How to Explain the Importance of Persons

Philosophical Quarterly (forthcoming)
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Abstract

We commonly explain the distinctive prudential and moral status of persons in terms of our mental capacities. I draw from recent work to argue that the common explanation is incomplete. I then develop a new explanation: We are ethically important because we are the object of a pattern of self-concern. I argue that the view solves moral problems posed by permissive ontologies, such as the recent personite problem.

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Christopher Register
University of Oxford

Citations of this work

Akan philosophy of the person.Ajume Wingo - 2008 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

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References found in this work

On the Plurality of Worlds.David Lewis - 1986 - Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 178 (3):388-390.
Four Dimensionalism: An Ontology of Persistence and Time.Theodore Sider - 2004 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 68 (3):642-647.
Personal identity.Derek Parfit - 1971 - Philosophical Review 80 (January):3-27.
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.John Locke - 1979 - Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 169 (2):221-222.

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