Original scientific paper
SHOULD WE TALK ABOUT MAN OR PERSON IN BIOETHICS
Ivan Koprek
; Faculty of Philosophy, Zagreb
Abstract
Many contemporary bioethicists take over the Lock's term of a person for which the consciousness of one's own identity is important. Referring to the classical philosophical tradition, above all to Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas and Kant, the author criticizes such attitude and advocates the use of the term "man" in an ethical dispute.
Man is man all the way to his vegetative abilities. The argument of possibility (potentiality), does not deny that there are by nature different levels. He is not univocal but analogous. Thus, ethics as well as bioethics cannot be treated, as Locke requires, by the method of mathematics — univocally.
What should bioethics give priority to, man or person? If, contrary to all naturalistic tendencies, the term man is understood in its full meaning, as it is the case in great western tradition (especially Aristotelian), then the right answer is: to man. It is also significant that we speak of human rights and not of the rights of persons.
Keywords
bioethics; man; person; philosophy of moral
Hrčak ID:
141544
URI
Publication date:
15.9.1997.
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