one ‘knows’ what a human really is.
>Jud: Wrong. We all know what a human is - we ARE ONE. As to the human
>structure, not only do we have the script (DNA) for a human, but you
>can check into a medical centre and be fitted with a new heart if you
>are in need of one.
we know a lot about the structure of the human body; but, the question
is whether or not a human is more than a human body.
–
Philosophy is, after all, done ultimately in the first person for the
first person. — H-N Castaneda
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