OntoPerson · The Ontology of Personal Identity

The Ontology of Personal Identity

Within this project – The Ontology of Personal Identity – it is intended to develop a new approach to human persons, according to which it would be possible, first, to reconcile some thus far mutually contradictory conceptions of the human person and personal identity, second, to solve some of the interpretational difficulties concerning issues related to personal identity and constitution, third, to give a coherent and uncontroversial philosophical two-fold picture of human beings, enabling rational decision-making in the areas that are of practical importance. The central idea which lies at the very bottom of the proposed approach consists in developing a specific novel ontological position with regard to human beings which will subsequently facilitate moral evaluations in the field of applied ethics, particularly with regard to human death. The consecutive research stages of the project are: (1) an analysis of various forms of the socalled simple view with regard to personal identity; an analysis of the criteria of personhood and of the ontological structure of persons; an examination whether the term "person" is a sortal term (resp. whether persons comprise a natural kind); (2) a reconstruction of differences between many versions of animalism; a reconciliation of a specific form of the simple view with a chosen version of animalism; (3) a verification whether the obtained results have any bearing on the debates in philosophical thanatology; an exploration whether the research outcomes can shed some light on certain important moral questions of practical concern (such as, what are necessary and sufficient conditions for a human person to be dead, whether death can be a harm to the one who dies, when is death bad for a person who dies, what attitude should be adopted towards death, whether and how it is possible to harm someone after his or her death, whether the scenario of survival after death is at all coherent). Major accomplishments expected are the following: (i) a differentiation of various forms of the simple view and animalism; (ii) a reconciliation between chosen versions of the simple view and animalism; (iii) an identification of consequences of the obtained outcomes for some issues in applied ethics.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз