Book Title: World of Philosophy
Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan
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Person and Consciousness: Different Perspectives Dr. D. Nesy
The categories of Person and Consciousness have undoubtedly occupied the minds of not only philosophers but others as well. I quote two instances:
David L Anderson while attempting to answer the question 'what is a person' mentions an episode of the Star Trek: the Next Generation. One of its main characters called Commander Data is about to be dismantled and subjected to experimentation. But Data refuses to go. He claims that he is a 'person' with rights including the moral right of self determination. Hence it is immoral to experiment on him without his consent. His opponent insists that he is a property, that he has no rights. The basic assumption is that it is morally wrong to buy or sell persons as properties or the way we do with pets dogs cats. A property is a kind of thing that can be bought or sold, something I can use for my interests. Also we buy or sell pets and we keep our pets 'locked up' in the house. Whereas person is a kind of entity that has the moral right to make its own life choices, to live its life without any interference from others, enjoys autonomy etc. In the trial the attorney was faced with the questions like: what is a person? Is it possible that a machine could be a person? Etc.
Richard De Smet refers to the statement of Prof. TMP. Mahadevan at the 1973 seminar on the Concept of Person: that 'if Brahman of Sankara is anything, it is surely not impersonal'. It was rather unexpected from a strict adherent of Sankara's non-dualism like Prof. Mahadevan since the non-dualists assert that Brahman is impersonal. This important linguistic change is attributed to the better understanding of the idea of 'person' in the Indian philosophical circles.
Concept of Person is understood in two ways: From the logical point of view, personhood is merely a convention of society attained through the process of law. People are persons who can claim the rights over their life and property when they are violated. The metaphysical understanding of person is more fundamental than that of the former requiring some kind of ontological investigation. This is the substantial view in which the self is assumed to be the basis or essence of human personality. It refers to the Indian pre-occupation with the self; self is what makes a person and hence contributes to his personhood. This finds expression in the classical Upanisadic manner of understanding personhood as atman taught in terms of the pancakoshas or five sheaths in the Taittiriya Upanisad (II: 1-8) along with other hundreds of passages in other Upanisads.
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