Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

MATERIAL PERSONS AND THE DOCTRINE OF RESURRECTION

2001; Society of Christian Philosophers; Volume: 18; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5840/faithphil20011821

2153-3393

Lynne Rudder Baker,

Philosophical Ethics and Theory

Many Christians assume that there are only two possibilities for what a human person is: either Animalism (the view that we are fundamentally animals) or Immaterialism (the view that we are fundamentally immaterial souls).I set out a third possibility: the Constitution View (the view that we are material beings, constituted by bodies but not identical to the bodies that now constitute us.)After setting out and briefly defending the Constitution View, I apply it to the doctrine of resurrection.I conclude by giving reasons for Christians to prefer the Constitution View of human persons to both Animalism and Immaterialism.Many Christians almost instinctively believe that they have immaterial souls-souls that, they hope, will survive their bodily death.One reason for this belief is the assun1ption that the idea of an immaterial soul is required to make sense of the Christian doctrine of life after death.Christians typically think that there is no possibility of life after death unless human persons have immaterial souls that can exist independently of any body whatever.Almost every major thinker in Christian history has held this view.Let us give the name 'Immaterialism' to the thesis that a human person most fundamentally is (or has) an immaterial soul.It is natural-though mistaken, I believe-to assume that if human persons do not have immaterial souls, then they must have the persistence conditions of animals.(Something's persistence conditions specify the changes that the thing could survive and the changes that would destroy the thing.)To say that human persons have the persistence conditions of animals is to say that whatever would make an animal go out of existence would make a human person go out of existence.Indeed, I believe that one major incentive to Immaterialism is the assumption that the only alternative to belief in immaterial souls is a thesis that has been called 'Animalism.'lAnimalism is the view that humal1 persons most fundamentally are animals.According to Animalism, if the animaI that you are is gone forever, so are you.Animalism entails that any change that permanel1tly destroys your body permanel1tly destroys you.If Animalism is the correct view of human persons, then a human person is identical to an animal, a biological organism: human persons most fundamel1tally are organisms.Suppose that Animalism is correct and that a human person has the persistence conditions of an organism.Then, a human person lives after death