Eternity RPC Board
03-31-2017, 05:11 PM
From a biological point of view, a human is any individual of the homo sapiens species, born from two human beings -if one aims to go further- and it has, at least in potence, the ability to develop sexual organs and reproduce.
Therefore it is obvious that this not change in your first three examples. A human being with cybernetic limb would be still a human being, after all, and a human being affected by radiation and its body and organs mutating into an unrecognizable form would be certainly as a grotesque human being, but an human nonetheless.
Obviously, the last situation offers some complications. Scientists are still struggling to understand how human brain works, so it is difficult to imagine how would brain work transplanted into a different human body or some kind of science fiction android or cybor-like body (if not some "Frankenstein moment"). But as long we're talking about the same living human, and assuming that the brain would work through an identical process as in the human body, we could argue that this individual would be still an human being. It would be complicated to establish a clear line between "human or not human" in your example, but if the process of life has not been interrupted (the individual has not died), and it has retained his conscience and mind, it is difficult to deny the condition of being an human to any individual.
From a philosophical point of view, there is the distinction between human and person, usually understood the latter as an invididual able of rational thought and morality - at least in potence.
In the case of a zombie from a more typically scientifist horror movies, as a human being infected by some weird virus turning to a zombie, some could consider they are still an human but not a person anymore, as they lack rationality, morality and even will. It could be argued as well that an alien or some futuristic not-human android could be a person but not an human.
Therefore it is obvious that this not change in your first three examples. A human being with cybernetic limb would be still a human being, after all, and a human being affected by radiation and its body and organs mutating into an unrecognizable form would be certainly as a grotesque human being, but an human nonetheless.
Obviously, the last situation offers some complications. Scientists are still struggling to understand how human brain works, so it is difficult to imagine how would brain work transplanted into a different human body or some kind of science fiction android or cybor-like body (if not some "Frankenstein moment"). But as long we're talking about the same living human, and assuming that the brain would work through an identical process as in the human body, we could argue that this individual would be still an human being. It would be complicated to establish a clear line between "human or not human" in your example, but if the process of life has not been interrupted (the individual has not died), and it has retained his conscience and mind, it is difficult to deny the condition of being an human to any individual.
From a philosophical point of view, there is the distinction between human and person, usually understood the latter as an invididual able of rational thought and morality - at least in potence.
In the case of a zombie from a more typically scientifist horror movies, as a human being infected by some weird virus turning to a zombie, some could consider they are still an human but not a person anymore, as they lack rationality, morality and even will. It could be argued as well that an alien or some futuristic not-human android could be a person but not an human.