Body-Self Dualism in Contemporary Ethics and Politics

This book questions what a human person is and examines the ethical and political controversies of issues such as abortion and hedonism.

Patrick Lee (Author), Robert P. George (Author)

9780521124195, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 14 September 2009

234 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.36 kg

"The greatest interest lies in the detail of the argument and the way in which it illuminates the familiar while also producing unexpected insights and leading to a noble and convincing conception of human beings as at once living animals, intellectual subjects, and moral and spiritual beings...it will aid the much needed challenge to prevailing orthodoxies"
-First Things

Profoundly important ethical and political controversies turn on the question of whether biological life is an essential aspect of a human person, or only an extrinsic instrument. Lee and George argue that human beings are physical, animal organisms - albeit essentially rational and free - and examine the implications of this understanding of human beings for some of the most controversial issues in contemporary ethics and politics. The authors argue that human beings are animal organisms and that their personal identity across time consists in the persistence of the animal organisms they are; they also argue that human beings are essentially rational and free and that there is a radical difference between human beings and other animals; criticize hedonism and hedonistic drug-taking; present detailed defenses of the prolife positions on abortion and euthanasia; and defend the traditional moral position on marriage and sexual acts.

Introduction
1. Human beings are animals
2. Human beings are persons
3. Hedonism and hedonistic drug-taking
4. Abortion
5. Euthanasia
6. Sex and the body.

Subject Areas: Bio-ethics [PSAD], Political science & theory [JPA], Social & political philosophy [HPS], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ]