Is This Your Only Life?

About this episode

Mark Johnston discusses how embodiment influences our understanding of personhood and moral status, exploring various theories of mind and matter.

Embodiment affects how we understand personhood, moral status, and whether this life is our only life. Mark Johnston, Henry Putnam University Professor, Princeton University, explains how competing theories of mind and matter shape the question of whether a will could have an embodiment other than its present one. Johnston examines the failures of functionalism, reductive and non-reductive materialism, and strong emergence, along with the role of will, awareness, and evolved animal life, helping clarify what embodiment really is. He explains why the will matters for moral respect and points toward the possibility that embodiment may not be limited to a single life. Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Lectures" [Humanities] [Show ID: 41446]

People in this episode

Guest: Mark Johnston

Topics covered

• embodiment
• personhood
• moral status
• theories of mind
• functionalism
• materialism
• will

Keywords

• embodiment
• personhood
• moral respect
• functionalism
• materialism
• theories of mind
• awareness

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Princeton University, UC Berkeley Graduate Council Lectures, UCTV

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