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Old Apr 22, 2008, 11:40 am   #175 (permalink) (top)
Morality Games
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Quote:
Ego, intellect, will, instinct, etc are characteristics that human beings posess, but they are not what make a human being.
These are all qualifying aspects of a sapient being (humans are sapient beings, which is why we are called homo sapiens), so saying they aren't what makes humans human is senseless.

Quote:
This is evidenced by the fact that one with a larger ego, stronger will, sharper instincts, more imagination, etc is not "more" human than one with lesser ego, will, instincts, imagination etc.
This is what I mean when I say your logic and metaphysics are faulty, because "more or less" is in a completely different sphere of logic from 'non-existent' and 'existent'. This fact evidences nothing in your favor. 'More or less' is always existent (and therefore relevent), whereas 'non-existent' and 'existent' may exist or they may not. In the case of fetuses, it is always not, at least not as sapient beings (humans).

Your argument here is about as sensible saying a square television can be a triangular television.

Quote:
There is nothing you can do to make yourself more human just as there is nothing you can do to make yourself less human. Human is what you are and what you have been since the time you were concieved.
Functionally, reducing myself to dust annihilates (destroys, if part of the body) or displaces (sends somewhere else, if not part of the body or a removable part of the body) myself, and makes my body less human and more dust.

Anyway, you are wrong, because humans are sapient (have certain powers of the mind that differentiate us from animals, and fetuses).


A moral being is an entity for whom the disadvantage of others is an issue.
– K.H.Y.
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