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Article: The search for the new pineal gland: brain life and personhood. (Cover Story)
- Article from:
- The Hastings Center Report
- Article date:
- May 1, 1992
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1992 Hastings Center. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The concept of "brain life," sometimes offered as the criterion for determining when personhood begins, cannot tell us what we want to know about persons. Neurological facts will not automatically yield ethical conclusions.
Three centuries ago, G.W. Leibniz began to think philosophers might someday abandon their groundless discussions and settle down to work with the straightforward proposal, "Let us calculate!" Leibniz is not unusual in this respect: there have been other philosophers before and after him who hoped that with a precise enough language they could be finished with metaphysical speculation and establish definite, unassailable truths. This hope ...