Tuesday, February 21, 2012
At what point does someone become self aware, and a recognized human?
To most, the defining moment where a baby becomes part of the human world is of course at birth.
At this moment, an infant has all the biological features that we have ( although they are in a developing stage ), and they have their first secular experience even though they will not remember it themselves.
But psychologically, infants are obviously still very behind a fully grown being. Even at this moment an infant still lacks a major thought characteristic that defines us as human, i.e. the ability to perceive our own actions and their impacts on others. But, realistically people don't gain the ability to think about their actions until about the age of three, hence the "terrible twos" and the erratic, and unacceptable behavior of most infants younger than that age. But to me, the defining thing that makes us human is the experience we share on this planet. It wouldn't be right to say that an infant isn't a human because it lacks the ability to think of its own impact because it is only beginning its experience here, and hasn't had the chance for their brain to develop to that point yet. In this case, I would say that the majority is right, and birth is the point where someone becomes a human in my eyes because it has joined our world, even though it is only in the beginning of its experience it has still crossed the threshold and is human in my eyes.
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I would not agree that birth is the breaking point, the difference between a child that is 8 months developed and one that is nine months developed is very small.
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