Abstract

The paper is focused on the question whether a human person should be treated as a rational animal or an embodied spirit. The first definition of a human being goes back to Aristotle. In his conception human being is the highest animal, i.e. he is on the top of the hierarchy of material beings. The second definition shows human being on the lowest position in the realm of spirits. Here human being is the lowest and the least perfect among spiritual beings, the only spirit who is submerged into material world. The paper presents and discusses the ideas of W. Norris Clarke, who was influenced by James Etzwiller