Theories of Personhood

In English recently we have been learning about the notion of the self and personhood; we have chosen a philosopher of interest to us and researched their theories pertaining to the self. I have chosen nineteenth-century Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard—the father of existentialist philosophy— and his perspective on what the self is, as linked below.

The Self in Kierkegaardian Thought

Furthermore, today we looked specifically at four questions on the self, and our opinions on each question.

1. Define human; and, 2. define person.

A human is a person and a person is a being with a self and a self is the self we derive from the Self—the primordial Self—the Ur-Self: God's Self: God.

3. What are your thoughts on Sandra the Orangutan receiving personhood.

The law is predicated on a utilitarian subjectivity, but that subjectivity does not necessitate the truth, for the truth is not subjective but objective. It means nothing for the "law" to grant an orangutan personhood, for that goes well beyond the law's jurisdiction; the law has no right to make claims of the objective when it is no more than a subjective construct. To that construct we owe obedience only so far as the legal realm extends, and no more. The fact of an orangutan "becoming" a person means nothing, for the law cannot bestow a self—a distinctly human attribute—onto an orangutan, as it can a word such as personhood, a word and only a word, which outside the courtroom means nothing. Thus, the law here does not need be recognised as legitimate, for it goes beyond its own jurisdiction, thereby rendering it null and void.

4. Do you think the idea of personhood will become more complicated in the future with the rise of artificial intelligence?

No—it makes no difference. Artificial intelligence will never become human nor a person, no matter how closely it imitates us; it is, on a fundamental, inherent level, inhuman and thus impersonal.