Stephen Kaufman, M.D., Christian Vegetarian Association (CVA)
Could I Ever Be a Nonhuman?
Last essay, I introduced John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice, and I
argued that nonhumans should have a place at the hypothetical “original
position,” in which those with a stake in society’s rules and regulations
would determine what those rules and regulations would be. Important to
Rawls’ theory, nobody in the original position would know their future
identity. They could be rich or poor, male or female, or (as I argued last
essay) human or nonhuman. While I don’t think it is necessary to believe
that it is possible that any of us could actually have been a nonhuman in
order to hold that nonhumans should have a place in the original position, I
do think that it is reasonable to posit that the sense of self, which we
experience only in our own body and not in any other body, could inhabit a
nonhuman body.
I come to this conclusion after exploring the existential question, “How did
I come to inhabit the body I have?” In other words, how did the collection
of unfeeling atoms that comprise my body result in “me,” with my own
subjective internal, ongoing sense of being, whereas I have no sense of
being in any other, similar collection of atoms that I call “other people.”
Further, why does my sense of self exist in this body at this point in time,
rather than in some other body and/or at some other time? I’d like to
consider some theories that have aimed to address this or other, similar
questions.
A common response, particularly among religious people, is that my sense of
self is a manifestation of an eternal soul. I see several problems with this
theory. First, the sense of self seems to depend upon the physical brain.
For example, those in a coma appear to have no sense of self. It is hard to
see how the sense of self could survive the demise of the brain.
Second, I find little evidence for a nonphysical entity that could account
for this “soul.” There have been reports about experiences after death, such
as people claiming to have visited Heaven or having had communication from
dead people, but I have not found such reports at all convincing. They have
not, for me, met the standard that extraordinary claims require
extraordinary evidence. I suspect that many, if not all, of these claims
could be explained by neurology (such as the distinctive experiences that
can occur if the dominant [usually left] side of the brain is suppressed in
a near-death experience), self-deceit (which can often occur in situations
of intense human desire), psychosis, or fraud.
Sometimes people attribute the sense of self to a soul, but they are
hesitant to say more about the nature of the soul because we have so little
evidence for what the soul is or does. Such a description of the soul
doesn’t tell us anything about the sense of self – it merely gives it the
name “soul.” Often, such naming is for political purposes rather than for
purposes of gaining greater understanding. People have repeatedly sought
reasons to include humans within the circle of moral concern and to exclude
nonhumans, and the highly dubious claim that humans have a soul while
nonhumans do not has been one such reason.
Many people cite religious texts or oral myths as proof of a soul. Indeed, there are many biblical passages (particularly in the New Testament) that suggest a soul existing beyond the grave. I will explore this possibility next essay.
Go on to: What Happens to the Soul When We Die?
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