Religion and Ethics Forum

Religion and Ethics Discussion => Philosophy, in all its guises. => Topic started by: Nearly Sane on August 23, 2018, 11:19:50 AM

Title: 'We are not born human''
Post by: Nearly Sane on August 23, 2018, 11:19:50 AM

Piece by Bernard-Henri Lévy on what it means to be human. Not convinced by the philosophy but as a sort of poetry I think it's rather lovely.





https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/22/opinion/we-are-not-born-human.html

Title: Re: 'We are not born human''
Post by: Rhiannon on August 23, 2018, 12:29:48 PM

Thanks, nice read.

Title: Re: 'We are not born human''
Post by: Steve H on August 25, 2018, 04:56:40 PM

I can't be arsed to read the article, but I suspect that he is defining "human" in a particular way which excludes the new-born.: "New-borns are not human because I've just defined 'human' in such a way as to exclude them." That's probably a formal fallacy: special pleading? No true Scotsman? Something like that.

Title: Re: 'We are not born human''
Post by: Roses on August 25, 2018, 05:15:43 PM

There are one or two posters on this forum pretending to be humanoids, when really they are an alien species. ;D ;D ;D