Persons and Bodies
A Constitution View

A detailed account of the relation between human persons and their bodies.

Lynne Rudder Baker (Author)

9780521597197, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 January 2000

248 pages
22.7 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.37 kg

"...Persons and Bodies is a fine book, carefully argued throughout as well as elegantly and enjoyably written...the book should not be missed." Philosophical Christi

What is a human person, and what is the relation between a person and his or her body? In her third book on the philosophy of mind, Lynne Rudder Baker investigates what she terms the person/body problem and offers a detailed account of the relation between human persons and their bodies. Baker's argument is based on the 'Constitution View' of persons and bodies, which aims to show what distinguishes persons from all other beings and to show how we can be fully material beings without being identical to our bodies. The Constitution View yields answers to the questions 'What am I most fundamentally?', 'What is a person?', and 'What is the relation between human persons and their bodies'? Baker argues that the complex mental property of first-person perspective enables one to conceive of one's body and mental states as one's own.

Preface
Part I. The Metaphysical Background: 1. Persons in the material world
2. The very idea of constitution
3. The first-person perspective
Part II. The Constitution View Explained: 4. The constitution view of human persons
5. Personal identity over time
6. The importance of being a person
Part III. The Constitution View Defended: 7. The coherence of the idea of material constitution
8. The coherence of the constitution view
9. In favor of the constitution view.

Subject Areas: Psychology [JM], Philosophy of mind [HPM]